Good news for virtual worlds, shock?

I managed to miss this article from The Guardian (3pointD.com spotted it thankfully), a pleasant contrast to the kinds of pieces we’ve been seeing from the LA Times and co.

It’s nice to see people genuinely speaking about virtual worlds as ‘part of the internet’, this is exactly the way they need to be discussed in mainstream media. If companies want to genuinely integrate virtual worlds into their brand campaigns they have to think about them as connected mediums, not isolated events. In contextualising virtual worlds as part of the internet it might also have the benefit of making them seem more accessible!

The other piece of news that could be good for virtual worlds is Nielsen’s decision to rate web site popularity by time spent as oppose to page views. Virtual worlds, particularly the game driven MMOS, are renowned time-sinks and with the eventuality that is in-game advertising the commercial future for virtual worlds could be very rosey indeed.