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Virtual Island Sells For $26,500
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Dec 14, 2004 03:05 PM
from the that-is-a-lot-of-gil-or-simoleans-or-therebucks-or-adena dept.
from the that-is-a-lot-of-gil-or-simoleans-or-therebucks-or-adena dept.
Aziphirael writes "The MMORPG Project Entropia has just announced that its first treasure island sale via Auction has gone for a grand total of US$26,500. Project Entropia's unique selling point is the ability to convert real money into ingame cash and vice versa. The owner is Zachurm "Deathifier" Emegen who intends to develop the island into a place for the community." From the article: "A large island off a newly discovered continent surrounded by deep creature infested waters. The island boasts beautiful beaches ripe for developing beachfront property, an old volcano with rumors of fierce creatures within, the outback is overrun with mutants, and an area with a high concentration of robotic miners guarded by heavily armed assault robots indicates interesting mining opportunities."
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Said under breath while feigning a cough... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Said under breath while feigning a cough... (Score:5, Funny)
SUCKER!
Parent
But I don't want to marry her! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Said under breath while feigning a cough... (Score:3, Funny)
$26,500? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:$26,500? (Score:3, Funny)
Bargains galore! (Score:3, Funny)
Talk about "Intellectual" Property (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Talk about "Intellectual" Property (Score:3, Insightful)
If he can charge $450 each for them, he'll make his money back and get the benefit of taxing mining and hunting on the island.
This will all depend on the game being popular enough to remain active long enough for him to make his money back.
LK
and now the seller (Score:4, Funny)
but who in their right mind would spend $26K on a virtual world
Re:and now the seller (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:and now the seller (Score:3, Funny)
Re:and now the seller (Score:4, Insightful)
If the buyer's smart, he'll set up a virtual tour of his island so that slashdotters can visit it in droves to comment on his stupidity. All he has to do is sell some advertising space on the island beforehand...
EricParent
Re:and now the seller (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Bridge For Sale (Score:5, Funny)
I've got a virtual bridge that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.
It's sure to generate lots of revenue. It's for sale by auction, I expect to get at least $100,000FUD (equal to $100,000USD).
Seriously though, good luck to all the virtual real-estate agents out there.
Retarded. But... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have to admit, though. The price was VERY steep.
You venture near the old volcano... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You venture near the old volcano... (Score:5, Funny)
Please insert another $26,500 to continue.
Parent
From TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
The first ever virtual Treasure Island is for sale in Project Entropia, a Massive Multi-Player Online Universe with a real cash economy. This extremely desirable piece of real estate promises to make the highest bidder very rich and very influential within the rapidly growing Project Entropia universe.
So the reason it might be worth paying 26k for this virtual island is that there is a real cash economy in the "game" - in other words, presumably the in-game resources he can extract from his island can presumably be sold or utilized to make items in the game that can be exchanged for real US dollars. So it's a virtual investment, but one that has potential real-world payoff.
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Funny)
Wait a second...
Nope, still makes no sense.
Parent
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously, though... what happens if he, say, gets caught cheating and is banned from the game? Does he lose his investment? Who takes control?
There aren't laws for virtual real estate...
Parent
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
Obviously the guy bought this island as an investment, with the potential to make more money then he payed. I bet the guy knew the risks invovled, that the game may go down, that the company pretty much decides to make a change that fucks him over, that the owning company is pretty much thier god. He is probably betting on the fact that their game will work and make more money, the more people like him can make money, and are hoping that they'll act in his best intrest.
Who knows what the potential return on this could be? Maybe the guy took a calculated risk with his "investment" and decided hes going to do whats "stupid" and potententially make buckets of cash. Or he could go down in flames. Maybe the guy's got enough money that it doesnt matter if it all falls through, but can afford to exiriment.
I mean, we don't know anything about the guy, or the game, to know if hes made an idiotic decision.
