CSI Does SL - Education, Drama, or Something Else?

It it just a sign that virtual worlds are becoming part of the mainstream as later this month a character from an episode of CSI will escape into Second Life, as the clip here shows? Am I behind the times if I even ask the question?

More innovative perhaps than the story line is that we'll be strung along until sometime 2008 with Second Life residents taking part in the "investigation." Anthony Zuiker, creator of CSI himself logs in to Second Life every day and is working to create a: "multimedia, virtual crime lab.

According to Zuiker "You’ll now be able to actually solve one crime per month, like a real investigator."

Does that sound a little simplistic? It's hard to put into words what makes me skeptical that we'll actually be able to "recreate" experiments and tests from CSI.

Is it that I've come to think of Second Life as a way to do business and make connections while CSI approaches the game aspect? Or is it that my hairs stand on end that they seem to be spinning a kind of education aspect too? What I'm sure of is that CBS has to be throwing a ton of money into Second Life with this project.

It all leaves me curious. Will a this scare people away from the 3-d web or draw them towards it? Will the people it draws add to the community or detract from it? Perhaps a little of each,