"Virtual worlds with scientifically accurate simulations could permit learners to tinker with chemical reactions in living cells, practice operating and repairing expensive equipment, and experience microgravity," it says.

The document calls for a game engine that includes "powerful physics capabilities" that can "support accurate in-game experimentation and research".

"A Nasa-based MMO could provide opportunities for students to investigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics career paths while participating in engaging game-play."

Other organisations such as the US armed forces already use online gaming as a recruitment tool.

America's Army for example introduces players to the "seven Army Core Values" and now claims to be one of "the most popular computer games in the world".

1. How a NASA-based educational MMO should be designed.
2. How a NASA-based educational MMO should support both formal and informal education efforts.
3. How a NASA-based educational MMO should connect to current and future NASA missions.
4. How NASA career opportunities exploration and significant STEM learning experiences would be incorporated into the design a NASA-based educational MMO.
5. How a NASA-based educational MMO game play would be engaging for all participants.

The South Korean bill has received strong support from some in the game industry, particularly companies that run multiplayer Internet games in which the commercial exchange of virtual currency can potentially disrupt balance and competition. On the other side of the issue are gold-farming companies that serve the growing market for virtual currency. An article in The Korea Times cites statistics from the country's Game Development and Promotion institute, which states that the size of the virtual item exchange market is roughly $1 billion and estimates that approximately 60 percent of item trading company profits come from gold farming.

As gold farmers are quick to point out, prohibition will not decrease the market for virtual currency, and somebody will always emerge to take advantage of it. Prohibition, anyone? By imposing penalties on virtual currency exchange, the Korean government will deprive native companies of access to a rapidly growing, $1 billion dollar market that will still be serviced by foreign companies. Many MMORPG developers already have policies forbidding the commercial exchange of virtual currency, and some might question if it is fair to the tax-paying public to shift the costs and burdens of enforcing those policies to the Korean government.

The bill is also relatively vague about what actually constitutes virtual currency. One wonders if this proposed prohibition would criminalize games like Second Life in which commercial transactions are a fundamental aspect of the experience.

To date, Linden Lab has doled these real names out on a very selective basis. Many "Second Life" residents have been asking about the company's policy, but to date it has been mum, largely because it didn't seem to know what it planned to do.

Now, according to an internal source, Linden Lab has finally settled on its plan for real names. And if you're a single mother on a budget, you probably won't be benefiting.

That's because the company has decided, CNET News.com has learned, to charge individuals who want a real last name a $100 setup fee and a $50-a-year maintenance fee. Companies that want their corporate name can have unlimited accounts for a $1,000 setup fee and $500 a year.

That means that we'll be seeing more instances of companies like Sun populating the world with last names like "SunMicrosystems."

"The aloft brand is about providing an escape from the ordinary and reinventing everyday experiences," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of aloft brand development. "Our debut within Second Life will give digital travelers a chance to dream in another dimension, and unwind their virtual selves in our social spaces, such as w xyz, our aloft bar. They will be able to provide feedback on our designs and self-service features like the re:fuel grab & go gourmet food area - all before the first groundbreaking."

Created in 2003 by San-Francisco based Linden Lab, Second Life is a virtual online world where trendsetters are flocking to exchange ideas, egos and virtual property using "avatars," or highly-customized 3D representations of themselves. The act of placing a real-world entity, such as aloft brand, into the fantasy realm of Second Life has becoming a growing trend. Most recently, American Apparel became the first retail chain to open a virtual store in Second Life. Major League Baseball also created a "Baseball" island on Second Life, which hosted live television coverage of this year's MLB Home-Run Derby on virtual stadium Jumbotrons while the event was simulated on the virtual field.

Through Second Life, the aloft brand is educating thousands of potential customers about its differentiated lifestyle brand. In the same way W Hotels broke through the clutter of conformity in the upscale hotel arena, aloft will raise the bar in the select-service category, offering loft-style guestrooms, bright, airy environments with 9-foot ceilings, oversized windows and energetic social centers. By the time the real-life hotels open, aloft hotels will already feel like home for many.

In addition to the aloft brand's debut inside Second Life, the new brand's technology focus includes large, HDTV ready flat-panel televisions, plug & play (the aloft brand's one stop connectivity solution incorporating power and audio/video connections for multiple electronic gadgets), and Wi-Fi internet access throughout the hotel.

To Joseph Bankman, a professor at Stanford Law School, the question is not one game players or publishers should worry too much about.

"I think the common-sense answer is that the IRS wouldn't and shouldn't go after folks until they sell the assets," Bankman said. "The common sense reason for this is that for most folks, the 'assets' represent enjoyment value--what we call imputed income--that's not taxed. It's a little bit like getting an autograph of a baseball player or movie star. You could sell the autograph, and folks do, but we don't tax folks who get the autographs and don't sell them."

"For 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, me and my colleagues are killing monsters," said a 23-year-old gamer who works in the makeshift factory and goes by the online code-name "Wandering."

"I make about $250 a month, which is pretty good, compared to the other jobs I've had," he said. "And I can play games all day."

He and his comrades belong to the latest global industry to use cheap Chinese labor - the fast-growing world of online gaming, which generates $3.6 billion a year, according to DFC Intelligence, which tracks the online gaming market.

They are workers with quotas and bosses who equip them to thrash online trolls, gnomes and ogres. In the hours these workers play, they accumulate gold coins that they can sell for real money to game players around the world, who then use the coins to buy better armor, amulets, magic spells and other accouterments to climb levels or create more powerful characters. The Internet is filled with classified advertisements from small companies, many of them in China, auctioning off their powerful figures, called avatars, and individual gamers marketing virtual weapons and wares.

Jon Jacobs, a director of independent films, plans to call the space resort, in the science-fiction themed game Project Entropia, "Club Neverdie." Like other land areas in the game that has been visited by 300,000 players, the resort grounds will spawn dinosaur-like monsters, which visitors can kill.

Jacobs will take a cut of the virtual resources that the carcasses yield, like hides.

Jacobs, 39, plans to hire famous disc jockeys to entertain visitors once a week or so at the resort but still reckons on netting $20,000 a month from the hunting tax and other income.

"I want to operate this thing at the level of a major nightclub in a major city," Jacobs said.

In Second Life and There, players or residents build the neighbourhoods and virtual structures within. They work in a similar way to the Sims games.

Both games are more like physical worlds which focus on social interaction over gameplay.

One Second Life resident called ReallyRick Metropolitan constructed the computer generated memorial for those who perished.

Within hours, virtual candles were constructed and placed around it, as well as other virtual tributes.

A clickable sign in the game takes residents to a Yahoo page where they can donate directly to the Red Cross.

A contribution system to turn Linden Dollars, Second Life's virtual currency which players use to trade in virtual goods, into to dollars is also being developed.

We launched Second Life without out of world trade and after a few months we looked at it and thought, "We’re not doing this right, we’re doing this wrong." We started selling land free and clear, and we sold the title, and we made it extremely clear that we were not the owner of the virtual property.

USD$.4m a month is traded directly to world markets in Linden Bucks on Gaming Open Market. That's USD$.4m redeemed, or Linden Bucks turned into US dollars. In May 2005, the total amount traded in-world was USD$1.47 million. There were 1.3 million transactions between 19,500 unique users.