I just think before anybody calls him an idiot they should at liest know the details of the risks hes taking, and maybe they actually will turn out to potentially have a great return at a high risk, and he can afford that type of gambling.
I mean, couldn't I buy 26000 in a stock like lucent and exect that it would be worth something in the future, right, it couldn't all just dissapear on me... What did I just buy? A bunch of paper. What's the real value of that paper? It's whatever value people put into it. How is buying a stock any different then buying a virtual island? The value of the island is there as long as people are willing to pay for service from it.
Well with stocks you have more protection from fraud then you would with this investment, but still, the concept is still there, the viritual property has value as long as people are willing to pay for it.
But in this whole sceme, i'd like to be the game devs who can create 26,000 dollar property at whim. Well, I guess they couldn't as the more they made it would reduce the value, but still, we shouldn't write it off without more details.
Parent
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Insightful)
1. invest dubiously gotten gains into virtual island
2. trade virtual island in-game with criminal B
3. sell new island on open market.
4. spend all that crazy loot legally(sorry, PROFIT!!!)
So, who will become the top Entropia players? Al Quaeda, investment bankers or drug cartels?
My guess is: All of the above.
Parent
Re:From TFA (Score:5, Interesting)
Today money is backed by the full faith and credit of the US (or whatever country you happen to live in) Government. Without anything of real value behind the money it has value simply because people belive it to have value.
At least in the MMORPG world the game developers (who define rules for the world they oversee) have more to say about the value of a currency. If you confine your sphere of thinking to the game world, it's like having a currency backed by God (in the God walking around on the earth turning people into pillars of salt sence).
What's interesting is that this particular RPG has chosen to base its currency off of the US dollar (in that there is a 1:1 exchange between US dollars and this game's currency). It would be somewhat more interesting to allow the currency to float or to base it on the price of gold. This way fluctuations in the world econonmy would affect it more predictably. At present, the US economy is tanking and, if you're playing this game from Europe, life is good for you buying in, but sucks for you buying out.
Base it on the price of Gold and you only need to worry about the fluctuation of your own economy. Sure, that makes it more complicated for us Yanks, but the rest of you are doing twice as much math and you need to do.
Parent
perfect (Score:3, Funny)
WTF (inital reaction) (Score:5, Interesting)
Possibly not a sucker... (Score:4, Interesting)
According to the article, he will be allowed to sell plots of land on the island worth around $30,000.
He may not be as much of a dolt as you think.
Re:Possibly not a sucker... (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
The Amway gambit... (Score:3)
It's just like Amway, without the up-passing of future proceeds so it isn't a pyramid scheme but the mentality is similar. If you can find enough suckers yourself, you end up not a sucker and can make some money off of Amway. Most people just end up as suckers, though.
Re:The Amway gambit... (Score:3, Insightful)
You should probably explain that to Wall Street, I'm sure they'll all stop buying notional ownership of corporations. I mean, they're of no value unless they can find bigger idiots to buy them.
You could make an argument about the fact that what he bought is inherently a non-scarce resource, but saying it's stupid just because
Re:The Amway gambit... (Score:3, Insightful)
But...the fact that someone just paid 26 large for the island pretty much demonstrates a demand, doesn't it? It was an auction, so I doubt he's the only one who was willing to pay for it (otherwise he could have gotten for it less than $26k, presumably).
I guess I don't see why you think there isn't any demand for it. There are plenty of real-money auc
Re:Possibly not a sucker... (Score:3, Insightful)
They felt that noone could 'own' land and therefore it had no value... the white guys who 'bought' it from them were suckers...
Value does come from Supply and Demand situations, so all the guy has to do is create demand.. austensibly aided by the Company which has a vested interest in showing that their virtual land does indeed have value and that you as a player
For the nay-sayers... (Score:3, Interesting)
He could end up making us look like the fools.
