Virtual World Credit Card Rewards?

This post at the Make Magazine blog is a bit over my head because I don't know anything about these virtual world games World of Warcraft or Second Life, but it seems these games allow you to exist in a virtual world, right down to making and spending virtual money (World of Warcraft "gold" and Second Life "Lindens"). Supposedly World of Warcraft has over 6 million users, and so the post author believes the next logical step to reach this market is for credit card companies to create credit cards that offer "virtual" rewards -- gold or Linden dollars instead of real money or tangible rewards.

If I understand correctly, there is now a market in the real world for "virtual" money, meaning people are paying real dollars to get more Lindens, so if a credit card did offer this type of reward, the virtual money could have real value, provided you could find a buyer who wants to get virtually rich.

Seems a little crazy to me, but I've never been much of a gamer because my few experiences with gaming have shown me how much time it can suck, and so I've always found it better to steer clear and not get sucked in. Still, interesting stuff.