It’s that retrospective time of the year again – last year’s look back was a popular feature so here we go again:

January 2008

- Linden Lab issued a warning on currency trading scams
- community-driven politics related to the US presidential election was observed in World of Warcraft
- we made a personal comparison between Second Life and World of Warcraft

- Linden Lab made a significant intervention in regard to virtual banking
- Ten months out from the US presidential election, the satire was heating up in Second Life
- Second Life’s World Stock Exchange, run by Australian Luke Connell, was impacted by the banking ban
- The Australian Open made a return to Second Life
- The momentum towards beta built for Metaplace
- new Second Life resident and sometimes writer, Bix Ashbourne, wrote about the loss of his virtual world skepticism
- Australia Day was celebrated in style in Second Life
- A guest post from Wolfie Rankin on Furries, griefing and sexuality led to some of the years biggest traffic for a story.

February 2008

- We interviewed Australian singer and TV host in Second Life, Paisley Beebe
- The Linden Department of Public Works launched
- We hoped (in vain) for virtual worlds to feature in Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit
- We profiled the founder of Openlife, Steve Sima (Sakai Openlife)

- We discussed text-to-speech with Cepstral CEO Craig Campbell
- Hello Kitty Online started to take shape
- The Enterprise 2.0 forum held at Luna Park, Sydney, showed that business was starting to get the virtual worlds picture
- Cisco opened a virtual hospital in Second Life

March 2008

- VastPark drew close to its open beta phase
- The Telstra Experience Centre launched in Second Life
- Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale stood aside
- We looked at ABC Island one year on in Second Life

- A look at Telstra after a year in Second Life
- Episode 1 of The Metaverse Journal Podcast went live
- Linden Lab’s CEO testified before the US Congress

April 2008

- Linden Lab started their trademark clampdown
- Linden Lab struggled to deal with periods of high user concurrency
- An Australia Council funded art project, Babelswarm, launched in Second Life

- We profiled Twinity’s co-founder, Dr Mirko Caspar
- Linden Lab gained a new CEO, Mark Kingdon
- A new Australian documentary on Second Life continued production for a 2009 release

May 2008

- The Sims Online ended its existence
- Personality conflicts caused some issues with the community driven ABC Island in Second Life
- We profiled Australian machinima producer, Skribe Forti

- Melbourne was the venue for a seminar on law and regulation of virtual worlds
- Some wondered whether a virtual recession would follow the real-world one in the United States.

June 2008

- More than 300 million people had registered to use virtual worlds
- David Rolston, CEO of virtual world provider Forterra, talks virtual worlds as training tool
- Barbie Girls virtual world adds a premium subscription option

- An Australian study finds that the stereotype of gamers as social rejects is false
- Second Life had its five-year anniversary and we summarised its achievements in that time
- New writer for The Metaverse Journal, Feldspar Epstein, had a further look at Australian educational institutions in Second Life
- Twinity went under the microscope to look at its usefulness in a growing virtual world market

Part 2 of our retrospective can be found here