Virtual Life Skills

How often have you said to yourself, "why didn't anyone tell me?"

As in:
"Why didn't anyone tell me how to make money?"
"Why didn't anyone tell me growing up really sucks for everyone?"
"Why didn't anyone tell me I was hot when I was young enough to still be that hot?"
"Why didn't anyone tell me that most people in the world have no idea what they want or how to get it?"

Probably because the individualistic, competitive nature of human beasts tends more towards a sink-or-swim survival attitude. But it also has a lot to do with the fact that a LOT of human knowledge is already recorded, organized and codified. It's explicit.

All that stuff that no one thinks to tell you is tacit knowledge. In synthetic worlds, where we as designers have the opportunity to make our worlds better than real, we have an opportunity to provide players with incentives for knowledge sharing.

Travis Ross says it a bit more cogently (and definitely more academically) here: Virtual Cultures:Tacit Knowledge in Virtual Worlds.