Wow, what a shocker -- BW is having second thoughts about Second Life. Suitably snarky note from Valleywag here. All I ask is that anytime a publication comes out and repudiates a cover story within in one year of said story being on the cover, that they have some sort of ritual apology or washing of the hands or "we wuz wrong" in the headline or tag.
For the record, I think that virtual worlds are super interesting and have a ton of promise from a communications standpoint, and that once the hype dies down a little, cool things will happen. But BW, and others, let the urge to be cool get ahead of reality -- again.