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.
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.
...you are eaten by a grue. Game Over.
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.
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.
...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.
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.
Right, but in order for him to realize a profit, there would have to be at least one person in the world dumb enough to pay thirty grand for a virtual plot of land. Oh, wait...
Virtual island, meet hurricane Slashdot.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
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!
Hey, I resent that!
I'm a liberal socialist hacker... well, no, I resent being called *that* too, but it's pretty low on the list of things I, as a liberal socialist hacker, resent these days.
However, if someone tells me I'm bad and wrong for spending my money on something other than starving children, he's getting whacked upside the head by the nearest heavy chunk of metal I can find. I've got an old full-height 10-meg MFM hard drive here, and I'm not afraid to use it.
Sure, the starving children of the world need food. I'm all for sending stuff to them, if that's what you feel like doing. However, if you feel like buying an iPod, a sports car, a virtual island, or whatever else you feel like conspicuously consuming, go for it! Guess what? If you do, you're *helping people*. People make a living building and selling iPods, sports cars, and virtual islands. You're putting food on *their* tables. They may not be pitiful starving wretches, but that's only because people like you buy their (sometimes dubious) stuff instead of living like a hermit in a cave (or cardboard box, for those of you in urban areas) and sending all your hard-earned cash overseas to starving kids.
People who think it's some sort of sin to spend money on something other than "saving the world" need to get a grip. If we all spent money the way they think we should, this whole friggin' planet would fall apart.