Slashdot Mirror
Virtual Island Sells For $26,500
Aziphirael writes "The MMORPG Project Entropia has just announced that its first treasure island sale via Auction has gone for a grand total of US$26,500. Project Entropia's unique selling point is the ability to convert real money into ingame cash and vice versa. The owner is Zachurm "Deathifier" Emegen who intends to develop the island into a place for the community." From the article: "A large island off a newly discovered continent surrounded by deep creature infested waters. The island boasts beautiful beaches ripe for developing beachfront property, an old volcano with rumors of fierce creatures within, the outback is overrun with mutants, and an area with a high concentration of robotic miners guarded by heavily armed assault robots indicates interesting mining opportunities."
SUCKER!
From the "I have more money than sense department"
Jeez, I hope they down shutdown the game's server. Then his island may as well be called Atlantis.
can move out of their parents basement!
but who in their right mind would spend $26K on a virtual world
I've got a virtual bridge that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.
It's sure to generate lots of revenue. It's for sale by auction, I expect to get at least $100,000FUD (equal to $100,000USD).
Seriously though, good luck to all the virtual real-estate agents out there.
wtf?
...to each, his own wishes. On the bright side, this is only a sale of disposition rights to creative property. Much like what we do when we buy music.
I have to admit, though. The price was VERY steep.
Real money?
Man Shoots himself in the head after realizing he wasted his entire retirement account savings on an "island" in a game which he now thinks is boring as hell.
More at 11.
... there is a sucker born every minute.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
...you are eaten by a grue. Game Over.
remind anyone else of snow crash?
I though he said Snow Crash.
How much for just one island girl?
Since nobody bothers to RTFA anymore:
The first ever virtual Treasure Island is for sale in Project Entropia, a Massive Multi-Player Online Universe with a real cash economy. This extremely desirable piece of real estate promises to make the highest bidder very rich and very influential within the rapidly growing Project Entropia universe.
So the reason it might be worth paying 26k for this virtual island is that there is a real cash economy in the "game" - in other words, presumably the in-game resources he can extract from his island can presumably be sold or utilized to make items in the game that can be exchanged for real US dollars. So it's a virtual investment, but one that has potential real-world payoff.
I bet it was Bill Gates. I had the RTFA 3 times to make sure that someone paid 26,500 for a VIRTUAL island. I need to go check my exchange rates against the euro.
sounds like a wonderful place for me to open up my lemonade stand.
Home Sweet Home I guess. All you need is a broadband connection and the number to the nearest pizza place and you are set.
This is another way of starting a sig with this and ending it with that.
Virtual or not, if that's not a selling feature, I don't know what is.
Get back to me when I can translate the defense robots into the real world.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I assume the idea is that the new owner can reap real usd profit from subdivision, mining and taxation. what does the irs think about this? foreign income? does the world have an offshore bank? good lord. the devlopers seem to have invented a money printing press...
Heck it's time to start scamming cash out of the se idiots.....
I have an entire continent for sale, it exists in a digital form in cyberspace, I will send you copies of the continent on DVD.
it has roads, cities, and landmarks.
$100,000.00 cash only please, no checks of any type and it must be in small non sequential bills.
buy now and i'll throw in several chains of islands!
this virtual continent can be used in any virtual simulation, simply modify your simulation to accept the data!
WTF? My initial reaction: "All I have got to say is that somebody is spending waaaaaay too much time playing games if they are willing to pony up that kind of cash for a virtual island". Then I realized (as I am browsing Slashdot wasting my time) that perhaps his person has plans to be a virtual developer which, while still the type of person associated with developing (build! build! build!) is developing and making money in a virtual world without the real world effects on the environment or populace that "real" developers have. Ah, I say go for it. We all gotta make money somehow, but I feel better telling my grandma I am a scientist as opposed to a make believe developer for a game. He will likely make more money than me anyway.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
For all you guys making fun of this guy, it's possible he expects to make money off it. If he manages to sell resources and land from the island, he could then exchange his profits for US dollars.
According to the article, he will be allowed to sell plots of land on the island worth around $30,000.
He may not be as much of a dolt as you think.
This space intentionally left blank.
He could end up making us look like the fools.
...you mean PT Barnum, and he never said that.
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
It seems to me that this "Project: Entropia" isn't really a game, but instead nothing more than a place for rich pseudo-gamers to show off. In a game, you get ahead through intelligence and talent, both physical and mental, not by how much of your pocketbook you have to spare.
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
Doesn't this raise a whole host of legal issues? What if the server crashes, can they be sued for neglect since they destroyed someone's property? IIRC other MMORPGs went out of their way to point out that their ingame items have no value and that buying them IRL is not allowed. Not that it isn't common anyway, but do game companies really want to get into property disputes?
English is easier said than done.
We've seen this before, and it usually ends up with quite a lot of people losing not only virtual but real money as well. Heck even with payment systems we've seen that (paypal).
Also, due to the addictive nature of MMORPG's (think everquest), I feel there should be some limmit as to how much a game can affect you in real life, especially involving finances. In the real world you've got all sorts of financial protection (from, for example, pyramid schemes), but in virtual games you've got pretty much no protection whatsoever.
26000 dollars for an island that doesn't exist.
Can you imagine this fool trying to impress someone with this purchase?
Once the woman finds out its in a make-believe world, and you spent real dollars on this you will never get laid.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
From the World Socialist Web Page:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/may1999/fam-m11. shtml
In Sudan, in spite of a record cereal harvest in 1998, some 2.36 million people in the conflict-torn South are in need of emergency food aid. The on-going war between Eritrea and Ethiopia has forced thousands of people on both sides to flee their homes, and has left 272,000 people in Ethiopia in desperate need of food aid. In Eritrea, emergency food aid is being provided to 268,000 people most affected by the war.
I don't see how 26K will feed the starving people of the world.
Free Housing, Food Stamps, Clothing Vouchers, Free Healthcare. Why should I bother to work a day in my life?!
Let me see if I have this right:
(Virtual) Remote Island Location + Monster Infestation + Mutants + Active Volcano + Heavily Fortified Automated Mine = Prime Real-Estate at $26K USD
Only in a game.
I'd hate to see what the burned-out inner-cities of Entropia look like.
"The island boasts beautiful beaches ripe for developing beachfront property...<snip>"
Mr. "Deathifier" Emegen went on to describe his computer desk from which he does his online business. It is a large desk with newly discovered space underneath a pile of computer gaming magazines. The upper desk boasts a monitor rest with beautiful stacks of Mountain Dew cans ripe for recycling, an old arm lamp with rumors it once worked, and behind the desk described as an "outback" that is in desperate need of cable tying which is overrun with mutant horse flies, The house he inhabits has an area described as the "kitchen" in desperate need of the girlfriend who left it two years ago that indicates excellent penicillin mining opportunities.
