NPR tackles online worlds
Aaron Ruby and Heather Chaplin, authors of Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution spent a while NPR’s Saturday Weekend Edition discussing “Role-Playing Games, Offering a New Reality” (audio stream) — and despite the title, it’s not about Baldur’s Gate or Final Fantasy, but about MMORPGs.
I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, but it seems both introductory and yet nicely thorough, covering the basics of how they evolved from MUDs, for example.

After the brief introductory talk about what MMORPGs are and where they come from the show was all about Second Life. Why am I not surprised? 😛