1. A method of determining permissibility of actions within a virtual world, the method comprising: receiving, by a service provider computing system comprising computer hardware, an action request identifying a request by a virtual world entity to take an action upon an object within a virtual world; selecting, by the service provider, two or more gatekeeper objects each having permission rules associated with the object, the permission rules configured to determine permissibility of the action to be taken by the virtual world entity on the object; determining, by the service provider, a hierarchy of the two or more selected gatekeeper objects; and determining, by the service provider, whether the action is permitted based on the permission rules of the two or more gatekeeper objects, wherein conflicts between permission rules between two or more gatekeeper objects are resolved based on the determined hierarchy.