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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.
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.
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...