Virtual Commodities Trading != Derivatives.
If you sold options for the future use of virtual real estate, now that would be derivatives. Other than that, virtual commodities' trading is just that: virtual commodities trading.
On one hand you won't see this in Second Life since there are no commodities except for maybe server cycle time. Raw goods in Second Life (primitives) have a zero creation cost.
On the other hand, some commonly made goods which may not be duplicated may start to exhibit the properties of commodities... and thus we may in fact see virtual commodities trading...
There is no catchall solution to get in the game business. Most LD's I work with have started in QA and while there showed that they were dedicated to the game development process and learned the LD tools while there. Honestly that's your best bet.
There are a few good LD's who have done their own levels and have gotten hired based on their level portfolio. You have a couple of things to improve your odds there. 1) Pick an engine that is licensed, this will open up as many jobs as possible to you. i.e. Unreal or Quake. Game companies will likely not hire you unless you already know some of the tools they use. 2) Build levels in as many different games as possible. Again, this is so you can learn the various tools and open up more job opportunities. 3) Oh yea and the levels better all kick ass. 4) There was a suggestion that you do your own texture work. You can if you want to but level art is typically done by level artist not level designers.
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Virtual Commodities Trading != Derivatives. If you sold options for the future use of virtual real estate, now that would be derivatives. Other than that, virtual commodities' trading is just that: virtual commodities trading. On one hand you won't see this in Second Life since there are no commodities except for maybe server cycle time. Raw goods in Second Life (primitives) have a zero creation cost. On the other hand, some commonly made goods which may not be duplicated may start to exhibit the properties of commodities... and thus we may in fact see virtual commodities trading...
There is no catchall solution to get in the game business. Most LD's I work with have started in QA and while there showed that they were dedicated to the game development process and learned the LD tools while there. Honestly that's your best bet.
There are a few good LD's who have done their own levels and have gotten hired based on their level portfolio. You have a couple of things to improve your odds there. 1) Pick an engine that is licensed, this will open up as many jobs as possible to you. i.e. Unreal or Quake. Game companies will likely not hire you unless you already know some of the tools they use.
2) Build levels in as many different games as possible. Again, this is so you can learn the various tools and open up more job opportunities.
3) Oh yea and the levels better all kick ass.
4) There was a suggestion that you do your own texture work. You can if you want to but level art is typically done by level artist not level designers.
Good luck!!!