Virtual Hype

Haven't posted about "virtual worlds" for a while, a bit too busy with the "real world" for now.
Some prior ... Looney Dunes: Worlds of Wierdness ?

Sooo
Cruising through Valleywag, Silicon Valley's Tech Gossip Rag
BTW Valleywag is a pretty good read.

Spotted this:

Second Life press hype

Linden Lab's virtual world got a BusinessWeek cover story in May, and hired Lewis as their PR agency in October. This graph, of press mentions of Second Life tracked by Nexis.com, shows the short-term benefit of a press offensive. David Kirkpatrick has a another piece coming out in the next issue of Fortune, we hear. But it's always dangerous for an internet venture when media hype gets too far ahead of audience growth. Benchmark-backed Linden Lab claims 2.7m "residents" of Second Life but concedes only a tenth of that number visit the 3D environment each month.

and I guess this reinforces my own bias

Second Life: French Racists vs. Exploding Pigs - Gawker: "Whatever your politics or personal thoughts about virtual playground Second Life, after reading the following, it will be hard to avoid thinking of the service as little more than a romper
room for retards. "