Bryan R.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, or $12.50 as seen on eBay.....
"What do you mean, do I realize it's a virtual island?"
Everyone is ripping on the buyer for spending that much money on it, but think about it... the buyer may actually be quite smart. If he/she can sell off the individual pieces for 'reasonable' amounts (say $100 for a beachfront property, $200 for mining rights, etc.), he/she could stand to make a significant profit. Is the enjoyment of those pieces of property worth a hundred or so dollars to a gamer?... maybe. It's not that he/she purchased 'fake' property but rather the rights to use the digital manifestation.
I for one would probably have done it, too, if I had $26,500 to invest in what could possibly provide a huge windfall.
*yawn*
"It never got weird enough for me...". Well, this is it, it's gotten wierd enough for me. I am cashing in my chips and going home.
$26,000 for a virtual island? WTF? How much for the virtual bridge?
Perhaps the better quote would be "there is a sucker born every minute"
If we don't make light of everything, we are just stumbling in the dark - Blank
In real life, if you create a playground for kids, and someone gets hurt, you get sued and lose everything you own. See the war in skatepark culture.
The only recourse for people to meet is online games. Things in this new reality is really worth cash. The problem is, people haven't really made stuff *rare* and *desirable* yet in a game with a 20+ year long run. You'll see stuff going for 25 grand *all the time* once game designers get some skills. Its amazing with programmer and artist skills that game designers are still hacks. It really sickens me since I'm good at game design and can't get a job.
God spoke to me.
The comapny decided not to run the game any more.
Kind of reminds me of this guy (Lefty?) who tries to sell Ernie an invisible ice cream on Sesame Street... except that Ernie paid for it with an invisible nickel.
Buying a Virtual Island to develop it??? Somebody is spending WAY too much time in their virtual world...
Okay, so not a real Ponzi, but a similar result. At some point, the game will end, leaving a bunch of folks with nothing in return for their hard earned dollars. In theory, this fool could "develop" his new island, generate a little green, and then sell it to some other loser for even more money. All that does is raise the stakes.
Then again, buying internet startups wasn't illegal either, but the result was the same.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Some people use this easily gained money to donate to the poor. Its a fun game. Go beat up a few dragons, sell magic swords, then feed some starving kids and build their infrastructure.
God spoke to me.
Virtual island, meet hurricane Slashdot.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
buy a real galaxy. i am selling andromeda for $2500.00. Any takers?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Someone just had a whole virtual world slashdotted. $26,000 island and all.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Um hi. You're posting on slashdot instead of
donating your kidneys to starving orphans.
Mmmmkay?
That's some funny shit right there!
"the outback" An outback?? Sweet!!! "is overrun with mutants"..... uhm what did you say? Mutants? How did they get there, did your 'old volcano' cause these mutants, did they move here because of rent control and picturesque beaches. I would inquire with the real estate agent on this one, and check the legal situation to see if they have any 'mutant causing agents' disclosure laws.
Ok do you know what 'heavily armed assault robots' indicate to me? That I better have stretched my legs because I am running, not walking, to the nearest boat (tied up at my picturesque beach). You seriously don't want to have to battle heavily armed assault ANYTHING on a brand new Island. Coakroaches, ok you can spray for them, but you really don't want to have to deal with frickin robots when you first move in, trust me.
Earlier this evening there was a diabolical mad laughter that echoed through my city, Gothenburg, Sweden. The Mindark offices, developers of Project Entropia are located in this area.
When they renamed 'Entropia' to Slashdotted.
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
watch him make $75,000 on it. Slashdotters might think he's stupid for spending that but there's a whole bunch of even dumber people who would give him money for a slice of his "property."
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
Deathifier?!?!
How does a guy with a name like that get $26,500?
Buy a better name first.
nm
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Location, Location, Location...
But for the love of god, stop trying to tell other people how to spend THEIR money. They don't tell you how to spend yours.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
It might be funny now, but if you look at the current crop of MMORPG games that are out there, you see that it's the trend and will continue being the trend. World of Warcraft for example, was only released a week or two ago and there are already a million people in the universe. At work (in real life) lots of the discussion among the age groups of 25-30 are about these immersive 3-D MMORPG type games... so it's becoming an entertainment trend. Maybe in the future, these environments will become so realistic, there will a lesser need to own hobbies or interests in real life. In the future maybe we'll just come home from work and jack in like in Snow Crash or The Matrix.....
Well I just RTFA and the island sold for 265,000 PED. Or in other words the island was sold with in game currency that has a 10:1 ratio to real money - meaning that the island sold for about $2,650. You can read more about the currency system here
But make sure you have a good lawyer. The law of REAL real property is built upon years of tradition and government law. These laws regulate who owns what, how they get it, how they can sell it, and what they can do with it (within the laws of reality.) The value of real real property is determined by how much interest other people have in living there. All real property is is a set of legally protected rights in something other people might want.
The law of VIRTUAL real property can parallel this quite well, but by Contract. If your purchase contract for a virtual island includes provisions for real wold maintenance of service, in-game physics, limits on how many other virtual islands the maintainers can add, and so on... You wind up with the same result: A set of (contractually) protected rights in something that other people want.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
But I'm sure this guy knew what he was doing and wasn't just some 13 year old tossing his trust fund at this game.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Sounds like a publicity stunt to me. I haven't heard of prices that crazy in Everquest, UO, or any other virtual world. $26,000 will generate stories in major newspapers and other print publications. Hell, and their servers obviously can't even withstand the bandwidth right now.
Before you all call this person crazy... answer me this...
How many of you own "The Sims"? Come on be honest, it was one of the top selling PC games of all time, so i know at least a few of you have it.
Well, you paid what? $30 bucks to buy into a 'virtual' world, in which you simulate doing the same chores you avoid in real life (such as cleaning and doing dishes).
Yet you think it unbelievable that this person can sell plots of land in a virtual world?
Don't be naive.
In the words of some comic I saw the other day:
Starving people in Africa, yeah, yeah...
We have deserts in the US too. WE JUST DON'T LIVE THERE!!!! MOVE OUT OF THE DESERT!!!
Check out the best P2P sharing website: MEDIACHEST.COM
Ever hear of something called free speech?
In other words, the parent of your post has as much right to point out that that money has FAR better uses as the buyer had a right to waste his money and you have a right to get annoyed at whoever you want.
