Wired's latest article on
the subject of Second Life just about manages to differentiate itself from our
(sarcastic) guide for how to write about virtual worlds. Needless to say, we're relieved. The article instead
addresses an aspect of massively multiplayer online games that may be of special interest to amateur entrepreneurs: how
to make money in Second Life. Wired details the experiences of "artists and designers, landowners and currency
speculators" that are managing to make a small profit out of their time within Second Life.While the achievements of the players are impressive--considering they're technically creating bits and bytes--for the majority of players the money involved probably isn't worth giving up your real job for. Linden Labs estimates that "that nearly $5 million dollars, or about $38 per person, was exchanged between players in January 2006 alone." Second Life is much more useful as a guide for how future MMOs should be run. Indeed, Wharton professor Dan Hunter believes that in the future at least one of his kids "(currently 6 and 4 years old) will end up working within one or more of these worlds."
More on Second Life
Is Second Life your life? (Joystiq's looking for Second Life bloggers)
BBC broadcasts Newsnight from Second Life
Naughty neighbors place political billboards everywhere in Second Life
