Via David Cohen, friend and colleague of EchoDitto, writing from the University of Virginia's School of Law.

Visitors spend an average of twenty hours a week here. Twenty-two percent of her tourists wish they could spend all of their time here. Forty percent of her guests would like to quit their jobs or studies and go to work here, and twenty percent of these people even claim to spend most of their lives here. But you won’t find this enticing destination on any map. You’ll need a keyboard, not a compass, to find your way around.

It is well established that the Internet provides vast potential for building ever more complex and progressive tools to promote economic growth and democracy. But a new chapter of growth is now being written; it promises to serve as a potent venue for understanding both the social and economic structures in which we function daily. Its economic, political, legal, and sociological implications are broad and fascinating, and its velocity of growth demands our immediate attention in order to reap the greatest possible benefits through study of the medium.

Recent data suggests that virtual worlds, known to the video-game industry as Massively Multi-player Online Games (“MMOG”), already engross the average user for twenty hours a week. Tens of millions of dollars exchange hands. And, meaningful relationships between people who will never stand face to face are forged daily. The growing populations in virtual worlds have brought about rapid, unforeseen yet remarkable consequences worth serious examination.

Think, for example, in Korea MMOGs are more popular than television. From around the globe, virtual worlds attract active citizenries and robust economies larger than those of Eastern European countries. Economists have already discussed the transfer of monies and assets between real world economies and virtual world economies using the vocabulary of international trade. Exchange rates and money markets have sprouted for virtual currencies. Point-and-click sweatshops now train third world laborers to harvest virtual goods for sale in real world markets. Those who frequent virtual worlds are ever more active in online cities and increasingly inactive in real world communities. They bowl alone, but they type together.

Understood now as more than mere video-games, virtual worlds are proving to be excellent microcosms, if not psychologically suitable replacements, for many individuals’ real lives. In a typical community, a user’s avatar can purchase virtual Levi’s jeans, own a virtual home, and have an occupation to earn virtual dollars. As virtual worlds continue to develop, questions and controversies about property rights, business opportunities, politics, and social orders predictably arise. For instance, the denizens of Second Life, an advanced MMOG, recently staged a revolt to protest high taxes borrowing symbolism from the Boston Tea Party. The event included a meaningful claim to rights, a thoughtful exercise of political power, a collective allegiance to an economic ideology, a committed effort by the many, and a creative spark rarely seen in the real world.

A lot of questions exist. Does a citizen of one of these virtual communities have the right to fair taxation? Does he even have the right to his person? If not, what exactly are “virtual citizens”? Can a business be profitable within a virtual world? Will capitalism thrive? What can we learn from witnessing the development a virtual world’s system of commerce and government that will instruct a better understanding of our own? What can these virtual communities tell us about democracy? About social organization? About technology, business, law, and the free exchange of ideas?

Look at what is going on in dozens of virtual worlds. These questions are ripe. Now is the time to begin an investigation of this phenomenon, raise the right questions, and think about their answers. The impact of virtual worlds has already been demonstrably felt by individuals and businesses; as these communities continue to grow and progress, let’s not miss out on the opportunities they provide for research, application, and intellectually stimulating discourse.

Published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License.