We Know – You Don’t!*

From the BBC

Virtual property market booming

A gamer who spent £13,700 on an island that only exists in a computer game has recouped his investment, according to the game developers.

For all the radical talk I pass through my lips, why can’t I get this. Actually I can. Exclusivity. Guy owns a virtual space station where a specific market sector frequents, albeit virtual - It still is visited. It remains practical to this world by the fact that Entropia uses real currency.

Read the BBC article:

“Club Neverdie will enable the entertainment industry to reach inside virtual reality and target the gamer while he’s in his element, while also harnessing the economic power of the gamers to raise the quality level of the content on offer.”

When the space station was put up for auction, it was described as a “monumental project” in the “treacherous, but mineral rich” Paradise V Asteroid Belt.

It came with mining and hunting taxation rights, mall shopping booth and market stall owner deeds, a land management system, and a billboard marketing system.

The game’s currency lets players, or members, invest in personal development and growth by buying up goods, buildings, and land in the Entropia universe.

“The real estate market inside the Project Entropia universe is on fire, because there is so much money to be made,” said Neverdie.

“Gamers everywhere are realising that our virtual worlds can compete with reality on an economic level.”

See also:
Picturing online gaming’s value
In pictures: Online gamers unmasked
Second Life
City of Heros