Second Life

I've been obsessed with finding out more about Second Life ever since an interview was aired on NPR two days ago http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6431819. There was also an article in Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_18/b3982001.htm). This 'game' is a virtual world with a real world economy! People are paying real money for virtual clothing for their virtual selves. There are virtual malls with real people making money off of selling virtual goods. There is virtual buying, selling and rental of real estate. The cost of maintaining a virtual island in this online world? $200 per month in maintenance fees (property taxes?)! It's all truly mind boggling. I'm going to have visit a virtual coffee house for myself one of these days.