Videogame third spaces and educational tools

Although I have some problems myself with the somewhat cheesy concept of "great, good third places," I would think that of all videogames, Second Life most closely does follow this idea. The fact that there is no seeming purpose to the game besides to mix and mingle and hang out, and the fact that the avatars themselves act as a leveler of the playing field, I would say that SL closely resembles this concept. I'm sure there are some limitations - the Lindens are clearly ranked higher than the average person (although they don't usually do very much authority exertion), the most popular characters usually have spent at least a few dollars buying high quality hair, skins, and clothes, and that just the whole limitation of internet and game access in general - but the fact is there are some sometimes hidden limitations to Roy Oldenburg's original concept as well.
As for educational value, sure there are many opportunities for education within SL and some people go out of their way to offer such opportunities, but by and large the "goal" (whatever that really means in this context) of SL does not seem to be educational. In the areas created for education, it does seem to be more comprehensive than the example in the article where they just use a website with forums, as the creation of the avatars can make it seem more like you are actually "attending" a class rather than just discussing one on a text-based forum. In this setting, I'm sure it would have been determined that people were less likely to switch back and forth from "writing voice" to "conversational voice" that often and that most people would use the latter, since the concept of SL gives a more conversational feel to it.