Finbarr McCarthy

Plummeting real-estate prices, fears of infrastructure collapse, theft from the stock exchange and a run on Ginko Financial with customers queuing at the bank for almost a week demanding their money back. Thats the challenge Second Life (the online virtual world) faced a year ago. Ginko Financial later collapsed and was confirmed to be a Ponzi scheme when the avatars could get no more money from the bank and Linden Labs (The creators of Second Life) intervened liquidating the bank and banning banks from their world. They also used their own version of a stimulus package to get their economy going again.







A year on and the in-world (virtual) recession in Second Life would seem to be well and truly over with GDP growth of 94% over the same period a year earlier and a real world economy worth $50 Million a month. You see many residents (as the users of Second Life are called) buy and sell property, products and services in Second Life for Linden Dollars L$ - which have a real world exchange rate (currently about L$280 / US$1). Some virtual merchants have made millions of US dollars designing and selling their virtual merchandise to residents.

No surprise then that the lines between what in essence is a game, and the real world have become very blurred when there is so much money at stake. Recently 2 of Second Lifes merchants Shannon Grie and Kevin Alderman have launched a legal case against Second Life in a very real life court (A US District Court in the Northern District of California).



Grie and Alderman (A.K.A. Munchflower Zaius and Stroker Serpentine in second life) claim that Linden Labs failed to protect them when Linden didn’t do enough to stop other residents from pirating their merchandise, which includes a line of gothic boutique clothing and sex-themed products which enable residents to engage in virtual sex.



Lets hope the Justice hearing the case has either a great sense of humour or a vivid imagination

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