Goldmine in Virtual Reality

The BBC is reporting that a young investor who spent £13,700 worth to buy a virtual island has recouped his expenses and is making a profit after only a few months!

The MMORPG in question is called Project Entropia and is one of a growing number of games which allow the players to trade real money for in-game currency and vice-versa. This is a fascinating economic development; property which technically does not exist has real, true-world value! If anything speaks to the point that humanity has reached a new economic plateau, then this is it. We already knew people were willing to pay for better items and characters in these sort of games, that such things had worth. But this is the first time that I’ve heard of that actual real land speculation (real as in real money has been used) has paid off.

It remains to be seen what kind of profit margins are possible in this type of system, but if it works well then you might see entire corporations springing up that only operate in the context of gaming. This has the possibility of being extremely disruptive (that’s not a bad thing, folks) to other real-world businesses; imagine these virtual corps subsidizing high-speed internet access just so they can get more people into the games and increase the workforce. It may sound silly, but it’s a possibility.

It’s also interesting to note that there’s no real scarcity in these systems, at least insofar as scarcity partains to limited resources. Effectively, rather than relying on goods as a basis of economy (which is what Industrial era economics was based on), this is based on time. Time becomes the most useful resource and the thing by which the value of goods are determined.

People used to think that the road to cyberspace was paved in body suits and heavy headsets. It seems that, like a lot of things, that road is actually paved with money. Virtual money, but money nontheless.