But there still are people below the poverty line, and children who don't get enough food
Look guys and gals, there is a large percentage of the population, (global population), that has more money than you or I will EVER see much less spend in our lifetimes. That being said 26k is a drop in the bucket. People everyday place wagers on hands of blackjack in excess of $100,000. It should come as no suprise that these types of people play other games and spend their cash just the same. This guy at least has a chance of some kind of return on investment besides lady luck.
I wouldn't be surprised if the they buyer turned out to be associated with project entropia. It may in effect be Entropia paying Entropia $26k for some publicity.
Sometimes I doubt your committment to SparkleMotion!
What a sucker!!! I know a guy who sells virtual islands with only 9,900 USD. And with pink monsters this month! What a rip-off...
There's a lot of prime waterfront property in Florida, USA that is ripe for development. You could make some serious cash if you bought into it now.
Oh, did I forget to mention the by waterfront, I meen water-under-foot, ya'know, a swamp?
I really see Project Entropia as this rapidly growing virtual environment that's just teeming with possibilities. I do, because I buy into every sales pitch I hear without wasting energy putting a single thought into the reality of the situation. Can you guess what I am? Starts with an s...
I'm sure this person does think he can make money off this "virtual island", the sales pitch said so. Face it, he got sold swampland. Is it valueable? I'm sure he'll get something out of it, as there are plenty more where he came from. In fact, they say one is born every minute.
His post was as much use for free speech as the original.
and so is yours, and mine...
Aren't these kinds of posts usually modded down? Not that I think it was a valuable investment, but it's his money to waste. When someone ports Linux to a toaster, people who complain about wasted time are modded down. Why is this post modded up?
Consider how many talk shows he's going to be
invited to.
People have been buying/selling Diablo II gears for real money. I don't see how this is _radically_ different from that. Comparing to some people who blew 260 billion _real_ dollars in a meaningless war that kills _real_ people, this guy sitting on his virtual island minding his own business may not seem that insane after all.
Tyranny isn't the worst enemy of a democracy. Cynicism is.
I am curious how the game play is. I think it's an awesome concept. I like computer games and spend too much time playing them and it would be great to earn points that would convert back into CASH! The only real trouble with this is having to "TRUST" the game servers. From what I have seen when people have a way to cheat many do. Even punkbusters doesn't get the players running two machines with a player on each side so the "spies eyes" report the location of the enemy.
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
Well, not the buyer's real name, but the name used in the game: Syndrome!
Good, inexpensive web hosting
"Join the 181160 persons before you - get a life in Project Entropia" It's backwards, you should get a life before you play that game for 6-10 hours a day.
It is more risk than I would want to take with my capital, but if you think creatively a virtual island could offer multiple streams of income, depending on the popularity of the game. Over time, this guy could not only sell off "lots" on the island, but also virtual billboards to CocaCola, Intel, Dell, etc. Whereas the lots would offer one time revenue, advertising could be ongoing.
at first I was like... wtf?
then I thought about it and was like
!!!OMGWTFBBQ!?!?!!!oneoneon!
The most interesting feature of P.E. is that it use a real money system. You can buy ped (Poject Entropia Dollars) at the rate of 10 ped per USD, and you can sell them back at the same rate. The catch is there is a 3.5% fee going in, and a 1.5% or 100 ped (which ever is greater) fee going out. It states it may take up to 90 days to withdraw.
The economy is almost entirely player driven. The trade terminals sell the most basic worthless crap there is. Everything else must be looted or, more likely, manufactured by a player. There is no monthly fee and the game can be downloaded and played with no cash put in at all. It should be noted, however, that you start with NOTHING but a bright orange jump suit with 0 value. You can get going with out cash by "sweating" monsters. You use a skill on them to gather sweat, and once you have about 1000 bottles, you can sell them to another player for a couple of ped, and keep doing this until you can get some weapons. Or you can bite the bullet, put $10 in (which, once you verify a credit card, you can do in game) and outfit your self with enough equipment to go hunting.
In the 3 months my roommates and myself have been playing, we've invested on average $40. I've managed to keep going on what I've earned from hunting for over a month. I'm certainly not making any real cash at the moment, but i can see that people are.
If someone finds loot or makes an item worth more then 50 ped, a server wide message is sent, and if it is high enough will be record in the hall of fame. There is one person who gets hall of fames for manufacturing items all the time. I see a message for him at least once every few hours. Several days ago, he got an all time high of over 4,000 ped, which translates to $400. Not too bad for playing a game.
The person who bought treasure island can really make a killing. He is going to be able to sell off plots of it over the course of a year, and also gets a tax on mining or hunting done on it. Because of the two way exchange, this is real money we are talking about.
Which leads me to the first of two questions I've been wondering about for the last few months. Can MindArk actually make money off this? They get a nice fee on both ends of the deal, and while they have your money, they can invest it like a bank, etc. They also have several money sinks in the game. Everything decays and needs repairing, which can only be done at a terminal. Ammo can only be gotten from a terminal. And there is an in game auction, but there is a 1 ped fee per item, sold or not.
Treasure Island offers another way for them to profit on a number of fronts. They get a lump sum from the purchase (I doubt this guy had 260,000 ped laying around), and the sale of the sub plots encourages more investment.
Its interesting that this comes along after blizzard cracked down on the sale of items out side the confines of the game. MindArk has gone to the other extreme. They are acting as the gate keeper on an economy, over which they exert an enormous amount of control.
The other question is, can i make money off this? People say you can, but if so, the time investment to get your character to that point is well over a year, possibly 2. As i stated about, i can see people making very valuable items all the time. I have to assume he is withdrawing that money, so it seems people are. By publicizing it, MindArk encourages others to deposit more and keep going, so they can be there. Does this offset his gains, and let the company make a profit?
________
Magnus frater spectat te
If they are using electricty to run the servers, and somehow I think they are, they are causing pollution. It's called secondary or indirect pollution. I admit that it's probably not as drastic as building a house, but it's still there.
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
AC, are you advocating cannabalism? I'm shocked. Shocked! I say.
See what I've been reading.
Entropia allows you to convert game money to real money and vice versa. The guy is making an investment here. It's a brand new piece of game land with what looks like a lot of features that will be attractive to high level players. The Entropia site indicates he has the right to sell plots of land to other players (presumably for houses), tax people who want to hunt and mine on the island, etc.
It's not like he's expecting to turn around and sell this to some sucker for $100k or anything; rather, he's going to sell plots of land for (just guessing of course) $100-200, hunting-mining rights for $10/hour, or equivalent in-game currency or items that he can turn around into real cash.
People do this every day in the real world. I can't believe Slashdot of all places seems to resistant to the idea this can be done in a virtual world as well.