Question... (Score:4, Interesting)
It seems to me that this "Project: Entropia" isn't really a game, but instead nothing more than a place for rich pseudo-gamers to show off. In a game, you get ahead through intelligence and talent, both physical and mental, not by how much of your pocketbook you have to spare.
Pandora's Box (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Pandora's Box (Score:3, Informative)
I've been in two other virtual worlds where the same thing is commonplace and actually encouraged.
The world of Second Life (www.secondlife.com) lets you buy and sell land and goods for in-world Linden Dollars that you can turn around and sell at GamingOpenMarket (gamingopenmarket.com). The current L$-US$ conversion rate is about US$4 to L$1000.
SecondLife even sells private islands to people, for upwards of US$1000 and US$200/month. Dozens of them. And they are profitable to near
Video-Game Economics (Score:5, Funny)
(Virtual) Remote Island Location + Monster Infestation + Mutants + Active Volcano + Heavily Fortified Automated Mine = Prime Real-Estate at $26K USD
Only in a game.
I'd hate to see what the burned-out inner-cities of Entropia look like.
In Stark Contrast.... (Score:3, Funny)
Mr. "Deathifier" Emegen went on to describe his computer desk from which he does his online business. It is a large desk with newly discovered space underneath a pile of computer gaming magazines. The upper desk boasts a monitor rest with beautiful stacks of Mountain Dew cans ripe for recycling, an old arm lamp with rumors it once worked, and behind the desk described as an "outback" that is in desperate need of cable tying which is overrun with mutant horse flies, The house he inhabits has an area described as the "kitchen" in desperate need of the girlfriend who left it two years ago that indicates excellent penicillin mining opportunities.
I think Dr. Gonzo said it.... (Score:3, Insightful)
$26,000 for a virtual island? WTF? How much for the virtual bridge?
Perhaps the better quote would be "there is a sucker born every minute"
In other news... (Score:3, Funny)
natural disaster? (Score:5, Funny)
Here's what you got for your $26,500: (Score:3, Funny)
SnowCrash (Score:3, Informative)
Bryan
Not to nit-pick, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Not to nit-pick, but... (Score:3, Funny)
His lesser known brother Brad did, hence... BT Barnum.
Re:Wha Wha Wha Whaat? (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, Bill "Zachurm 'Deathifier' Emegen" Gates.
I need to start using a full name as my nickname.
While this whole real cash game economy seems like a really interesting experiment, I'm not sure how eager I'd be to invest that much money into something so ephemeral (I welcome all luddite allegations hurled my way... just because). I hope there's a user-friendly EULA with this game.
Re:-1 Reality Check (Score:5, Insightful)
But for the love of god, stop trying to tell other people how to spend THEIR money. They don't tell you how to spend yours.
Parent
How much did your computer cost again? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:-1 Reality Check (Score:4, Funny)
AC, are you advocating cannabalism? I'm shocked. Shocked! I say.
Parent
Re:I'll tell you (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm a liberal socialist hacker... well, no, I resent being called *that* too, but it's pretty low on the list of things I, as a liberal socialist hacker, resent these days.
However, if someone tells me I'm bad and wrong for spending my money on something other than starving children, he's getting whacked upside the head by the nearest heavy chunk of metal I can find. I've got an old full-height 10-meg MFM hard drive here, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Sure, the starving children of the world need food. I'm all for sending stuff to them, if that's what you feel like doing. However, if you feel like buying an iPod, a sports car, a virtual island, or whatever else you feel like conspicuously consuming, go for it! Guess what? If you do, you're *helping people*. People make a living building and selling iPods, sports cars, and virtual islands. You're putting food on *their* tables. They may not be pitiful starving wretches, but that's only because people like you buy their (sometimes dubious) stuff instead of living like a hermit in a cave (or cardboard box, for those of you in urban areas) and sending all your hard-earned cash overseas to starving kids.
People who think it's some sort of sin to spend money on something other than "saving the world" need to get a grip. If we all spent money the way they think we should, this whole friggin' planet would fall apart.
Parent