There's Gold In Them Thar Games 33
Via Terra Nova, the New York Times (reg. required) has a piece discussing the increasing trend of players making serious money off of MMOGs. They cite one gentleman who is able to pay his monthly mortage thanks to his daily ventures into the virtual spaces of Second Life. From the article: "Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. 'I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets...so I figured, buy low, sell high.'"
Re:That's right (Score:1)
Re:That's right (Score:1)
Real Life? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Real Life? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Real Life? (Score:3, Informative)
Currently your inventory is unlimited, so not having land isn't that big of a deal unless you want to open a store or build something you wish to persist. There are sandbox regions for people who don't own land who want to build things and store them in their inventories. And of course you can
Re:Real Life? (Score:2)
Me.
At the height of my "City of Heroes" addiction, I paid like 30 or 40 USD for "influence" (it's version of Gold).
Now that I've "quit the habit" I feel rather stupid for doing it. It mean, for the cost of a new game I simply upgraded my experience on an MMORPG. It made sense at the time, as the extra influence made gaming a lot more efficient (could boost my powers considerably). But now...
God, I gotta make sure I don't get hooked on
Article text because registration sucks ass (Score:5, Informative)
Published: May 29, 2005
JASON AINSWORTH plays the online game Second Life at least four hours a day. In the game, he runs a virtual real estate development business. But his after-tax profit - about $1,800 a month - is real, and it's enough to pay the mortgage on his home in Las Vegas.
For many people, what are known as massively multiplayer online games have become significant sources of income.
Web sites have sprung up that allow players to use real currency to buy items - like weapons or real estate - that they may want or need for the games.
Games like Second Life, World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and dozens of others offer the opportunity to interact with thousands of players worldwide in virtual environments that continue to exist whether or not any particular person is playing at the moment. The virtual broadsword you found in the dragon's cave (or that dream house you built) before logging off on Tuesday will be right there on Wednesday.
Acquiring those items, however, requires work. In Ultima Online, it can take weeks to amass enough virtual gold to buy a superior weapon. It can take just as long to earn enough "simoleans," the virtual currency of The Sims Online - the online version of Electronic Arts' best-selling role-playing games - to buy and furnish a house.
But not everyone cares to spend time toiling in pursuit of game money. This provides an opportunity for people like Mr. Ainsworth. A thriving market has sprung up in which players spend real-world cash to buy game currency or desirable items from other players. Transactions take place on eBay or on sites like gamingopenmarket.com or www.ige.com. Payments are made through PayPal and other online services. Players then log into the game and transfer the virtual goods or currency.
Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. "I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets," he said, "so I figured, buy low, sell high."
But Mr. Ainsworth found his moneymaking options in The Sims "very limited"; he switched to Second Life, a virtual world that is less a game than a three-dimensional environment in which players can do whatever they choose. There, he has leveraged his real-life experience - he is a developer and contractor - into an online business. In 14 locations in Second Life's virtual world, he owns enough "land" to rent space to nearly 50 retailers, who in turn earn virtual money selling everything from jewelry to clothing to art (all nonexistent, of course). Mr. Ainsworth converts his game profits into real money on sites like eBay, Ige and gamingopenmarket, which charge a small fee, and he includes that income on his tax returns.
"A lot of your success or failure depends on your ability to keep the fire lit," he said. "I have good months and bad months, but the work is fun."
Earnings can be considerable. Ailin Graef, who goes by the screen name Anshe Chung in Second Life, said she was on track to earn about $100,000 in real money in her first year in the game's real estate business.
Hundreds of people who play Second Life make a profit on it, said Philip Rosedale, chief executive and founder of Linden Lab, the game's developer. The value of the average player's transactions, if converted to real money, is more than $1,000 a year and has been growing nearly 25 percent a month, Mr. Rosedale said.
Who buys this stuff? One Second Life resident, who asked to be identified only by her screen name, Diamond Hope, said she spent $10 to $15 a month on clothing and other accessories in Second Life, but would spend more if she could afford it. "With all the things you can buy in Second Life," she said, "it's hard not to want them, just like real-life stuff."
In the open-ended environment of Second Life, players are provided with a host of powerful tools that can be us
Re:Article text because registration sucks ass (Score:2)
-prator
Re:Article text because registration sucks ass (Score:2, Funny)
Seriously, take out the reference to the MMOG and listen to what she's saying.
"With all the things you can buy in my imaginary environment, it's hard not to want them, just like real stuff."
Shit lady, just close your eyes for half a second and imagine it. Just as real and a hell of a lot cheaper.
Re:Article text because registration sucks ass (Score:2)
There's lots of imaginary value that people will pay for. People pay for imagined value in real designer clothing all the time.
An Old Navy t-shirt will keep you a
BTL = Better Than Life (Score:4, Funny)
WoW IRA (Score:4, Funny)
meh (Score:2, Interesting)
Most likely because noone cares about it, and the market for its in-game currency and commodities is tiny.
Any game which has a larger audience (WoW, SWG, Lineage 2, Guildwars, EQ2) would have seen its slew of dedicated "farmers" from Korea, China, India and various parts of SE Asia.
Either with sweat shop labor or automated with bots, they farm in-game currency and items and sell them at a far lower price than anyone in more developed coun
Re:meh (Score:4, Interesting)
Because of this, you cannot have a sweatshop in Second Life, and its economy has zero inflation.
Re:meh (Score:1)
Take a look at Dark Life, and think about the possibilities.
Re:meh (Score:2)
If you mean making a game like Dark Life in SL to make money, well, you'll
Re:Second Life is pretty free of those problems (Score:3, Interesting)
Since residents can use a scripting language to program the behavior of the 3D objects in SL, they have taken advantage of this to build a variety of games. In fact, I think there is currently a game developer competition going on at the moment.
Re:Second Life is pretty free of those problems (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:meh (Score:1)
What about the legal issues involved with gambling? Facilitating illegal games of chance for value is an expensive crime in many jurisdictions. If you take away the official cash value of items via a EULA you create a legal defense.
Re:meh (Score:2)
Exchanges between L$ and US$ is done between residents (usually via third party websites), and the value fluctuates with supply and demand. See Gaming Open Market [gamingopenmarket.com] for an example of how the currency is exchanged as a commodity.
The amount of L$ in the SL economy is fixed via a specific formula and is not affected by these third-party currency ex
Re:meh (Score:2)
Re:meh (Score:3)
its true... (Score:1, Interesting)
Second Life and Gambling (Score:2)