A debunking, in five acts

At Valleywag, we'd long had an inchoate irritation with Second Life and, more specifically, with the uncritical press coverage that the virtual world enjoyed. Often, a company's publicity can get ahead of mundane reality; it's often more the fault of a credulous press than an over-eager PR operation. But, when a virtual land baroness in Linden Lab's online game claimed she was now a millionaire, it was clear that Second Life was begging for a takedown. The story arc, a recap of Valleywag's more cynical reporting, after the jump.

Virtual world, virtual money, in which we questioned whether Ailin Graef, the virtual land baroness, would ever be able to realize the notional value of her "holdings" in the online world.

Second Life hucksters: There is such a thing as media karma. Valleywag predicted: "When the press finally turns more cynical, which it will, Second Life will pay a heavy price for all the good publicity it's been getting."

The marketers take over Second Life: Valleywag finally sent in a correspondent to report on one of the marketing events in the virtual world. Megan McCarthy was not much impressed by the entertainment, a frog avatar on a guitar, at NBC's holiday party: "Picture a middle school Christmas dance. Except lamer."

For deeper analysis, we brought in Clay Shirky, the internet analyst and lecturer, In his essay, A story too good to check, Shirky unpicked Second Life's claims to have more than 2 million "residents", and concluded: "I suspect Second Life is largely a "Try Me" virus, where reports of a strange and wonderful new thing draw the masses to log in and try it, but whose ability to retain anything but a fraction of those users is limited." Shirky responded to his critics: The avatar has no clothes.

In this week's latest salvo, Shirky asked why tech reporters had turned themselves into unpaid flacks for Second Life. "Like a push-up bra, Linden's trick is as effective as it is because the press really, really wants to believe."

This story will run. Valleywag's debunking of Second Life will continue at The avatar has no clothes. All coverage of the online world is at Valleywag's Second Life island.

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