OMG – if you thought Sydney house prices were expensive, wait ‘til you find out what they’re paying for electrons, zeroes and ones representing a virtual night club in the cyberspace of “Entropia Universe”!

Not really, but the Australian Government’s plan to turn the controversial ISP filter eye towards unclassified interactive entertainment (video games) such as World of Warcraft and Second Life could have further ramifications than the obvious.

When Google launched a real time interactive 3D avatar world called Lively it promised the ability to express yourself in a more fun way. So why is it now dropping a bomb on Lively users by committing Second Suicide?

When cartoons get caught with their pants down, the real life consequences are not always funny - as Dave Barmy has discovered.

For many people, a 'second life' can become just as real as the first one. Take the Japanese woman who killed her virtual husband after he divorced her in a game called Maple Story, and now finds herself under arrest in the real world.

Exit Reality – it’s the new plugin that’s going to transform every single website into a 3D virtual world, and unleash the power of 3D to everyone. So, why am I stuck in the reality of herky-jerky 3D motion, which is giving me a really bad first impression?!

Not content with operating 16 islands in Second Life, Australian ISP BigPond has opened a customer support kiosk in the virtual world.

Google has launched Lively, an immersive 3D world populated by avatars and which lets you create your own space in which to chat. Sound familiar? So just what is Google doing jumping aboard the Second Life bandwagon?

It hardly seems possible, but the immersive 3D virtual fantasy world of Second Life is 5 years old. To celebrate, Linden Lab is staging a Virtual World's Fair which might just be the biggest birthday party never held.