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?

Put your money in

[ObviousGuy]

Take your money out

Put your money in and you shake it all about

Go to the pokey for gambling online.

That's what it's all about.

This is an amazingly great concept....

[GearType2]

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.

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

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 :-)

Silly

[EvlG]

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.

Re:Silly

[sirsampson]

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.

Re:Silly

[Ieshan]

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.

Re:Anyone played it?

[sirsampson]

haha, you've got it all wrong, you're supposed to be addicted to games. This is /. after all.

MMOG....

[saden1]

Any MMOG where I can't play the role of a pimp is not worth playing. The pimping biz is where the money son.

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.

RTFA?

[JExtine]

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...

Won't Fly

[Kengineer]

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!