Image by KrisJohn

There has been some talk about the observation that World of Warcraft is more and more used as meeting point in business environments, just as golf used to be — a place where you hang out and socialize with your business partners, where potentially the real deals are made.

People have been talking about these aspects of the game for a while, but the golf connection entered public awareness with a recent interview 1Up.com did with Joi Ito:

Overheard, at brunch: two tech entrepreneur types discussing World of Warcraft. What server are you on? What guild? Oh yeah, me too, I heard it’s a good way to schmooze.

It seems irritating at first that such a phenomenon happens within the rather conservative environment of WoW, when e.g. Second Life seems much more suited as both social environment and playing field for new ideas. On the other hand the typical entrepreneur is probably prone to play competitive games in his spare time, and hence will rather be found playing WoW than slacking in the comparatively noncompetitive environment of Second Life.