Gamer buys virtual Island for real $

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Drogue

Not actually. People enter the game, thus increasing demand for items and land. As more people use it and gain benefit from it, the value of everything in the game increases.

That's just inflation though

[Richelieu]

Originally posted by Drogue

Not actually. People enter the game, thus increasing demand for items and land. As more people use it and gain benefit from it, the value of everything in the game increases.

The problem with this is that the people who control the game can introduce elements that will modify the value of everything whenever they want to. Or can't they?
Who decides whether the volcano on that island is going to erupt in 6 months, driving property prices down to 0?

[Kidlicious]

One would think that they would not do anything that would threaten asset values like that. If people are investing to play the game they aren't going to play anymore if volcanos start whiping away people's investments.

[Richelieu]

I was using an extreme to demonstrate the point, but then again, their own website says that this island is " A large island off a newly discovered continent ", which seems to indicate that they introduce new and important stuff whenever they want to.

They made 26 000$ with a new island: how much are they going to get for the new continent?

[Kidlicious]

I'd like to see what happens after this guy sells his island for 52k?

[Ben Kenobi]

Apolyton already sells real estate.

It's called, Poly Plus.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Kidicious


I don't think so. This guy expects to get a return on this.

That's not relevant. People profit and lose from ventures all the time. It doesn't matter how the activity is categorized. The only differention is that some economic activities are better bets than others. This particular one is not a very well grounded idea to invest in for many of the reasons stated earlier.

[:) Smiley]

Big risk, big potential return. Besides, it's a lot more fun than stock options or municipal bonds.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Shogun Gunner
That's not relevant. People profit and lose from ventures all the time. It doesn't matter how the activity is categorized. The only differention is that some economic activities are better bets than others. This particular one is not a very well grounded idea to invest in for many of the reasons stated earlier.

When people lose wealth it affects all of us.

[:) Smiley]

Say, are there any online games where a communist system has been implemented?

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kidicious


Why not?

If the servers crash, the worst that can happen is a roll-back, meaning that things done in the last few hours may be lost (the equivelant of losing a save game in a computer crash - although not as serious, because it's backed up routinely) an entire island can't just vanish from the game.

It might be possible for him to lose ownership of it if a crash happened shortly after making the transaction, but that would probably be sorted out easily.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Kidicious


I don't know if the company gets any, but the players can create capital in the game, and sell it in the real world.

If I understand correctly, Project Entropia is free to play but you have to pay real money for items (or bum it off other people who are kind enough) which allow you to actually progress to the point where you can *really *play the game and aquire in-game money on your own, which can then be 'invested' in other in-game items or exchanged for real-world currency.

There's also an in-game auction system, so eBay really isn't neccisary for this game.



.... Looking at their website a bit, here's some blurbs:

While on the planet Calypso you use the PED currency to invest in your personal development. The assets you acquire can be exchanged back into real world funds.

1. The PED
The virtual currency in Project Entropia is PED, or Project Entropia Dollars. The fixed exchange rate equals 10 PED = 1 US Dollar. Note that transaction fees may be added to your deposit or withdrawal depending on what option you choose for these transactions.

2. PED Card
When real world money is exchanged into the Project Entropia currency, it's transferred to your personal PED Card. The PED Card gives you access to your in-world money and the economy service system in Project Entropia.

The PED card is a permanent part of your character's inventory. The card cannot be removed from your character and the PED connected to the card cannot be lost or stolen while in the virtual universe. Your PED Card can be used for any form of practical transactions when you buy or trade items. You are able to use the card directly to pay for things using the credit card item. Cash items can be also extracted from the card or transferred into the card.

3. Deposits
You deposit via this website or by clicking the Bank button in Project Entropia. For more information about the various options, please click the Transfer button above. You will usually need to make an initial deposit via the web before you can use that deposit option from within Project Entropia.

4. Withdrawals
You can convert the PEDs back into real world cash by initiating a withdrawal from within Project Entropia by clicking the Bank button. You may then enter you bank information and if your Project Entropia account information matches the holder of the bank account the withdrawal will be approved by MindArk. The fees and time for your withdrawal is presented when you initiate the withdrawal from within Project Entropia.

[Shogun Gunner]

Originally posted by Kidicious


When people lose wealth it affects all of us.

There's many ways to look at this. First and foremost, the quality of the "wealth" is at question here.

Does it really affect me if someone spends 25K for some virtual bs...it "appreciated" to 50K and then the bottom fell out of this "market" leaving the owner with a value of zero?

Sounds like he just spent 25K for entertainment to me. Why wouldn't all the money spent on movies, vacations, etc be counting as "losing wealth affecting us all"?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by General Ludd
If the servers crash, the worst that can happen is a roll-back, meaning that things done in the last few hours may be lost (the equivelant of losing a save game in a computer crash - although not as serious, because it's backed up routinely) an entire island can't just vanish from the game.

I see a couple of problems with this. First of all, an outright crash can be covered, but what if there's a bug (actually there always will be bugs in programs like this) that just gets worse over time? It will just corrupt all the backup copies with no way out. I have seen that happen a few times, mostly having something to do with Windows. A related problem is when a player finds a bug and secretly exploits it. I don't envision a reset is possible in this game.

Secondly, since this is all virtual, an entire island can certain vanish. Afterall, it's just a small data structure inside the database.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by General Ludd



That's like saying, to someone buying a computer game, "imagine if your computer crashed and all the data was lost! " So you'd have to reinstall it... big deal. A MMORPG can't crash and lose an entire part of the game.

Of course it can.