Real cash for virtual goods

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and you can do something with it. Creativity and intellect wants to be expressed in some form of currency."

Rosedale's approach has paid off, with "Second Life" amassing a community of 20,000 players in a little more than a year and generating $150,000 to $200,000 in real-world transactions per month.

Players have created a huge variety of economic activities, from running tattoo parlors to hosting "Dark Life," a role-playing game within a game.

"Having a fluid economy allows an enormous number of different styles of game play," Rosedale said. "We even have philanthropy--people giving away land to people with good ideas."

Showing some skins
Chip Matthews, an artist and animator from Germantown, Md., had played other online games, but was intrigued by "Second Life" for the chance to use his real-world skills in Photoshop and other graphics tools rather than manufactured skills in monster-whacking.

He's now one of the game's leading sellers of "skins," files that allow players to customize the basic appearance of their character. He makes up to $2,000 a month selling skins.

"I still think of it more as a hobby than a second career, but it's good to have it be a self-sustaining hobby," Matthews said. "And it's great to be in an environment where people are commenting on my work all the time. That doesn't happen much with my day job."

Matthews said that while he's explored numerous aspects of the "Second Life," creative and mercantile pursuits have always been his main interest. "I've never really thought of it as a game," he said. "To me, it's kind of place for creative people to show off to each other. I tend to think of 'Second Life' as a bit more of a craft fair--you go around and see what all the artisans are offering."

Keeping those economic activities running smoothly is partly up to Rosedale, who tweaks variables such as commodity pricing to help provide a balanced environment for old and new players and a stable currency.

Surpassing $1 million
"Having a prudent economic policy based on the same principals that made Western countries successful is very important," he said. "That means I sometimes have to make some Alan Greenspan-ish announcements."

Among those benefiting from Rosedale's economic stewardship is Jamie Hale, president of Gaming Open Market, which brokers exchange of in-game currency and real money. The site used to conduct gray-market trades for games such as "The Sims Online," but now deals in "Second Life" money exclusively, partly so Hale can sleep better.

"It really is sort of gray market, and we didn't like the risk," he said. "If the publishers ever got annoyed at us, they could wipe out the assets of all our clients and cancel the deals, and we'd be wrecked."

The site recently surpassed $1 million in total "Second Life" transactions, a level of activity mainstream game publishers will find increasingly hard to ignore, Hale said.

"We want to build the model, prove that it works and then approach the other game companies," he said. "We offer trade stability, we offer trade security, and they need to realize trade is going to happen one way or another as soon as you create a scarcity of goods."

[Prndll]

Real cash for virtual goods....

This is what it is actually about with ANYTHING regarding the internet.
>MP3 is a virtual good
>mpeg and avi are virtual goods
>porn is a virtual good
>just having an OS or having net access is a virtual good

so....what's new?

[wonky27]

Hmm

it's actually very similar in my opinion--for reasons similar to those that shut napster down, publishers don't want gamers freely trading their assets.

[Prndll]

Real cash for virtual goods....

This is what it is actually about with ANYTHING regarding the internet.
>MP3 is a virtual good
>mpeg and avi are virtual goods
>porn is a virtual good
>just having an OS or having net access is a virtual good

so....what's new?

[wonky27]

Hmm

it's actually very similar in my opinion--for reasons similar to those that shut napster down, publishers don't want gamers freely trading their assets.