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Think MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) are kids' play? Think again. And I'm not talking about the games market being bigger than the film industry (for the developers that is), which is interesting enough. I'm talking about Joe Player starting to make serious moolah from a combination of extended play (after all, time is money) and shrewd investments. For example:
BBC News | Technology | Friday 17th December 2004
[from "Gamer buys $26,500 virtual land"]
A 22-year-old gamer has spent $26,500 on an island that exists only in a computer role-playing game (RPG). ... The land exists within the game Project Entropia, an RPG which allows thousands of players to interact with each other. Entropia allows gamers to buy and sell virtual items using real cash, while fans of other titles often use auction site eBay to sell their virtual wares. Earlier this year economists calculated that these massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have a gross economic impact equivalent to the GDP of the African nation of Namibia. ...
[The buyer] will make money from his investment as he is able to tax other gamers who come to his virtual land to hunt or mine for gold. He has also begun to sell plots to people who wish to build virtual homes.
People have been selling assets in MMORPG's for years, it's an easy way to buy your way into a choice piece of real estate, armor, spells, etc. The problem is that once they expand the boundaries, or the server crashes and looses all ownership data (which has happened before), the value plummets to zero.
Entropia is yet another game attempting to link the virtual and real economies. The list of bankrupt predecessors that have tried this previously is pretty long.
Exactomundo, hence the 'time is money' remark (people have long been shortcutting months online to buy armor/spells, as you've rightly said), as well as the 'Pokemon' and 'Dutch tulip' comments intended to foreshadow the (very) high risks.
Permalink to CommentI rarely play MMO's (I've played two). However, when I do get sick of them, I always sell off all "assets" for a reasonable price.
Recently I'd played City of Heroes for 3 months, and then sold my account for 5500$. On an hourly rate basis it was pretty crap, but it's the only kind of game I know where your play time is worth money (at the higher end).
Permalink to CommentWIRED News:
For years, companies like Sony Online Entertainment have prohibited the buying or selling of goods from games such as EverQuest. Despite such rules, which are commonly spelled out in MMOs' terms of service, the secondary market for virtual goods is estimated at $880 million annually.
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,66074,00.html?tw=newsletter_topstories_html
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