Larry Ellison even (as a joke) created a fictional company to this effect in '99, heyidiot.com, but it was removed because people were asking where they could buy the fictional stock, knowing it was fictional. Here's a synopsis
The guy that bought this island is no more or less guilty than a speculator of stocks, or for that matter a speculator of any product (tulips come to mind).
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
Please, go to island and stay there.
As part of your interactions with the System, you may acquire, create, design, or modify Virtual items, but you agree that you will not gain any ownership interest whatsoever in any Virtual item, and you hereby assign to MindArk all of your rights, title and interest in any such Virtual item.
Today we give thanks to the lord for putting people on this earth who are more tragically sad than ourselves, our hopelessness can only pale in comparison and for that we are grateful, amen..
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Slashdot is full of liberal socialist hackers and so feeding the poor is more important than anything you can think of to do with your own money. Unless of course you are a liberal socialist hacker who has no money to speak of.
Uh.. Isn't Las Vegas smack in the middle of a desert?
Normal people worry me!
So the only way he comes out not a sucker for springing $26K for a virtual island is if he finds other, bigger suckers to spring for pieces of his virtual island totalling more than $26K.
It's just like Amway, without the up-passing of future proceeds so it isn't a pyramid scheme but the mentality is similar. If you can find enough suckers yourself, you end up not a sucker and can make some money off of Amway. Most people just end up as suckers, though.
The enemies of Democracy are
> Could some one explain to me how this infinite virtual world is ever going to run out of real estate.
As in real life, there's more to real estate than just its existence. If this island gets to be developed with lots of good content for players, then players will end up paying a premium to live on the island nearby all the good stuff. Sure, the developers can make another island, but if there's nothing there, not many people will want to "move". So, making a new island requires significant investment to make it compete with what's already there, and in this case I suspect they're just selling the island to this guy and relying on him to do the developing to make it worth enough to draw players to his space. I assume he'll then resell space or charge admission or something to draw his investment back out, but I'm not familiar with Entropia, so I don't know how much involvement this really entails.
Virg
If you believe that, then I have a virtual bridge that's for sale, for anybody that's interested.
-Arthur
Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules
Do you use cash? A credit card? Gold coin?
None of these things have intrinsic value. Including the gold coin, unless you actually plan to use the unique properties of the soft yellow metal for something.
Geez, think about it, people!
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
... to buying virtual wives from virtual Russia.
These aren't the sigs you're looking for.
Wow pyramid schemes are getting more expensive to buy into all the time!
This 'developer' spends $26,500
He subdivides and sells to 5 friends at $15k a piece
They subdivide and sell to 5 friends at $7k a piece
They subdivide and sell to 5 friends at $5k a piece
What a pretty (cant wait to see the graphics) picture of an old scam...
err.. I mean Everquest...
where would the guy be if he had been able to buy a large, mineral rich, moster rich, and resource rich piece in Everquest back in the games early years?
what, 2.5 million sales since '99 and currently 450K active players with 250K new players per year?.... at $0.05 per squat on a camp site... thats $125,000... charge for camping, mining, sales, and land... you (in theory) could make some serious cash.
Now, Im not saying that this game is going to be the next EverCrack... but comon, you have to at least see the logic... even if it makes us cringe to think of the cluster of Falcon Northwest systems we could build for the same that he just "threw away".
The Code Ninja is swift with his tool, precise in his delivery, and deadly accurate in his execution.
Is anyone having any luck getting the whois data for this domain?
OK, I'll byte to this troll.
Have you tried to move from one location to another one in any country in Africa? (without a car?)
Seems you take moving for granted 'cuz it's easy where you live. Don't forget it is not as simple in other places. People dont' have the same resources. The infrastructure is different, customs, etc.
It is not just that they live in a deserted area, it is the lack of resources all around. (along with corrupt politicians of course)
Do you think that a person will find a job/food by simply just leaving the ghetto? It is much more than that...
Wouldn't you just love to see how he files this on his taxes?
Or better yet, when his mom gets the American Express bill....
he MMORPG Project Entropia has just announced that its first treasure island sale via Auction has gone for a grand total of US$26,500.
This dude is out of his mind. For $26,000 he could have bought himself 260 Jedi in star wars galaxies. Now what is cooler? Owning some virtual island, or being the leader of an army of Jedi? Some people just don't understand the value of a dollar. *sigh*
Don't fall for this game. I used to play Project-Entropia but it is impossible to make any money off it. You'll end up loosing alot unless you invest a whole lot or have a really good strategy (so if you intend to have fun you will loose money). I made a program to extract the separate files from Entropias's archive dataformat .BNT and what did it earn me, instant ban from the mmorpg. All I did was to look at the BNT in a hexeditor and figured it out, then wrote a tool. I was glad though, I didn't have to spend anymore money in this virtual casino.
Trust me, you'll be better off playing another mmporpg where you pay monthly. Or hell, go play the opensource mmorpg planeshift ( www.planeshift.it ), next version of planeshift will have fighting, mining etc and it will always be free (for mac/linux/windows).
There is a difference between casual players and the game developer: he can create a new item or piece of line for himself for no effort, i.e. generate wealth instantly.
1) Program virtual world
2) Convince people land is worth money
3) Create land
4) PROFIT!
Nope. That's a mirage.
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
That's what I thought.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Wow, looks like I've finally found someone on whom I can unload that beachfront property in Wyoming...
Great. How much did it cost to develop this virtual island? More than $26,000?
Land is a very inexpensive investment with a good return and a practical application. This 'virtual island' thing is just silly.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
What some people like that don't realize is that the money still exists no matter where you spend it. If you donate 100% of your money to those that are starving then that money goes only toward food and agriculture.
If for say you donate 10% of your money toward starving poeple and the rest you invest or spend, 90% of your money will be used toward overall economic development. This will likely result in a much greater long term investment toward the needy then the 100% initial fund possibility.
Were all money donated to those that were in need, then there would be no one with enough money to feed themselves and the needy would grow.
Now, I don't advocate going out and purchasing virtual islands, but still, think about a bit of how economics works before saying that this investment isn't worth it. We know nothing of the person who bought the island, but it could very well be that he will actually somehow make back more money (since that game has fund turnarround) and be able to invest even more toward the needy.
What, exactly, is the point of playing a computer "game" where you evidently have to spend thousands of dollars in real money to get ahead of everyone else? Especially when you have games like World of Warcraft which are actually fun to play and don't require you to give an arm and a leg to succeed?...In a game, you get ahead through intelligence...
