The company behind this simulation is There, which already has a developed Massively Multiplayer Online Game.
Copying the real world into the digital bits has already been done on a smaller scale -- the streets within many video games have been faithfully recreated (look at Crazy Taxi for a replica of Downtown San Francisco, and Gotham Nights racing for a replica of Chicago).
I have something of an academic interest in MMOGs -- it's really fascinating to me how each game has a distinct hierarchy, and how within each game the subcultures within develop their own unique rituals, their own dialects, their own ways of dealing with players within the game.
For instance, players of the current round of PC MMOGs would likely be able to understand each other, as they have the same "root words" for the essential functions in the game -- mainly words associated with trade, items and combat tactics, which are at the core of most MMOGs. This seems to be true across the genre, but does not 'translate' across other genres. A player on the Sims Online would not be able to understand what "aggro" is, being in a non-combantant game, while members belonging to the MMORPG order probably would. Likewise, an EverQuest player is unlikely to understand the icon based language in use on Phantasy Star Online.
As the US Military has begun using games along their pipeline to make a better soldier (games are currently used as a recruitment tool, and a training tool), I am curious to see whether the "game-bred" soldiers who have been trained within this virtual world will bring game terms into their real world battlefields (let's zerg that base)
There are a few minor problems with MMOGs that developers need to deal with in creating a MMOG:
1) Empty space. This is what we call a content-free area. Usually it's just peppered with a random assortment of doodads like trees, rocks, etc, but there is little for the player to interact with.
2) Exploits: these are unintentional features (aka bugs) that players use to their advantage.
3) Incompleteness of game: Usually when MMOGs are shipped to the stores, they are largely incomplete. Additional areas of the game which are undeveloped are sold to players as add-ons known as expansion packs.
It's funny to think of the world as a MMOG -- will the developers also include in vehicles? If you take a vehicle, will you also need to travel within the vehicle the same amount of time it takes in real life to go from one location to another, or will it be instantaneous? Will your avatar in the world MMOG also need nourishment? Once the architecture of the virtual world has been replicated, how long will it be before we find ourselves digitally copied and inserted into the game? At that point, will it still be a game? Is this the game that the Machines in the Matrix will take to create a template of civilization at it's peak?
Trippy.