Bankers ruin things in Second Life

VIRTUAL BANKERS are throwing themselves off skyscrapers as a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Yesterday, Linden Lab, the San Francisco company responsible for this fanciful nonsense pulled the rug from a dozen pretend financial institutions that were funded with actual money from some of the 12 million registered users of Second Life.

Linden Lab says it reacted to complaints that some virtual banks had reneged on promises to pay high returns on customer deposits.

As in its predecessor, Monopoly, the avatar bankers (or amateur banker) have ruined the game where people pretend to own land, run businesses and build homes.

Like the stupidest Monopoly player, they lost the plot and began to think there was a link to the real economy. But now things have gone against them, they’ve refused to honour their debts, and everyone has gone in search of the rule book, which always goes missing. It can only be a matter of time before someone kicks over the board, and everyone splits into factions and wanders off, muttering, to different parts of the house.

The banks of Second Life were operated by players, who courted deposits by offering interest rates. While some banks paid interest as promised, others used the money for dodgy SL land and gambling deals. Now, Second Life says only chartered banks will be allowed. Whether any will appear there is another matter.

"Everyone thinks that because you're losing play money, it excuses everything, but it's convertible to real money," a Second Life player, UpMe Beam told the Journal.

"If this is real money, there is an argument that you need to follow real law," said Benjamin Duranske, a lawyer who runs the Second Life Bar Association.

Oh great, now the lawyers are involved. µ

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Second Life bans virtual banks