On the other hand, who is more intelligent - the guy who can actually earn real money playing a game or a guy who forks over money to Blizzard every month for nothing tangible?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Even the original post says that cash can be exchanged for virtual items and vice versa. While this is done unofficially on other sites, it is strictly against the rules. Here, it is the whole point. I think the guy is a genius personally, as is the seller. And I don't use that term lightly, as in I've never called anyone that before (at least not a businessperson).
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
It isn't really about the money. It's about caring more for your fellow humans who are suffering than a digital island on a game. Starvation is not a game.
Yep. The authors can instantly devalue or increase the value of game "property" by manipulating the scarcity of the items. "Who-hoo! I won the auction for the island, I can rent-out beaches, lease mineral and timber rights..." "DOH!!!!"
I have a special debit card for things like this. But the sign up went way to deep in personal information for me to join. With the info they were requesting I could easily steal an identity. I would be glad to just provide a vaild visa card and be done with it, but noooooo! They wanted "mothers maiden name", threats that if any data is wrong you forfiet, etc. This I see as the downfall of this game, because otherwise I would have just spent upwards of $200USD just trying it out. Too bad, good concept but ..... NOOOOOOOO!
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
Yep. The authors can instantly devalue or increase the value of game "property" by manipulating the scarcity of the items.
"Who-hoo! I won the auction for the island, I can rent-out beaches, lease mineral and timber rights..."
(10 new, even richer islands rise up from the ocean...)
"DOH!!!!"
(Damn, pwn3d by formatting and not using preview...)
So don't. Somehow, I think the rest of us will get by.
this "virtual island" sounds too much like the game Far Cry. :p
They should've created a virtual martian base with monster invested, evil-laden hellhole, where people in it are doomed to fight those monsters.. maybe the beachfront would look more exciting
Indeed, lets just ignore the fucked up economy and get back to what is really important, ME !
music lover since 1969
You know what they say... invest in real estate, because they ain't making any more of it.
Oh... wait.
Wanted: witty unique signature. Must be willing to relocate.
I have been looking into this game for a while, but have never played it. heres a url thats not dead: http://www.perc.info/index.asp?page=159 How this person will be making money. Hunting (including native forms of wildlife) Mining (both minerals and enmatters) Taxation rights on hunting and mining activities on the island Income from the sale of land lots. Five lots per month will be available for sale under the duration of one year. These 60 lots alone have an estimated market value of 300 000 PED. Ok, so you have a steady stream of income while people are using your island. You can gather large amounts of resources, or tax people from the resources they grab. You can setup your own areas to sell your products. you have a vast amount of resources that are not avaiable in such a dence area. You can sell all the plots available to sell (not the entire island mind you, just 60 areas that are up for sale (which is 300,000 in game cash not 30,000)). If this game is like most other multi player games where users are willing to pay real money for virtual stuff, this guy could make a killing, and make alot of that money back fast.
TruePunk | Games
If Vegas is a mirage, a lot of people are going to be pissed when they find out that they just stupidly left their money lying in the middle of the desert.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Of course people will be resistant to these kind of ideas because they haven't been in PE yet. Its the first of its kind! No other game allows you to invest in it. Pay per month is one thing PE is another.
Its deffinatley not for the faint hearted either. If you can't take the heat don't go there.
Sounds like we may need to add a new option to that "Video game world I want to live in" poll.
Project Entropia's unique selling point is the ability to convert real money into ingame cash and vice versa.
I was talking to a guy who worked at another MMORPG and he said that they couldn't convert cash from the game into real money. According to him, if you take people's money and promise to give it back to them, you're effectively a bank, and setting up a bank is somewhat complicated.
The onwer of this virtual island may [not] be a sucker.
The entire scheme relies upon this sucker finding enough lesser suckers so that he can turn a profit. If enough lesser suckers are found, he is renamed from "sucker" to "successful businessman".
This pyramid of suckers continues until enough of them decide that buying a virtual grain of sand on a virtual beach on a virtual island isn't worth either one virtual or real cent, whereupon the virtual volcano on the island will explode, destroying all real evidence of a scam and the perpetrators will go off with the profits and take over Worldcom, Enron etc,.
Personally, I'll stick to buying tulip bulbs as a less risky business venture.
Mine's not!
The CB App. What's your 20?
How else would rich people be able to "invest" in virtual islands...Finally, the burden that has restrained America's wealthy has been lifted.
And you're saying that people are currently happy when they've stupidly left money in in the middle of the desert? Loved your post; I've nver heard a better description of gambling in Las Vegas!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Project Entropia's unique selling point is the ability to convert real money into ingame cash and vice versa.
... :/
...
Doesn't this sound as digital money?
It's like its own currency now!
I don't know how they've implemented it, but might it be "real" digital currency?
I've been waiting for years for a digital currency, but people don't seem to want a new currency
I've never thought that the digital money would come from a MMORPG!
This is probably nonsense, and maybe I should have RTFA
So it's OK for people to spend $26K on surreal estate, but it's not OK for other people to talk about it?
Oh, that makes perfect sense.
Let me introduce you to my government...
We have no idea how he made that money. You can transfer in real money, or make the play money within the game itself. Remember, he bought the island with the play money. So who knows, maybe he's figured the game out and makes tons of money within the game and this is just an investment.
People have paid thousands of times this amount of money for domain names. And thats creative, intellectual property isn't it?
...does she https://www.project-entropia.com/images/island/isl and_011.jpg come with it?
Sort of like the suckers that bought the VA Research stock at $175. The thinking is that there's always a bigger sucker out there. Guess what, there isn't.
While I think this is a bit premature, some of you nay-sayers really need to read Snowcrash. A virtual economy is inevitable, and few stories I've read have captured the awesome potential as well as Snowcrash did.
Bryan
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
But for the love of god, stop trying to tell other people how to spend THEIR money. They don't tell you how to spend yours.
Haven't you watched TV lately?
we should send the new owners a nice gift.
Even better is CrystalSpace, the open source 3d engine its written in. I was writing a MMOG in CrystalSpace, its amazingly easy how I got collision detection and 3d animation to work when I know almost nothing about linear algebra.
God spoke to me.
http://www.privateislandsonline.com
t m
This one looks nice. Own your own Florida Key for 1.5 mil:
http://www.privateislandsonline.com/sunsetkey.h
" Listen, lad. I built this virtual kingdom up from virtually nothing. When I started here, all there was virtual swamp. Other virtual kings said I was virtually daft to build a virtual castle on a virtual swamp, but I virtually built it all the same, just to show 'em. It virtually sank into the virtual swamp. So, I virtually built a second one. That virtually sank into the virtual swamp. So, I virtually built a third one. That virtually burned down, virtually fell over, then virtually sank into the virtual swamp, but the fourth one... virtually stayed up! And that's what you're virtually gonna get, virtual lad: virtually the strongest virtual castle in these virtual islands."
