3pointD.com

Wells Fargo, which launched a 3D online financial education site for young people on the ActiveWorlds platform about a year ago (after a failed attempt to do so in the virtual world of Second Life), is now expanding their offerings there, according to a press release. This could be a sign that Wells Fargo is trying to fix something that’s broke, but my sense of it is that it means the project has been a success for the bank; I imagine they would simply have pulled the plug on such an experiment if it wasn’t working. The Web site for the project, known as Stagecoach Island, indicates there are 85 Stagecoach Island “millionaires,” and that $168 million in “interest” has been earned in the last 24 hours, so there’s something going on there. The news is a nice shot in the arm for ActiveWorlds, which has a number of devoted communities, but which doesn’t seem to have the reach of Second Life. That said, ActiveWorlds seems easier to customize than SL (see, for instance, the dedicated Wells Fargo client, which you can download for free. This may soon change, however, with the recent open-sourcing of the SL client.

According to the press release, new additions to Stagecoach Island include a motorbike racing track, bingo tournaments three nights a week, a nightly fireworks display, parachute competitions, and, more to the educational point, ew lessons on paying for a first apartment, ATMs and debit cards, credit cards, and smart shopping and budgeting. The basic idea is that players learn lessons in managing their finances by having to earn money in order to participate in most activities in the world. Judging from the fact that Wells Fargo continues to develop Stagecoach Island, it sounds like the idea is working.