Virtual-world builder Avatar Reality is working on a Second Life-esque environment set on a Terraformed Mars in the year 2177 AD. The product is targeted at a more adult market, and their emphasis is on realism.

“It’s somewhat futuristic, somewhat environmental,” said Chen. “We won’t have gasoline on Blue Mars. Things will be solar-powered or hydrogen-powered. The look of the environment is sci-fi, in the year 2177. It’s totally alien to what we know. We give creative freedom to developers like us to create cities that blend the familiar and the futuristic.”

A beta is due later this year. Who knows? Maybe playing on a virtual Mars will convince more people to fund a colony on the real one.

Link (via Website at the End of the Universe)