Two of the online millionaires from Second Life (Anshe Chung) and Entropia Universe (NeverDie) have teamed up to launch the Virtual Worlds Academy. This Academy is said to help in the promotion of the creative community by recognizing various achievements in different fields such as virtual artistry, technology, commerce and culture.

The first project they will be implementing upon its launch is the Virtual World Awards. The awards is slated to be an annual event which recognizes excellence and originality in virtual reality. Various awards will be given to those who have contributed to the evolution of these online worlds. Another feature of the event is the induction of various "industry icons" into a virtual hall of fame.

NeverDie spoke about the said awards saying that "the Virtual World Awards are designed to honor the creativity that people bring to this booming universe. As the online community develops we think it’s essential to document its history and its forefathers."

For those who are interested in submitting their own nominations for the Virtual Worlds Academy, the window to do so will be open from May 1, 2007 through November 15, 2007. It should also be noted that to be nominated, you should have created original content for Virtual Worlds. You can click on our read link to go straight to the Virtual World Awards webpage to submit your projects. All the accepted nominations will be announced February next year.

Given the recent spread of the God of War II sex mini-game video and the probability that you're reading this after however way you managed to celebrate Valentines, now seems to be a good time to try to see how sex is included in our favorite pastime: videogames.

This article will look at the many ways game developers, and sometimes even players, translate/insert all things pheromone/hormone-induced into pixels seen on our monitors. We'll try to see why it's there and why gags like "hot coffee" are an inevitability.

If you're a puritanical prude, now would be a nice time to skip over this article. That aside, on to the big question: Why, oh why is there so much sex in videogames?

Get the rest of the article after the Jump!

It seems that when some people see MMOs they see Benjamins. Seeing as eBay has de-listed all virtual property auctions, some enterprising people saw the need to fill the gap.

Enter RPGbazar.com. Well, they're the new the player in the RMT (real money transactions) business, offering a place to auction off virtual items and characters from MMOs. Players can put up their characters (along with class and server) up for auction. RPGbazar doesn't charge for listings, they just charge a percentage on the final sale price. They also encourage the sale of strategy guides, gold and equipment.

Well, this would be good news for the MMO entrepreneurs. In addition, publishers of MMOs seem to be getting in on the action too as Sony put up its own regulated RMT for EverQuest. MMO companies still seem to be torn between pro-RMT and anti-RMT.

Will we be seeing the next Anshe Chung? That remains to be seen.

Over the past few years, there has been an ongoing battle between game publishers and third-party services which allow players of online games to engage in RMTs, or Real Money Transactions. As it is widely known, such activities go against the terms and conditions which are set by game operators, and are also disliked by some game loyalists as it disrupts the economy within the game. These transactions also provide ample opportunity for scams to occur. Several campaigns from non-gaming websites have also been launched in an effort to curb RMT-related activity.

Despite the negative image that RMT is associated with though, it seems that the people at Sony Online Entertainment may have finally found a way to strike a balance and get something good out of it all.

Last year, SOE initiated a one-year experiment in two of the servers in the MMORPG EverQuest II. Using its own auction system known as Station Exchange, Sony was able to provide a venue for players to trade virtual currency, characters, and in-game items. By keeping these users on its own turf, it was able to earn US$ 274,083 from listing fees and commissions from completed transactions, while spending almost nothing for running the service.

On top of this benefit for the company, the experiment also proved that this method is also beneficial to the players themselves, as the cases of disputes and fraud which were related to virtual property have dropped from 40% to 10%, plus they can trade freely without fear of having their account suspended due to TOA violations.

Another fringe benefit of the whole thing would be the surfacing of correct statistics. For the longest time, nobody was really sure just how many people were trading their virtual goods and just how much revenue this actually generated, as this information was mostly held secret by third-party RMT services. From the data that can be gathered by keeping RMT activity in-house, game designers and operators can then make accurate decisions when it comes to dealing with in-game economy.

John Smedley, President of Sony Online, also commented on this. "I'm a big believer that this whole virtual property thing is a big part of the future of online gaming, so it's about time to shed some light on the facts, rather than the fiction."

One interesting tidbit would be that during the one-year stint of Station Exchange in Everquest, the top seller was able to make a cool US$ 37,435 from 351 transactions. Whether this will start a whole line of people who will follow in Anshe Chung's footsteps still remains to be seen.

