Let’s Go: Virtual Worlds

Reuters opened a virtual bureau in Second Life today.
The NY Times reports: The Reporter Is Real, but the World He Covers Isn’t: “Mr. Pasick, a Reuters technology reporter who was formerly earthbound with the news agency, is heading up Reuters’ first virtual news bureau inside the online role-playing game Second Life. While many independent journalists and bloggers have published inside such virtual worlds, Reuters is the first established news agency to dispatch a full-time reporter to do so.”
Among the early stories is one on the Central Bank of Second Life: <a href=‘http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/10/15/greenspanning-sl-linden-keeps-the-economy-humming/">Greenspanning SL: Linden keeps the economy humming: “With the Second Life economy growing by a red-hot 10 to 15 percent a month, roughly in line with its overall population, Linden Lab is keen to avoid the hyperinflation that has often tainted both real economies and virtual ones.”
US Congress launches probe into virtual economies: “‘Right now we’re at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise — taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth,’ said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee. ‘You could argue that to a certain degree the law has fallen (behind) because you can have a virtual asset and virtual capital gains, but there’s no mechanism by which you’re taxed on this stuff,’ he said.”
Earlier this year, Julian Dibbell released a book about his attempt to earn a living selling virtual goods in Ultima Online: Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot. The book grew out of a blog.
And going back to the title of this post– is anyone publishing guidebooks for virtual worlds, ala Let’s Go, Time Out or the Rough Guide? Wired magazine created one for Second Life in the October 2006 issue. If not, um, here’s the book pitch: a travel guide to Second Life.