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Second Life MMO To Let Players Make Money In-Game

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the third-life-coming-soon dept.

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.

5 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. This is an amazingly great concept.... by GearType2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  2. Silly by EvlG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Silly by sirsampson · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh, but what is that cash you buy Real Estate with based upon? And paying for virtual space should be nothing new to folks here, How about web hosting. Paying for space to hold some of your data.

      The real question is weather this game is worth paying for in the first place.

    2. Re:Silly by Ieshan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, real estate value is also based on the fact that there is a finite amount of profitable land - and if, in the virtual arena, profitable land must be inhabited by other players, this principle isn't violated.

      In a sense, the land might be infinite, but the player presense to make it profitable might not be.

  3. RTFA? by JExtine · · Score: 4, Insightful
    If you inquire a lil deeper, you'll find that there is no way a user can MAKE money off of this, they are simply helping to pay for increased content (land) through the use of in game money.

    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...