There's Gold In Them Thar Games

Via Terra Nova, the New York Times (reg. required) has a piece discussing the increasing trend of players making serious money off of MMOGs. They cite one gentleman who is able to pay his monthly mortage thanks to his daily ventures into the virtual spaces of Second Life. From the article: "Mr. Ainsworth, 36, was not a fan of online games until his 10-year-old daughter became interested in The Sims Online. He then noticed that a large number of simoleans were for sale on eBay. 'I started hearing about players leaving the game who were selling their assets...so I figured, buy low, sell high.'"

Comments

Re:meh

[Jesrad]

Except that this is Second Life, not WoW. There are no monsters you can kill over and over and over for hours on to earn a sustainable revenue, much like there is no infinite gold mine in the real world either. No trivial/automatic way to turn time into value. The money you earn has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is : other players. Each player receives a somewhat fixed stipend of money each week from Linden Lab, and this amount is revised from time to time to accomodate with the money that returns to Linden Lab continuously (as a payment for uploads or land allotment).

Because of this, you cannot have a sweatshop in Second Life, and its economy has zero inflation.