The virtual world of MMOs is proving to be a profitable investment, and even Harvard Business School is taking notice. The Ivy League institution recently held a panel with six of the industry's most influential members to discuss the status quo, and just as important, the future of the virtual realms in gaming as a business market. Check out what they deem to be the biggest barrier to overcome, and for some more analysis on how money culture is making even the virtual world go spinning 'round.

MTV Overdrive recently paid a visit to what is arguably the Mecca of gaming development. Where else but in Austin! Anyhow, one of the show's segment, My Gaming Block, featured various game developers in the Austin Area such as Midway and NCsoft. It looks like Sway Calloway is having a grand time talking with the devs and lending his voice to an in-game monster or something.

But unlike our previous report, this time we'll dwelve with the specifics and focus on the interview with Richard Garriott a.k.a Lord British, Father of Ultima, and Executive Producer for Tabula Rasa. When asked why he think Austin is perfect for the gaming industry, he mentions that Austin is this "high-tech, art town and computer games is the best high tech, art you can do...and that just matches the personality of Austin really well".

He even divulged that he went to Austin to study and he became a statistic in the classic story of high tech business, in other words he dropped out of school to play and make games. He also compared the early days of the computer business to the Wild West in the sense that "people worked very hard but stayed up all night partying."

And yes, he admits to Sway that in the NCsoft office, they make up some rap tunes. Just what are they rapping, well here's a crude snippet of the lyrics of Lord British's rap song:

I'm a programmer
Code so well I can't bear it
I instantiate, destruct
and virtually inherit

Listen to this guy, he is an ace in our books. You could watch the My Gaming Block video by clicking on the link below.