Geekonomics

Come to Singapore in your Second Life!

Singapore is now on Second Life! Thanks to our Singapore Goverment who just bought a piece of virtual land!

Why in the world would the Singapore Government do that and how much did they pay?

Well, at the time of this posting, I think it's not yet revealed how much the Singapore Government paid for this exquisite piece of virtual real estate. But the main question ringing in our heads will probably be WHY?

While I can already hear the cynics a mile off, I actually think there are some good reasons for the Singapore Government to do this; although it's not very clear yet how the execution will turn out.

Here's why I think the Singapore Government did it:

1. Second Life boasts of a population double or more than the population of Singapore itself.
2. This can be a great way to attract tourists and highly mobile/connected "foreign talents" (very sensitive phrase) to Singapore.
3. Other MMOGs like World of Warcraft, although also boasting subscriber bases of more than 8 million, are not as ideal as Second Life for the Singapore Government in such an unique initiative.
4. Second Life is boring, nothing much to do, especially with the new ban on online gambling. Maybe for once an interesting Singapore island complete with Sentosa will actually become a dream virtual resort island for the 8 plus million population in Second Life!

Of course, the devil's always in the details, and it'd really depend on how well this whole project is executed. On last check, a friend of mine told me the island was still empty.

Hopefully, the Government will not take two to three years to bring something up on this island like most of our Singapore's construction projects (I'll leave that for another topic)!

Let me see, what are some "interesting" things you can usually do in Singapore?

1. Shopping
2. Go on a food binge?
3. Night Safari
4. Sentosa Resort Island
5. Eat durians!?

Of course, none of these things will really appeal to us geeks except maybe gadget shopping and great food!

Imagine if all these "attractions" came online in Second Life, like maybe you can have activities and play casual games around the theme of shopping and food. The possibilities should be quite exciting!?

Of course, if the Singapore Government was thinking of using Second Life as an extension of the Sentosa Integrated Resort for online gambling, that's gonna be one hell of a long story, not unlike that of its experience with Shin Corp!

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