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Second Life MMO To Let Players Make Money In-Game
Thanks to Terra Nova for its post revealing that MMO 'virtual world' Second Life will allow virtual money made in-game to be converted to real cash, as part of a complicated new scheme which reduces subscription fees for many, but makes players pay for the amount of virtual land they rent. The post explains: "Anyone who pays [the monthly subscription] fee can now use the object-creation tools within the world to make content... charge Linden dollars for that content, and eventually turn some of those virtual dollars into real ones through a cash Developer Incentive program." The official announcement and discussion follow-up have more information on changes for this MMO, which recently announced it recognizes the IP of objects created in its virtual world.
but it is doomed to failure. I can see so many ways to exploit it is described, but I won't mention a word of it until I see it in action,I just hope it's more complicated than it seems. Anyways, this seems like a great idea if modified a bit to be more strict. It would be perfect for UO as a goldsink. Get 500? knock off a $1 off your monthly fee. Make it to where you can only have max of $10 knocked off(that is if they did really raise the monthly fee to 12.95 like they said they would). I still am a bit wary of actually *making* money off of a mmo. I only know one person who actually *lives* off of selling things in mmos, and well he is an EQ junkie, and to say the least I knew speed addicts that lived better.
Communism is a great idea that would work perfectly if everyone followed it.... and no one was greedy.
The idea of paying for virtual land is absurd. Real estate is based on the fact that there is a finite amount of land available. That fundamental fact is violated in a virtual world, when an additional server is only a CPU/hard drive/memory upgrade away.
I think thats an awesome idea, and I hope more MMORPGs include something similar. It seems like a great way to reward players and remove built up currency...
This game won't fly.
You build the game first, and then the player economy grows on top of it. You can't build the economy first. You need to start with a fun game, that people enjoy playing. Once you have that, then they will start thinking about "making money on the side". Additionally, you need a large player base to support the market of virtual goods. Building neat stuff is all well and good, but you need people who want to purchase it. Megadeth said it best, "Peace Sells (but who's buying?)"
Building the mechanism into the game is novel, but encouraging producers and trade is only part of the equation. Consumers play just as an important role!
Anyway, I didn't bother to RTFA, but it looks like this is a gimmic. Trade and sale of virtual goods is verboten in most MMORPG's, but unenforced. You can go to Ebay and sell 100 Million Earth and Beyond Credits or 20 Million Platinum Pieces on any Everquest server, and get real US currency in return. Like, the kind you can spend on things. Not some "subscription discount". Screw that. I want cash for my hard in-game toils!