Virtual world success factors

Here’s an interesting article detailing one perspective on what makes virtual worlds effective — or not.  The author suggests that, currently, most virtual worlds do not maximize their potential enough to be attractive to most business or educational organizations — and that, perhaps, developers should take a page from the world of games:

In order to become more attractive to business and educators, virtual worlds need to incorporate more gaming elements, not fewer, into their platforms — those elements, like achievement systems and ratings, that make the platforms more engaging and immersive.

The author makes some really good points — and provides a pretty accurate description of most folks’ first (typically, underwhelming) introduction to virtual worlds.  Indeed, designing spaces that capitalize on avatar identity, engaging activity, and social reward systems seems to be  a recipe for success.