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.

Comments

Wouldn't it be weird...

[BlackCobra43]

If some form of Communistic land-ownership "nations" actually develeopped... ..and worked?

Pay your money, take your chances

[xoboots]

>> it recognizes the IP of objects created in its virtual world.

Funny. Considering how poorly and how contentious "IP" concerns are in the real-world, can anyone really expect a game company to do a better job? Doesn't this just sound like yet another reason for kids to get hold of credit cards, legally or not?

Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Re:Pay your money, take your chances

[Lukey Boy]

Try out Second Life and you'll find that there aren't many kids playing. The game focuses on object and property creation, group cooperation and even scripting using the built-in language.

I'm not saying that kids are too dumb for this; I'm saying that the kids which Second Life would appeal too probably aren't the type to steal a credit card. This is just a guess though based on the fact that when I was a kid I would've loved to play this. And I wouldn't have stolen a credit card :-)

A furture to come?

[Datasage]

I see 2L as a very interesting expirment with IP and the economics of a total digital world. All items are digital and have only its creation time and no manufacturing cost. Items could be duplicated instantly.

Im not sure exactly what happens when you sell an item you create. Do you sell the item you create? Who keeps the copyright? Or do you sell a copy? Just licencing the item. What happens to the economic system if an item can be instantly duplicated?

Some of that applies to the sale of music and movies in the real world.

Re:A furture to come?

[Lukey Boy]

In the Item properties you can set if the person is buying the original or a copy, and you can set rights for either of those types of sales.

For example, I can sell a wall clock that's an original piece and cannot be copied, or I can sell a chair that can be copied and modified.

Unfortunately there's no way to impose the GPL on SecondLife objects yet :-)

Interesting taxation issues...

[Bookwyrm]

An interesting problem with this is that the virtual world property now has real world cash-value. If Second Life 'pays' me in virtual money, which I can convert to real dollars, is this a form of employment? If I make a thousand dollars from selling things, will the IRS start hounding me? If some one steals a virtual object from me, can I have them arrested if I can show a monetary loss? As long as it is all play money, there were fewer issues -- but now that they are bringing in real money... well, lots of people and organizations interested in that, for better or worse.

Re:This is an amazingly great concept....

[Anm]

The market EQ stuff is small, nay tiny, because it consists of those willing to pay beyond the monthly fee. In other words, other EQ junkies.

In contrast, Linden Labs is passing Second Labs revenue on to content creators without any additional cost the average users. This dramatically increases the market for the creations. To the point of being incomparable with EQ.

Not mention, as many times in previous stories, Second Lifers are real content creators, not just stat pushers.

Anm