Slashdot Mirror
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."
Can you say, 'Money laundering'?
How is this any different than having a mobile interface or a web interface? It's just a new way to access banking integrated into a virtual world.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Imaginary money is useful stuff. I use it on a somewhat regular basis. The key is to remember that you have to replace it all with real money, eventually, or there's trouble.
So now if you manage to collect a bunch of money in a game you have to file an FBAR with the IRS.
I'm a semi-dormant SL guru
So your avatar has a beard and sleeps on top of a mountain. And when another player approaches you'll offer some deep-sounding but essentially meaningless advice.
Am I close?
You're not missing much. While I haven't tried it in a while when I did the game was basically one big slot machine.
You buy ammo at a cost of about 1 cent a shot, you then shoot animals and hope that whatever they drop is worth more than the ammo you use - it almost always won't be, once in a blue moon you hit the jackpot and make a profit.
You buy mining equipment and survey charges at 10 cents a go, you let off the charges to locate minerals and hope the minerals are worth more than the charges you use - it almost always won't be, once in a blue moon you hit the jackpot and make a profit.
I'm sure you've spotted the pattern by now so I won't waste my time how any of the other "gameplay options" such as crafting work. I'm suprised no one has tried to apply gambling laws to the thing yet because that's all the game is with an admittedly pretty front end dropped over it.