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Without knowing exactly what is in the code, I would be very wary of participating in such a scheme.
It is very difficult to control massive economies in software. A single floating-point error in the software could result in massive inflation or deflation which would have a real effect on the players of the game.
There are also numerous ways the game developer can provide a 1:1 exchange rate (or 'no transaction fees') on the dollar->game exchanges, and still leach off the economy in the game. The purchases within the game are still controlled by software which may be exacting explicit or implicit processing fees.
Bots in the game posing as players can create goods artificially, sell them to players, thus transferring their cash to the system.
Maybe we could send George Bush there and let him fight the turrists in cyberyon.
In short, it shouldn't be assumed that virtual MMORPG real estate is necessarily a bad investment. It's going to happen, if not today, then some day soon. Now, if you're suggesting that buying an island in *this particular* MMORPG is a bad investment, that's something different entirely. Since I don't know dick about the MMORPG, I can't comment.
Cheers,
Moiche
starving? They have apparently enough food to convert in energy to fuck and create more starving children.
It's quite possible this guy has been put up to this by the game designers or perhaps he has an interest in making sure people want to buy into this game.
A hundred and twenty characters ought to be enough for anyone...
is cool. I've been looking for this for a while, however I was interested in a few more features. Has anybody seen a game with a cash interface like this that allows you to build things then cash out when people buy your content?
... you may not be aware how lucrative this kind of thing can be. I have little doubt this purchase is an investment, and this person will likely make a profit in the end.
;) And it was fun, because I got to play the game while doing so.
I'm not very familiar with Project Entropia, but I played Ultima Online from the day it began in 1997 (I have since retired). After a few years I realized I knew so much about the "virtual economy" of the game that I could easily be making real money off it. So I began buying large accounts (again, for those unfamiliar... people would sell their entire game account when they stopped playing the game, including all of their characters and possessions). I would take the accounts apart piece by piece, sell things separately ingame to other players for gold, and convert the gold to cash by selling it on eBay. Of course, I never did anything on the scale of the $26K mentioned here... but for example, there was an account I bought for $1,000, many years ago. At the time, this amount seemed incredible to spend on something like this, and people thought I was crazy, but not after I showed them the $2,500 I got for selling everything from it separately.
Remember, these virtual items are a commodity just like anything else. They often take a lot of time and effort to get, and people will always be willing to pay for that.
But for the love of god, stop trying to tell other people how to spend THEIR money.
I sure don't. I just think it says alot about a man in particular and a culture in general when he wastes that kind of money on something so stupid. He really could have done so much more with it, and yes, I am judging him and casting aspersions on how he finds fulfilment in this world. Not telling anyone what to do; merely pointing out a jackass as a jackass.
It really is instructive, watching how cluelessly other people behave. I used to have to read Roman history and the like to read tales debauchery, obscene extravagance, and abuse of power; now all I have to do is pick up the newspaper.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Please first have a look at what this game is about.
;)
By owning this land he has exclusive taxing rights over the total area, wich means he gets a % on all money spend on his Island. And it IS actractive enough to go spend money there.
There will be 60 housebuilding lot's for sale during a year. There have been alot of plots on other parts of that world allready, and they solled for an average of 500$, so if you can count 500$*60$, you get the estimated 30000$ value.
Point? It will be hard for him not to get his money back.
1 guy can easily spend 100$ on a couple hours on his island, he gets 10$ for every 100$.
Start counting yourself
YOU'VE SLASHDOTTED MY ISLAND!!!! YOU BASTARDS!
now how will I collect profits from my virtual mine?!!!?! MY virtual monsters need to be fed.... I will get you nerds for this!!!
--sincerely alfred J. Dumbass, (virtual real estate tycoon)
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
It is very difficult to control massive economies in softwqare. A single floating-point error in the software could result in massive inflation or deflation which would have a real effect on the players of the game.
I wouldn't necessarily think that you'd need any kind of programming to do support this. They already have markets and trading and auctions. All you have to do is treat game dollars as a seperate good from US dollars. You are done.
Aside from that, I'd point out that thousands of programmers in the financial markets would disagree with your premise. Ironically, for really serious financial stuff, you don't even use floating-point calculations. You do it all fixed point, with specific rounding rules, etc., etc. Usually the folly of using floating-point is pointed out to you on day 1 of your job.
sigs are a waste of space
Hey, I'm a REAL player of the game Project-Entropia, so i belive i could make a post which makes more sence then the millions of "26.5k usd!!! OMG he must be retarded, live in his mothers basement and be to damn addicted!!!" posts.
Seriously, why talk about something u don't know?
This Island was sold by the developers of the game: MindArk PE AB, a swedish based company.
and NOT some other player in the game, who managed to fool someone out of his life savings..
This is not the first piece of estate to be sold in PE, there have been Hangars (which are used to travel into space) and houses or various sizes sold aswell, for some 200-2k USD, also 2 castles exists in the game (besides the one on Treasure Island) which have been sold for around 1.5k-2k each i belive.
Treasure Island is however the only Island to be sold ingame as of yet.
Treasure Island is located on the continent Amethera, and on that continent there is a "LandGrab" going on now, where ALL of the continent will be up for grabs, for those who are able to defend an area for 12 consecutive hours. Currently we are waiting for LAB-5 to start (Land Area Battle nr 5).
Anyhow, the Island is the ONLY part of this vast continent that CAN'T be grabbed, the rest of the continent will be up for grabs EVERY 6 months (twice a year, that is...)
What is the point of buying a virutal estate in a game? and an Island for 26.5k USD? and what good does the LandGrab (LG) do?
well, to get to this new continent (Amethera) u need to either reach a certain amount of skills, or be an owner of an estate. Currently normal houses are "just" nice to have, and serve as a ticket to Amethere ofcourse. Hangars can take u to space, which means u can sell tickets to those who want's to go to space for a little hunting.
Castles are the same as houses ATM, but both are promised to be more important in the future.
(oh, forgot that ALL estates does have some land, and on that land u can set up shopkeepers which sells items that u decide, to ur prices. so all estates can bring a nice income)
And the land areas that u can claim in LG then?
well, it is simple.. ofcourse it will cost u the ammo spent, and decay (everything slowly decays when u use it in PE, not clothes and such, but armors, weapons and tools) BUT, what u can gain is much more then the cost. On ALL areas the owning society (don't think u can easily claim a area on ur own, there's a fierce PvP battle for these things) can claim 1-10% of ALL income on that Island comming from Mining and Hunting (highest loot from a beast so far, had a base value of 2.2 USD! some loots have had items in them with a MARKETVALUE of way more then 5k USD!, and 10% of those loots ain't half bad.. one of the Societies that has claimed most land so far (about 1 area each LG) claims to already have gotten back most of the total cost to gain the area (in decay and ammo spent while defending against other players) and they've spent some 1,000 usd on EACH area so..
