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 Treasure 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.
Q: Where does the name Neverdie come from?
Jacobs: That's my idea for the ultimate video game avatar, because the thing you do most when you play video games is die. So the ultimate character is the one who never dies.
It started early on. When I started playing, I went after all the good stuff and I was like the first person to acquire a full set of shadow armor, which was the uberequipment. That was a historic day in itself, and the first time Neverdie began to establish a reputation. About a year later I recorded a song about my girlfriend: "My girl is a gamer chick, I really love her so." I sent it to the developers of "Project Entropia," and they really loved that. They offered to put it in the jukeboxes (scattered throughout the game). It was just amazing. I would go from town to town, and people would be playing the song everywhere. Once the word got around that Neverdie had created the song, both my avatar and my girlfriend's avatar became celebrities.
Tell me about your participation in the real cash economy?
I was very much in love with the whole concept of the real cash economy.
When they put this Treasure Island in the auction, I ended up selling everything and doing everything I could to raise enough money to get it. I did it almost entirely with profits that I had accumulated in the game, and I managed to bid $26,000. But I got beat. It was really one of those real historic moments like being in "EverQuest" and killing the first dragon.
I've seen the potential of it all, and I've gone through it, and I learned my lesson, and my lesson was that I can't afford not to do this. I could not afford not to get the space resort. It's too valuable. The guy that bought the Treasure Island recouped his investment in a year.
Where did the $100,000 come from?
Well, probably around $35,000 was accumulated (from the sale of virtual goods from the game) over the course of three years. We have items that are very, very valuable. The rest of the money, I basically refinanced my house. If I bought a property on the beach in Miami, I would just be another guy with a little bit of rental real estate and I probably wouldn't actually see any income for a couple of years. Whereas I'd previously spent $1,000 on a small piece of land, a tiny piece of land inside "Project Entropia," and it was already yielding like $15 a day in revenue, you know, which is like $450 a month.
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any hair brained idea can make money. This is just a case of the
useless capitalizing on the gullible.
Just think what all this energy could do in a real life.
Don't be jealous that someone can think out of the box and earn money in a virtual world while you flip burgers.
In online gaming worlds where the exchange of real world money can be converted into that world?s money (or straight out used) you will see a new paradigm in economics rise. Most people don't see it because they are still tied to the old thoughts of brick & mortar businesses and real properties. But there is a HUGE segment of the world (that's right the WORLD) that game and 'live' virtually in various games and these people are learning more about economy in these worlds (and in general) than any college could ever teach them. Soon they will be earning more money than most of those millionaires that you see in the media.
All you need to do to see where its going is to do a search on eBay for any of the popular MMOGs (World of Warcraft, Everquest, EVE Online, etc.) and see people already earning something of a living off virtual goods. In the case of SOE they even are trying to leverage the market for their own profit. That would say something to anyone with more than a high school education.
There are still purists in many game worlds that hate and fight against the ?farmer? and gold merchants in many of the above worlds. In cases where the game doesn't support or approve of selling in game goods I agree with them. But in those games (Second Life, Project Entropia, ???) where it's "legal" to buy and sell stuff for real world money I see no problem with what he's done. I only wish I had the money and the moxy to do it too.
So in short, you need to get a grip on the coming wave. They are not gullible or useless, these residents of the online worlds. They are the future economic giants, the movers and shakers, of the next era. Not all of them but certainly many of them. To be dismissive is to wallow in your own ignorance.
Why not try a free multiuser 3d space station thats been online for years...no cost, games, chat, more..
www.starbasec3.com
cube3
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by chriskameir
January 19, 2009 4:30 PM PST
- Read why Richard Nixon is the inventor of the virtual economy: http://kameir.com/virtual-economy.html
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