Virtual World Popluation Density

I’m not sure just how valid it is given the variable subjective value people can place on content, but there is something quite compelling about measuring the population density of virtual worlds by content:

To put this in perspective, World of Warcraft has a max server population of around 3000 people, operating on about 10Gb of data – a density of about 1 person per 3.3Mb (0.0033Gb), or 300x the density in SL. SL has a concurrent population (“per server” equals 1, since SL is all in one world) of about 12x that of WoW – but the world size measured in data is about 3400x!

In other words, the average population density in SL is like playing in a world the size of WoW’s Azeroth – but containing only nine other people. Clearly, this raises all sorts of issues regarding finding others and building community.