Tourists can now officially enter Alpha World Prime, Active World’s massive building world. There was no official announcement out of the AWC camp, but speculation is that this move is a response to the outcry against the anti-tourism policies instituted by the government last year on January 3, 2002.

UPDATE: Another area of speculation suggests that tourist access was granted to AW Prime only so tourists could build at any of the various Columbia Memorials. In this case, tourist access is likely to last not more than a week. Still there is no official word as to the reason why.

UPDATE: Tourist access was turned off early this morning. The free reign was probably only granted for the day because of the Columbia disaster.