Valley Wag’s shame is Second Life’s benefit, based on front page coverage in the Wall Street Journal. No friend of Second Life, Valley Wag shames the WSJ for bringing attention to the banking “scandal” and concludes:

If only this were enough to pop Second Life’s bubbly fictional economy. Sadly, there are more than enough clever virtual shysters entrepreneurs to keep the farce going.

What disappoints Valley Wag is that the article is reasonable, unbiased coverage of the banking ban, treating it as if it’s *gasp* actually not some sort of fantasy game world. The WSJ recognizes that in a virtual world with a real economy, real companies investing in that world, and real people who have set up full-time businesses on the platform that this is news worth sharing. They may be spinning a bit off the sub-prime crisis, but who cares – the bottom line of the story is that “Linden essentially acknowledges that the financial services being offered in its virtual society have evolved to the point that they need to be regulated in the real world.”

P.S. I am NOT linking to the Valley Wag article – why credit their snarky drivel with any traffic?