Second Life – Wow

At ETech I saw a talk from the Linden Labs guys… and didn’t really understand.  Today I came across this video of a talk they gave at Google…  and now I understand.  I don’t have any particular desire to play myself; but the community and marketplace they have is remarkable.  Unlike the various “MOMRPGs”, these guys don’t charge a subscription fee; they charge for virtual real estate instead.  Moreover, in this marketplace of people selling things to each other, there are $5 million of transactions every month (!) between Second Life users, with thousands of such users building and selling things as their full-time, pay-the-rent work.

I don’t know what this means.  If someone has proposed this idea to me I’d had said it would go nowhere… obviously my understanding of what people will buy, needs considerable adjustment.