The US Government has announced that it is launching an investigation into commercial activities in online gaming. They are at pains to point out that they are not intending to tax every gold piece a party of adventurers brings back from a dungeon. However, the mere existence of game farming (employing kids to play online games for the real-world money they can make) points to the fact that real profits can be made. And one of the issues is that game farmers tend to operate from outside the US. Goodness only knows what the policy wonks in Washington will make of it all. My guess is that they’ll be totally confused and will throw their hands up in horror. Either that or they’ll get hooked, give up politics, and move to Second Life.