Of the top 5 most HARE-BRAINED ideas in need of the 'Cluebat...'

[Prinz Eugen]

THIS story simply MUST end up placing in the top 5...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19982107/

OK, so besides some companies telling their employees things like:
- they can't have certain non-PC stickers on their cars
- they can't smoke in the privacy of your own homes
- they can't store legal firearms in cars while at work, even while NOT parking on a company lot...
- they cannot say 'Merry Christmas' at work

NOW, companies are trying to monitor and regulate employees behavior in VR worlds?!?!?
Quote: "Don't discriminate or harass . . . Be a good 3D Netizen." Um, what if I am fighting another character, and I need to make him angry (break his concentration) with a well-worded jeer? What if racial tension is a part of a game filled primarily with MYTHICAL, MAKE-BELIEVE humanoid races and MAGIC ANIMALS?

Can you see it: "Oooh. She just called the dwarf 'Shorty.' - I'm filing a log of this chat-window conversation with the HR department..."

Next up: Avatar dress codes must be "Business Casual." You watch.

[guspasho]

I like the Cluebat

IMO the dumb part is that the businesses themselves are invading the virtual worlds and turning them into virtual workplaces.

Given that, it makes sense that the employers - who are tasking their workers with getting online to represent and work for their employer - should be allowed to expect their employees to adhere to the same kind of standards they have to adhere to in the physical workplace.

This appears to just be limited to Second Life (the article mentions "IBM's rules [...] "Second Life," "Entropia Universe," "Forterra," There.com and other worlds") which I wouldn't charactarize as a MMORPG so much as simply a MMO environment. They seem to promote business invasion in a sort of anarchistic, liberty-enabling fashion that is kind of cool in its own way, but I don't think this trend applies to anything like WoW.

Everything else sounds like some urban legend that I'd be inclined to verify before taking as fact, (no offense.)