Virtual World, Real Issues

Terra Nova explores the issues surrounding MMORPGs – huge subscriber-funded virtual worlds like Everquest and World of Warcraft. Fascinating stuff from academic disciplines like anthropology and economics, as well as the general interest of seeing what happens when a bunch of computer-savvy gamers with no respect for authority try to hack reasonably authoritarian VWs.

Here are 2 threads I just noticed: this one deals with the onset of sexism in A Tale in the Desert (read down, the interesting discussion happens in the Talkback), and this one has a look at what racism means in a virtual world.