Virtual world gaming isn’t something I pay much attention to, but this posting from James Davidson caught my interest.

It seems as if the Xbox Live system underwent a big Ctrl-Alt-Delete style reset with the coming of the New Year. My first hint was when I logged into to play a bit of Halo 2 online. Instead of being a level 4 player, I was back to being a level 1. That’s not so bad, since I really do suck. But, everyone else was a level 1 as well. This means that the auto-matchup system was pitting people who were really level 16 against real level 1 players. That part sucked-especially since the auto-matchup system that keeps players of roughly the same level playing together is one of the highlights of using Xbox Live.

The second hint was when I tried to look up information about my gamertag online. The system said that there was no information available. Oops.

So, after re-signing into Xbox Live Online and relinking my gamertag, I dived into the forums and found lots of people grumbling. But since it’s New Years and a holiday, it’ll probably take a bit of time to sort out. Microsoft and mission-critical. Once again, two words that don’t go together well. At least it is only gaming.

— here

The way I understand it some of these virtual gaming worlds have proven gross national products larger than most nations. Which leads me to ponder what liability Microsoft has incurred if they really did wipe clean the books of this one. I smell class action law suit.