Darren Barefoot's not a Second Life hater, but when he dons his thinking cap, the parody and analysis that comes as a result of it may make people think he hates the (virtual) world. Of course, he actually did make a parody of the Second Life page, inviting everyone to get a First Life, "the 3D analog world where server lag does not exist."

Barefoot actually plays the game, and on his blog, he wonders why ever-increasing hype about Second Life and its virtual businesses and starlets turned millionaires seems to be getting a lot of press. He notes how companies put up virtual representations of themselves to appear cutting edge, even if no one really wants them there.

Even more apparent is how Linden Lab's virtual world is "too hard to play," as he puts it. Not everyone can make 3D avatars, and this definitely doesn't have the point-and-click ease of World of Warcraft, so he find himself bemused by the attention it's getting. We suppose it really has to do with Anshe Chung's virtual riches and the attack of flying phalli, so to speak.

If you're looking for insightful commentary on Second Life, you should probably take a look at his entry. If you're looking for laughs, then he also links to his front-page parody of Second Life in his article. All in all, an insightful read, so long as you don't get scared by children looking like pirates.

Stephen Hutcheon reveals in his article published on the Sydney Morning Herald that Anshe Chung, poster girl of the virtual business world, got her start as an exotic masseuse, who used to run classes in virtual lovemaking.

The claims of Anshe Chung's past have come to light (at least to those not immersed in Second Life politics) after her company, Anshe Chung Studios, tried to convince websites and blogs to remove images and attacks on her by phallic griefers.

According to the Valleywag blog, Anshe worked as a "black mistress" and as an "escort" out of a place inside Second Life known as the Cannabis Cathedral. Valleywag elaborates that escort services in SL involve going to a restricted area and watching sexy or kinky 3D animations while the escort talks dirty.

Valleywag adds that given that in this combination of porn and sex chat, escorts rarely or almost never meet their clients, many customers go for the novelty or amusement of it, rather than the sexual gratification involved.

The thing is, this isn't exactly a big secret. There are many interviews before where Anshe has admitted to her past. In a November 2005 report, Anshe has said: "I started ... as a private entertainer, somebody people who are bored or lonely could seek out for company."

Given that Anshe's past is almost an open secret, why the attempts to block the spread of the phallic incident? Guntam Graef, real-life husband of Anshe, says that the images and video are "clearly defaming and constitute a sexual assault."

It seems the Graefs have nothing more to worry about when it comes to having phallic Griefing videos up on YouTube. YouTube has apparently taken the issue of copyright and made it a non-issue in terms of their service by deeming the Second Life video of Anshe Chung a "terms of use violation."

Originally, the Graefs were trying to get the video off of YouTube by citing copyright infringement, as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA. As a good number of online journalists have noted, there are "fair use" statutes for something like this since it's related to news.

No one's been able to figure out why the video's been taken down, however. The only note given is the replacement of the video with the message saying, "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation." While no explanation has been given, expect someone to know the reasons behind this deletion within the next few days.

Love or hate Anshe Chung, her Second Life real-estate business seems to show no sign of slowing.

Anshe Chung Studios, more commonly referred to as ACS, maintains a private continent known as Dreamland. The continent consist of at least 150 "sims" existing as themed communities. The continent is positioned northwest of the Second Life mainland continents.

Second Life Insider reports that the whole continent will be moving, probably around next week, to make more space for a further expansion.

The relocation of sims should be a relatively easy job. But in this case there's a lot of them. There's plenty of room for error, especially since there happen to be a lot of Anshe Chung hating phallic-griefers roaming around.

For former school teacher Ailen Graef, everything began with a meager amount of US$ 9.95 two and half years ago. She subscribed for an account in Linden Lab's Second Life and chose to become Anshe Chung, her avatar. Today, Graef could be the first online personality ever to achieve a net worth of US$ 1 million.

In the virtual world, Chung started by purchasing small scale virtual real estate. She then subdivided and developed those with landscaping and themed architectural builds for rental and resale. Since then, her operations had included the development and sale of properties for large scale real world corporations. Her total number of assets now stand at 36 square kilometers of land, supported by 550 servers as well as Linden dollar holdings, virtual malls, stores and brands.

More interestingly, Chung started her own business in the real worlds that is more like a spin-off of what she does in Second Life: Anshe Chung Studios develop 3D environments for purposes of education, business conferencing and product prototyping. Also, she currently owns shares for various SL companies.

All of the said virtual properties can actually be exchanged for legit U.S. money. Developer Linden Lab has several in-game programs like property value statistics and current simulator prices to ascertain the exact worth of Chung's assets.