There.com's Virtual World & Economy

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There.com's Virtual World & Economy

Posted by michael on Wednesday March 26, 2003 @05:21AM from the his-love-is-real-but-he-is-not dept.

I)ruid writes "Unlike the virtual economies that have sprung forth from EverQuest, other MMORPG's, and sites such as eBay, this virtual world's economy is actually supported by its creators. Is it possible to make a real life living in a virtual economy? Only time will tell..." We did a previous story on There (a terrible name for a game since you can't search on it).

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An answer to your question by krog · 2003-03-26 05:27 · Score: 3, Insightful

Is it possible to make a real life living in a virtual economy?

As long as there enough miserable bastards to dump all their cash into their online "life", sure. Just don't count on too many well-adjusted patrons.

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Cretin - a powerful and flexible CD reencoder
Fake Money ---- Real Money? by MarvinMouse · 2003-03-26 05:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

The biggest problem with this system is it just makes it so much easier to do fraud.

Look at everquest, when that bug was found that gave you millions of dollars. The inflation became absolutely rampant, and many people who didn't have the millions to survive the inflation were screwed.

And now these guys are offering way to convert your real money to and from fake money so you can buy nonexistant products? I so see this being a major economical security risk. Especially since there is no guarantees anywhere on the money, and all it would take is a simple bug and the entire economy of "There" would basically become meaningless.

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~ kjrose
Or if you are in the UK by tjensor · 2003-03-26 05:31 · Score: 2, Insightful

Try Celebdaq. Its run by the BBC and it actually has its own TV show on BBC3...

Entertaining for a while - like a month or two. Still - I made a killing from Cilla and Jacko :-)

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<fnord>OBEY</fnord>
Re:Can't search for it, but you could link to it by Dog+and+Pony · 2003-03-26 05:42 · Score: 2, Insightful

you can find There here

Funny thing, when you get there, it is suddenly here, and the here you started from is there. And never shall the two meet. ;)
Re:No search? BS. by Carbonite · 2003-03-26 05:48 · Score: 2, Insightful

Before you start calling people morons, consider these points:

- It's usually wise to read reviews of a product before you purchase it.

- There.com is not the ideal site to find an unbiased review.

- It's difficult to search for reviews of "There" because of the huge number of matches.

- Most reviews will not call the service "There.com" if the actual name is "There".

- Therefore, it will be difficult to locate reviews and other information on "There" using Google or other search engines.

I don't believe the original author meant that it was 100% absolutely impossible to search for "There". The point is that it's not the best name for a product and this could hurt its chances of suceeding.

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ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
Re:As opposed to? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-03-26 05:55 · Score: 1, Insightful

Because the perception of wealth IS based on items and positions of real influence. While that can be done to some extent online, what you "own" is a bunch of data on a server somewhere. And, at least in the current MMO offerings, you don't even own that. The agreement you click everytime you log on basically amounts to "Everything in this game belongs to us, not you. We'll do whatever we want to it, whenever we want."