[Lucien21]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4374610.stm

$100,000 for a virtual space station.

Would you pay real money for a piece of virtual real estate?

I know people pay money for items and characters in most MMORPG games, but $100,000 is a bit ridiculous.

[vivasawadee]

You could feed a lot of starving children with that money

[Dasilva]

I don't see the difference, all he bought was a game/software, am I correct?

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Would you pay real money for a piece of virtual real estate?

Sure, a piece of land in Second Life, for example. But it would have to have a more than reasonable price, ie. I'd never give more than $50 for it and that's an absolutre maximum.

[stepurhan]

This is a joke right?

I mean it has to be a joke, doesn't it?

I know I went to the BBC home page and searched for (and found) it independently to prove this link wasn't a spoofed setup but this can't really be true can it?

Because if this is true the world has once again proved more insane than I thought possible.

[Lucien21]

Well actually I have a very nice piece of virtual property I wish to sell for a reasonable rate.


Cheques should be made out to the Charitable Association of Small Holograms or CASH for short and sent to the following address.

[melancholick]

*Wuh*.

Hungry children aside, think how many independent adventure games could be funded with a windfall like that. Bastards!

[Crunchy in milk]

Its easy to see this as some nut investing a large ammount of money in only their personal entertainment, and that sort of thing has been going on long before online games.
If you look a little bit closerthough, its an investment towards a "building" in which communitymembers can participate... is it so radically different to a youth center? People getting together, meeting, forming friendships and participating together in entertainment? The developers of the online world are being paid for their work just like you'd pay council fees and builders to put up a brick and mortar building.

[Tobbe]

I really can´t understand how people can pay so much for virtual place, I mean it´s...........VIRTUAL!!!

[Crunchy in milk]

Originally Posted by t_manelius

I really can´t understand how people can pay so much for virtual place, I mean it´s...........VIRTUAL!!!

So is the money in your bank.
Just because something is digitaldoesn't mean its impermanent or has no worth.
Clearly there are people willing to spend their time online and in virtual environments & technical advances are making doing so more attractive and appealing to a broader audience.

The Escapist article on weatlh in virtual worlds:

The difference between work and play in virtual worlds gets more subtle when you consider the significant earning potential that such online environments already possess. In Second Life, for instance, more than one player earns something like $100,000 a year from their activities in the world, according to Philip Rosedale, founder and CEO of Linden Lab, the company that runs Second Life. An avatar named Anshe Chung, one of Second Life's biggest real estate moguls, is famous on the Grid both for the reach of her virtual business and the real world earnings it generates.

[Karmillo]

So wait....This is a game with the gameplay of....spending your money?

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by t_manelius

I really can´t understand how people can pay so much for virtual place, I mean it´s...........VIRTUAL!!!

No it's not. It's just as real as, say, money on your bank account. Both exist only in 0's and 1's on a hard drive somewhere.

If you need more arguments to convince you, read the following article, or skip to point 3 and 4, which are about the real-world value of 'virtual' items:
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/wowworld.html

*edit* Oops, Crunchy was way ahead of me. But the article I posted is still relevant and extremely interesting.

[RLacey]

Originally Posted by Phantom

No it's not. It's just as real as, say, money on your bank account. Both exist only in 0's and 1's on a hard drive somewhere.

If you need more arguments to convince you, read the following article, or skip to point 3 and 4, which are about the real-world value of 'virtual' items:
http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/games/wowworld.html

*edit* Oops, Crunchy was way ahead of me. But the article I posted is still relevant and extremely interesting.

True, but there's less security. If everyone stops playing the game then you lose your investment. And it's easier to get your money back from the bank - are you always going to be able to find someone willing to hand that much cash over on a whim?

It's really not a sound investment, IMO.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by RLacey

It's really not a sound investment, IMO.

Loving someone isn't either.

[DustCropper]

This article was on BBC today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4421496.stm

Very interesting! The guy who bought the £13,700 property has apparently earned the money back. That's just crazy.

Here's what the space station guy is going to do with his property:

Originally Posted by BBC

While the real housing market may be somewhat static, the one in the virtual world is booming, said the space station action winner, gamer Jon Jacobs, AKA Neverdie.

He said the virtual real estate market was "on fire" as gamers increasingly realised that virtual worlds could start to compete with real worlds at an economic level.

Neverdie plans to use his space station to establish an in-game "night club" through which the entertainment industry can sell music and videos to gamers.