Also the owners of an area will be given the choice to SELL estates on their grounds shortly, which generates even more money back to their pockets.. bigger areas will be able to have more estates on them ofcourse, and those who buy an estate WILL keep it if the owner of the area loses the claim in next LG.
So, what's the thing with Treasure Island then?
Well, ofcourse u can take 10% on ALL mining and hunting on the Island, also the owner has a total of 60 estates to sell on the Island. the estates alone will bring back a large sum of money, and the 10% of all income on the Island will bring back ALOT of cash to, especialy since the Island is 6 times bigger then the largest Area that can be claimable (no area of that size has been in an LG so far though) and also Treasure Island doesn't partake in the LG, so once u bought it, it's urs until u sell it.
so clearly it's an investment which can pay of very nicely..
and just to say, there is armors and weapons which has a marketvalue of up to 7,000$ in th
Wouldn't it be so cool to own land online? Think about it, in any MMORPG for example. Lets use World of Warcraft. If you paid $10,000 for a storefront there that you can expand, build on, and do whatever you want that would add to the challenge and the excitement of the game. Many rules where everyone has to figuree them out. It is somewhat a survival of the fittest as wel....
_
Free 27" Sony WEGA TV
MUDD's used to have people do this sort of stuff. I have a hard time seeing my self making a 26k investment in a passing fancy though. EOTL people used to sell passwords, charectors and EQ for 10-30 USD. M.U.D 1.0 people did the same. Nothing new.
It seems to me that this can only possibly be a good deal if the game's creators are able to restrain themselves from trying the same thing over and over again. If this guy finds himself unable to unload his land because the company sold 5 plots just like his a few days later, he's gonna be up the creek.
:)
Think of land as money, and the game's creator as the central bank. For a while, you can print money and become rich as long as no one expects inflation; as soon as they start to expect inflation, though, the jig is up.
We'll see if the game is more like the central bank of the US or the central bank of the Weimar Republic over the coming weeks
beware the jabberwock, my son! the jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
I agree. It's not as though this exchange even takes up any real goods, anyway. A bunch of pieces of US-goverment-faith-paper were traded for a figment of someone's imagination. The amount of food available for the starving children remains the same. Go tell the developers to feed them.
Whats this you say? A true virtual economy? Yes, my son. Had you not spouted off and shown your ignorance for all to see. Had you used one little teeny tiny part of your brain to figure out what is is you are commenting on you would realize that Peoject Entropia is a completely new concept in MMORPG gaming. PE has an economy tied to the USD. It is free to download and free to play. You can exchange real life money at a rate of 1 USD (US Dollar) = 10 PED (Project Entropia Dollar). The real kicker here is you can also exchange money back into USD. Thats right, earn a pile of cash and turn it into real dough. Now, do you honestly think this guy would have spent $26,500 on an island if he (A) didn't already have tons of cash in real life and (B) didn't think it was a good investment? I can say first hand as a PE participant that he should have no trouble making his money back plus potentially alot of profit. Would I have paid that much? No way. I don't have that kind of cash and if I did would still have a hard time doing it. However, there were multiple people involved in this auction via the ingame auctioneer and this is the gentleman that won. My advice to you? If don't know anything about what you are commenting on you may just want to keep your mouth shut. Picking on this guy, who it would seem has made a brilliant money making descision, will not make your trite and meaningless life any better.
I had no idea it existed. It is free also?! Has anyone played it? Is it worth my time. It must be worth my money apparently.
Apart from esthetics, investment of real money in virtual estate is also a poor investment. A case in point is the game I am now playing--Everquest. EQ is dying because EQ2 is sucking away the customer base. There is no continuity between EQ and EQ2, so whatever I owned in EQ becomes worthless to me the moment I stop playing the game (and I doubt I could find a sucker now who would buy a 62 Enchanter on EQ).
Virtual purchases like this island would only make sense if the game has a high likelyhood of being persistent--that is, will the island still be in existence 20 years from now? Will anyone care?
Sure, the guy who just bought the island might be able to make money by selling off subdivisions over the next year or so, but if the virtual estate doesn't retain its value over the long term, then this is nothing but a con game. Once the game loses its popularity and no one wants to play any more, the people who invested last will be left holding the bag. They will have title to a worthless piece of virtual estate--and not even that once the last game server is powered down.
For that kind of money, a person could have bought real estate (real real estate) that would be guaranteed to persist over any power outages for the lifespan of the owner and his descendants.
From the sound of it, Entropia is nothing but a very clever pyramid scheme. What's more, since they advertise their product as imaginary, they are fairly safe from criminal prosecution--but not, I suspect, from lawsuits.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
I always liked that bit. Years ago, when asked to move Phoenix, that was the first thing that came to my mind:
"YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!! See this? It's sand. You know what it'll be in a hundred years? MORE SAND!!"
The concept was rather than taking food to all the starving people of Ethiopia, why don't we just take all the people in Ethiopia and "MOVE THEM TO WHERE THE FOOD IS!!!"
This might be a link. I couldn't view it, because it's Windows Media Player, but the description seems right...
I have now created the Wikipedia entry:o pia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Entr
Read this with me: it's not an economy, it's just another money laundering backdoor.
What real value does gold have? The time and fuel and equipment it took to blast and dig it out of the earth, smelt it, melt it, and cast it into something exchangeable. The fact that it can't be created each morning in an FOMC meeting, or each time a national bank approves someone for a credit card or home loan.
Is property ownership enforced by character-created government that is fully contained within the game, or by admins (in the real world) who are omnipotent within the game? In Real Life, governments have finite power and nothing is ever really certain, but in a virtualization, they can be gods.
Can I, within the game, take this island by force? It would be funny if someone claimed they "owned" this island, with proof that they bought it on eBay, while (virtually) my army of orcs invaded and stripped it of all its resources. Then, later they take me to court in real life: "Your honor, I owned this island, and this dude's orc army did thousands of dollars worth of damage to it! All the easy gold ore deposits have been mined, the trees have been cut down, the wildlife decimated. And he blocked the entrance to the harbor! The bastard even dismanted my castle and used its bricks to make beach barricades that I had to blow up when I retook the island. And to top it all off, his orc army evacuated before I got to deliver some real payback in blood!" Then the judge comes back with: "Hey, you're in the wrong court. You need to sue this guy in virtual court within the game. I don't have jurisdiction in this fantasy la--" "But your honor, I paid real money in real life!"
