Colwyn
04-05-2006, 07:10 PM
Second Life: The Suspension of Landlords on Van Hemlock (http://blogs.chimpswithkeyboards.com/vanhemlock/archive/2006/04/04/1496.aspx)
One notable resident, the much reported on virtual mogul ‘Anshe Chung’, an enterprising young lady who earns something like $100,000 a year from the game and owns her own continent and many in-game businesses, had even stepped in with a proposal to create her own competing in-game currency, apparently pegged to the Euro, in an attempt to create some sort of stability she feels the Linden Dollar no longer has.
All very interesting and precedental in itself, but it was the discovery, almost passed over in the glut of April Idiot Day junk, that her account has now been banned by Linden Labs, due to late payment by one day of various land fees, that adds that juicy element of gossip to the whole affair. A fifteen page flurry of people trying to work out if it was a gag or not followed the initial post, by Anshe, publicly letting everyone know what had happened, only to be locked by a ‘Yes this is real, and no, we don’t talk about it’ post form one of the Lindens – the character surname all GM staff adopt on taking the job.
...
The whole episode, which is probably far from over, just goes to show that unlike RL, forming a virtual secessionist government, or staging an online coup, is not terribly practical when the incumbent administration literally has the power of a god, and can make your lands, holdings and very existence vanish with the flick of a switch. Info-topia is still a long way off, and will most likely never come as long as any one man has access to the Power Switch…
Source: VirginWorlds (http://news.virginworlds.com/recentnews.php)
One notable resident, the much reported on virtual mogul ‘Anshe Chung’, an enterprising young lady who earns something like $100,000 a year from the game and owns her own continent and many in-game businesses, had even stepped in with a proposal to create her own competing in-game currency, apparently pegged to the Euro, in an attempt to create some sort of stability she feels the Linden Dollar no longer has.
All very interesting and precedental in itself, but it was the discovery, almost passed over in the glut of April Idiot Day junk, that her account has now been banned by Linden Labs, due to late payment by one day of various land fees, that adds that juicy element of gossip to the whole affair. A fifteen page flurry of people trying to work out if it was a gag or not followed the initial post, by Anshe, publicly letting everyone know what had happened, only to be locked by a ‘Yes this is real, and no, we don’t talk about it’ post form one of the Lindens – the character surname all GM staff adopt on taking the job.
...
The whole episode, which is probably far from over, just goes to show that unlike RL, forming a virtual secessionist government, or staging an online coup, is not terribly practical when the incumbent administration literally has the power of a god, and can make your lands, holdings and very existence vanish with the flick of a switch. Info-topia is still a long way off, and will most likely never come as long as any one man has access to the Power Switch…
Source: VirginWorlds (http://news.virginworlds.com/recentnews.php)