Sharon Burns of the MacArthur Foundation has released a neat video that gives a brief overview of several virtual worlds, with an emphasis on their educational applications. In this eight-minute video she looks at HiPiHi, Club Penguin, Whyville, Webkins, Mokitown, There, Entropia Universe, and Gaia Online. Several of these I had almost no background on, so it was great getting this flyover.
Second Life will be featured in Sharon’s next installment of her video series. Awesome work, Sharon!
Great summary! However the presentation of Entropia Universe was a bit off base, as Entropia is the only MMO with a real cash economy. It has a virtual currency with a fixed exchange rate to the US Dollar (10 Entropia dollars is 1 US) and you can both DEPOSIT or WITHDRAW virtual/real money. A skilled gamer can make REAL money by playing due to this. So it is both a game and an economy, a little like if you were to mix World of Warcraft with Second Life.