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Virtual World, Real Banking
The Opposable Thumbs blog brings news about MindArk PE AB, a Swedish game developer whose MMO Entropia Universe has an in-game economy based on real money. It seems the company has been "granted preliminary approval for a real banking license by the Swedish Finance Supervisory. ... MindArk's going to be just like a bank in the real world: it will be backed by Sweden's $60,000 deposit insurance, offer interest-bearing accounts for its clients, feature direct deposit options, let players pay bills online, and apparently will offer loans to customers." An Associated Press report adds that "The economic activity in Entropia Universe was worth about $420 million last year, about the same as the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, population 110,000. The game has 850,000 player accounts, though not all of them represent active players."
A quick trip to Wikipedia tells me that Entropia predates Second Life by more than 6 months. And as far as I know, their underlying model has always been based on real money, just like Second Life's.
This system is just open to so many flaws.. both technical and otherwise. Technical side of it, a bug appears, a user somehow managed to make millions in a matter of minute, and.. oh look.. he can just turn it into real money and run away never to be seen again. Otherwise-side of it, the company could easily use this to cover some unlawful transactions, with so many odd and seemingly pointless transactions and deposits, who would notice one rogue equally as useless transaction.. Another thing to note is, who will "own" the bank? Will the company be able to just take money off me whenever they want because it's "their game", dispute it been real money..?
Considering that entropia is merely a glorified casino, I am very surprised it they are actually granted the license.
I tried "playing" entropia for maybe 20 bucks a year or two back. Atleast then it was blindingly obvious that the success revolved around chance and diminishing profits. I tried hunting and mining. Manufacturing seemed too expensive to even start with. Munitions for mining and repairing for hunting were just slightly more expensive than the profits even when carefully done.
Bot Assisted Blogging
Entropia is a game. It has a rule-set, monsters to kill, etc. Second Life is not a game.