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Second Life Virtual Property Boom

Posted by Zonk on from the a-little-plot-of-land-on-the-edge-of-the-world dept.

The Guardian Gamesblog has an interview with Philip Rosedale, Second Life's CEO and Founder. In the wake of last week's virtual property slaying, they discuss the realities of owning something intangible. From the article: "We launched Second Life without out of world trade and after a few months we looked at it and thought, 'We're not doing this right, we're doing this wrong.' We started selling land free and clear, and we sold the title, and we made it extremely clear that we were not the owner of the virtual property. USD$.4m a month is traded directly to world markets in Linden Bucks on Gaming Open Market. That's USD$.4m redeemed, or Linden Bucks turned into US dollars. In May 2005, the total amount traded in-world was USD$1.47 million. There were 1.3 million transactions between 19,500 unique users."

2 of 242 comments (clear)

  1. Re:so.. by TexVex · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is one huge ass scam type deal, yet totally legal and ingenius.
    No, it's not a scam. They're trading value for dollars. It's also not ingenious, it's Economics 101. They couldn't do this if the virtual estate (as opposed to real estate) didn't have any value to the game's subscribers.

    Game players have been trading the rights to pixels on eBay for as long as there have been persistent-state worlds. Sony is in an endless fight to keep EverQuest items off eBay so they can create their own service that does the same thing, while EA pretty much ignores Ultima Online real money trade. Now, Second Life has merely chosen to cut itself in on the action.

    This isn't even a new business model. Magic: The Gathering Online does a brisk trade in completely virtual playing cards. There was a game before them called Star Trek ConQuest Online or something like that, which did the same thing and didn't even give you the option to convert a complete virtual set of cards into a complete real set of cards.

    And, how's this really different from buying the rights to use a bunch of bits that make a song come out of your computer's speakers?
    --
    Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
  2. Re:Sure, until they try to shut down second life.. by Kesh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On the flip side, isn't paying for webspace on a server the same thing? You're paying for virtual property on a host, so that others can access that host and enjoy your creation.

    If the webhost goes under, files bankruptcy, shuts down tomorrow... do you have any legal basis for a lawsuit? Just because they're not hosting you anymore?