The success of Tringo should be a wake-up call for content developers in Second Life. Tringo has shown everyone that if you make good content then not only will players come, but so will real world publishers (be they games, book or clothes!). What does this mean for the lowly Second Life developer? Well, a few things:

• Name your content carefully. It would suck to see your content get big and real-life, only to see it re-named because of some copyright or trademark issue. At least do a search of Google before settling on your name. The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a good place to start your check.
• Make sure you own the rights to ALL the content in your project. That is, don’t use distinctively copyrighted material as part of your content. For example, Star Wars Bingo has no chance of breaking into the real world as it would probably be using images and icons already copyrighted.
• Make sure the team who worked on the content is clearly defined or you will get people upset. If you worked on content with some help from a friend and you end up making the big bucks, your friend might feel that they’ve been used. If you have received help from a friend on your project either reward them spontaneously or offer them the chance to join your project officially. If you don’t think about this issue what happens when your friend, now aggrieved, asks for payment for the items he helped you with? Not a fun scenario to work through.

Anyway, just some ideas for the game and content developers amongst us. Have fun!