Banking on a virtual economy

calidan · Dec 3, 2005, 08:00 PM

Late last month, Jon Jacobs, an independent filmmaker from Miami, became the first person in the history of online gaming to spend $100,000 on a single virtual item when he bought a space station in the game "Project Entropia."

Jacobs, whose avatar Neverdie is somewhat of a celebrity in the space fantasy game, is so confident of his ability to turn his hefty investment into quick riches that he pulled cash out of his real-world home to help raise the hundred grand.

His certainty is based partly on the experience of David Storey, who earlier this year set the previous record for highest price paid for a virtual item when he plopped down $26,500 for Teasure Island, a private piece of "Project Entropia" land . Storey, Jacobs said, has already made his money back through revenue earned by hunters and miners who pay a tax to use his island.

And though there haven't been many instances of people paying five or six figures for virtual items, the trade in such goods is big business. The value of all virtual items--swords, armor, dwellings, vehicles and the like--is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And it is only growing.

With that in mind, CNET News.com recently talked to Jacobs to pick his brain on his in-game celebrity and why he would do something that the rest of us would never even dream of.

____________
Read More / Source: News.com

Dec 3, 2005, 08:00 PM	#1
calidan Frozen in Carbonite Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 1,409 Rep Power: 43 System Specs	Banking on a virtual economy Late last month, Jon Jacobs, an independent filmmaker from Miami, became the first person in the history of online gaming to spend $100,000 on a single virtual item when he bought a space station in the game "Project Entropia." Jacobs, whose avatar Neverdie is somewhat of a celebrity in the space fantasy game, is so confident of his ability to turn his hefty investment into quick riches that he pulled cash out of his real-world home to help raise the hundred grand. His certainty is based partly on the experience of David Storey, who earlier this year set the previous record for highest price paid for a virtual item when he plopped down $26,500 for Teasure Island, a private piece of "Project Entropia" land . Storey, Jacobs said, has already made his money back through revenue earned by hunters and miners who pay a tax to use his island. And though there haven't been many instances of people paying five or six figures for virtual items, the trade in such goods is big business. The value of all virtual items--swords, armor, dwellings, vehicles and the like--is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year. And it is only growing. With that in mind, CNET News.com recently talked to Jacobs to pick his brain on his in-game celebrity and why he would do something that the rest of us would never even dream of. ____________ Read More / Source: News.com __________________ Steam Community :: ID :: calidan "Don't try to be like Jackie. There is only one Jackie.... Study computers instead." - Jackie Chan