Does Planning Matter In A Virtual World?

"If you're one of the million or so people worldwide who participate in the virtual world called Second Life, you can use the game's virtual environment to interact with others, design buildings, develop communities, or construct your own island, complete with an economy, design guidelines, and the headaches that come with a real community. But calling Second Life a game understates the potential of the technology.

...Some think that Second Life will start a long-term trend. "Without a doubt, a sizable percentage of highly developed countries' gross national products will be created in virtual places by 2020," says Dirk Harms-Merbitz (alias Dirk DaSilva in Second Life), founder of the virtual reality consulting firm called Venuma. "We're at the beginning of a decade of rapid growth in this technology, not unlike where the Internet was in 1994."

"...With some notable exceptions, there are few restrictions on land use in Second Life, and this absence of control is apparent in the numerous examples of incongruous land uses: A mega casino that allows hang gliding from its six-story roof towers above a small farm and the single-family houses next door.

Still, places that are well designed and offer a reasonable mix of uses tend to be the most popular and generate the highest lease and purchase prices. Even in virtual environments, it turns out, good planning, urban design, and zoning are valuable."

[Editor's note (February, 2007): The original version of this article was only available to APA members. A modified version of this article is now available on the author's website in its entirety. See the second link, below.]