Say what? Soon, we'll see 'frequent gamer rewards'

On Tuesday, a theater in the Regal Cinemas multiplex in New York City's Union Square filled up with advertisers, brand marketers, new-media types, and interested bystanders for the PSFK Conference, a series of lectures and panels organized by New York- and London-based trendspotting blog network PSFK. One of the speakers was David Rosenberg, director of emerging media for Manhattan advertising firm JWT, who was speaking on the subject of the cultural shift caused by video games and online role-playing virtual worlds.

Rosenberg stressed that he believes we are seeing a whole new set of economies with online games like World of Warcraft and Second Life--despite the fact that auction giant eBay recently placed a ban on virtual goods.

He posed a rhetorical question to the audience: "How long is it going to be before credit card companies start giving out frequent gamer rewards instead of frequent flyer rewards?"

It's an interesting thought. I wonder how many Warcraft players would jack up their American Express spending if it meant they could earn themselves some cool new enchanted swords?