Sweden creates first virtual embassy

Sweden is going to create an embassy in an MMORPG, which is fantastic. AFP:

Sweden is to become the first country to establish diplomatic representation in the virtual reality world of Second Life, officials said.

"We are planning to establish a Swedish embassy in Second Life primarily as an information portal for Sweden," Swedish Institute (SI) director Olle Waestberg told AFP.

The embassy would not provide passports or visas but would instruct visitors how to obtain such documents in the real world and act as a link to web-based information about the Scandinavian country.

"Second Life allows us to inform people about Sweden and broaden the opportunity for contact with Sweden easily and cheaply," Waestberg said.

The Swedish Institute is an agency of the Swedish foreign ministry tasked with informing the world about Sweden. The ministry fully backed the initiative, he added.

Second Life -- a fantasy world inhabited by computer-generated residents created by San Francisco technology company Linden Lab -- has attracted several real-world companies, including car manufacturers and sports clothing makers, which created 3-D stores.

There are exchange rates between various MMORPG money and real currency, lawsuits that stem from gameplay, and other interesting examples of how "real" these worlds are becoming.

I'm not presently playing these games, but I distinctly remember that clubbing hapless noobs building a character in Ultima Online was a very good time.