And, of course, I wonder if someone visits this island and their elf's arm gets ripped off by the flesh-eating ogre, can they sue?
Mixing real life and virtual life is just too weird.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
What may cause that, you wonder? Our banker character's holdings were zeroed out. That would be $4000 USD, gone. Explanation? Our banker had bought an item (third-hand) from someone who had crafted an item which was fake, somehow. Members of our society were pulling down about $400 a month playing this game. Enough to pay rent to Mom and Dad, I suppose. Sad, pathetic, and lonely in so many ways that matter, but true enough.
One of our businesses was banking. We would trade in-game money for real money, back when PayPal was trustworthy. The makers of PE had something like 10% transaction fees, we charged a much more competitive rate, and managed perhaps 20-30% of the real money going into the game, early on.
As a direct result of this game, I read most of a field guide for geology, learned how to write some pretty solid Active Server Pages, and had some noteworthy personal growth.
Sure they do - haven't you ever seen advertisements?
Taking advantage of low property values in this economy while the interest rates are still low.
Wonder what kind of loan he got?
Georgia Tech, the leader in Chia(tm) technology.
You are implying that all economic activity is beneficial to everyone equally. I suppose you think it is better for King Mswati to buy his Maybach supercar than to feed a few of his poor subjects.
The "luxury economy" works well for the wealthy, not so well for the people who sell things to the wealthy, and very poorly for the people who sweep the floors of the people who sell things to the wealthy.
If for say you donate 10% of your money toward starving poeple and the rest you invest or spend, 90% of your money will be used toward overall economic development. This will likely result in a much greater long term investment toward the needy then the 100% initial fund possibility.
In the long run, we are all dead.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
In that world you spend $780000 for a little studio that in the "real world" world be worth about $25,600 - so you're paying $760000 for the "fake" value of a SF address.
In the same ways as rich geeks will inflate the value of that island, rich wanna-be-bankers inflate the real-estate in san francisco.
I don't see this as much different than ETrade.
Definitely a gem...
h tm l
http://wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53534,00.
Interesting, I wonder if it falls under the Pyramid Scheeme Laws.
Kosh: "Understanding is a 3 edged sword, your side, their side, the Truth."
What thew hell - If I don't smell a publicity farce, well I smell a publicity farce and a R A T .
Agreed.
Reminds me of a friend of mine who didn't want to get a "real" job with an "evil capitalist" company but instead wanted to go to work for a charity helping the starving orphans of wherever. I pointed out that a far better use of her time would be to work in an "evil capitalist" company for 30 hours a week, send half her cash to the starving orphans, and spend another 30 hours a week donating her time to helping whoever wherever. If you're not self-sufficient, you're still costing somebody money to keep you, no matter what you give back.
Rampant private spending helps everyone.
Ouch, yes. No shit. Here's hoping it doesn't take the rest of the globe down with it! (Seriously US citizens, you asked, nay, begged for that with putting big daddy George up in ye olde Casa Blanca - for a second time.. aarghhh ..)
But, you forgot about all the other dolts out there who are willing to pay for virtual realestate so they can have virtual mansions.
Think about all the money he can make of those dolts. It's brilliant... or idiotic... one of the two.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Tanking the economy is not just for GWB, you know.
Murphy was an optimist.
Other people are constantly "telling me how to spend my money". It's called advertising. What's wrong with a little injection of peer-pressure common sense when it comes to conspicuous consumption? For the love of God, please DO start telling people (who don't seem to be thinking much) how to spend their money.
...and it is true that you have to spend real money to get ahead. PE attracts players by letting them play for free, but you will soon find out that you don't get far without exchanging real money for in-game money.
You can earn small amounts of in-game money by gathering "vibrant sweat" which is a raw material for the game's economy, but even so it takes a while until you can buy your first weapon. Then you will find out that the ammo costs more than you earn from hunting. Even in game related forums people admit that only very experienced avatars can break even and at least earn the cost of their ammunition.
For me, this was too frustrating and I got myself a (monthly fee based) Neocron account instead. That game has its own problems, but so far it is more fun than PE.
C - the footgun of programming languages
To my knowladge Project Entropia is the only MMO that allows players to invest Real Cash into the game. I'll give a brief explanation on the economic dynamics of the game itself. Upon arriving ingame for the first time you are skilless and penniless. Lots of players had come into the game in the past without depositing any cash and have succeded by making tons of money but that scenario has long since changed. You can enter the gameworld for free but it will only take you longer to succeed at getting anywhere. Just suppose you have the economic means to deposit large sums into PE. Well..that won't do you a damn bit of good. You can't buy sucsess there by aquiring highend equipment because you will lack the skills necessary to use those items. At this time you can purchase skills that can be transfered to your avatar and it is very costly. Problem here is that should you decide to do so you will still lack the knowladge of how to hunt or mine effectively. Skill transfer doesn't make you or your Avatar instantly smarter. Better..but not smarter. The only way to make it financially in PE is to invest ALOT of time and effort. And investing some real cash into that Avatar can and in most cases bring great rewards ...if you're smart.
that guy outbid how could he .
Doesn't anyone think this sounds like a pyramid scheme?
Despite all the bs nothing is actually "made" in the game. All that happens is the early joiners hand over their cash. They then get to parcel out what they bought for a profit to the next wave of joiners who repeat the process until either a) the parcels are too small to further sub-divide or b) no more people join.
Any new "content" added by the developers effectively just causes the "currency" to devalue (inflation): effectively its the same as print more bank notes.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
No but turning a large budget excess into a truly gargantum budget defecit is all GWB's own work: wait until the flight from the dollar, that's already started, gets into full swing. Then see how the $ does when the US has to honour the $11 **TRILLION** dollars in uncashed cheques it's called to honour.
Republicans like to claim Reagan won the cold war (yeah right). Looks like another Republican president is doing his best to balance things up lose you your super-power status.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
True. And most of these games, even ones with big brand, fail. That makes him a sucker.
The only real difference is welfare vs. warfare, and to be honest I really don't care either way.
Murphy was an optimist.
You DON'T control an economy unless you're simulating a communist country.
The whole point of free markets is the ability to set your own prices. And the international money market (trading between currencies) is a free market.
It's up to the players to make "single floating-point errors" and lose money.
Inflation and deflation is caused by the relative value of a currency to other resources or currencies- this would be caused by having too much (or not enough) money.