Virtual Real Estate Purchased For $100,000

mike1086 wrote to mention a BBC article discussing a $100,000 virtual land purchase in the Project Entropia world. From the article: "The space station is described as a 'monumental project' in the 'treacherous, but mineral rich' Paradise V Asteroid Belt and comes with mining and hunting taxation rights. With the price tag also comes mall shopping booth and market stall owner deeds, a land management system, a billboard marketing system, and space station naming rights. " The official release has further details. You may recall these folks from the expensive island purchase a while back.

Comments

I'm missing something

[lazyl]

How does this Project Entropia thing work? From the web site:

The real cash economy means that the internal Project Entropia economy is linked to the real world economy, by using a currency called the Project Entropia Dollar (PED), which have a fixed exchange rate to the US Dollar (10 PED equals 1 USD). ... A unique aspect of Project Entropia is that a player may elect to transfer PED back into real life currency, thereby enabling them to earn real money while playing an online computer game.

As I understand it, every game economy needs sources and sinks for the currency. I suppose players withdrawing this ped currency out into real usd would work as a sink, but what are the sources? In a completely virutal economy the game can just create money out of thin air, but in this system they can't do that. Are there some players that just constantly pay to play, and other that collect profits and earn thier money?

Virtual real estate?

[bigdavex]

Virtual real estate?
How about just fake estate?

Re:Project Entropia was Released?

[hey!]

I could understand someone purchasing a large amount of land in an incredibly popular game like World of Warcraft for that price, but not in Project Entropia.

Two words: Viral Marketing.

Until somebody interviews the player behind "Neverdie", you don't know that this guy isn't an employee of the company. He buys a piece of virtual for and eye-popping and publicity generating $100,000, and gets a company bonus for oh, say, $100,000 plus enough to cover income taxes for generating publicity.

The value of a property is based on the net present value of its future income stream, discounted by the risk. It'd be a nearly inconceivable vote of confidence in the company hosting this games future stability and ability to create business on a pretty impressive scale -- if it's for real.