I am not a nerd, I am a level 9 warlord

With some industry commentators predicting that the Virtual World population will hit 50 million by 2011 there can be no more attempting to write off these 3D immersive environments as just another gaming fad. Indeed, in my book Being Virtual I have interviewed many people for whom the virtual world is at least as important as the real one, and for some more so. The argument so often posed by ‘the media’ which suggests that real life suffers when folk become addicted to their virtual ones can, in many cases, be countered by the simple fact that for some their real life stops and the roleplay begins when the computer is switched off rather than the other way around. The t-shirt slogan of ‘I am not a nerd, I am level 9 warlord’ is a badge of honour for some.

Whatever you think of virtual places and the people who inhabit them, however, the fact remains that virtual worlds have now developed very real economies. It doesn’t matter if you are talking about the suit wearing avatars that are making millions of Linden Dollars (which in turn can be traded for real US Dollars at various online currency exchanges) or the more informal avatars selling everything from shoes to sexual pleasure, and in some case both simultaneously.