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Real Life Cash Card Launched To Access Your Virtual Money 184

Posted by CmdrTaco from the kinda-wish-this-was-fake dept.
Izeickl writes "The BBC is reporting that "A real world cash card that allows gamers to spend money earned in a virtual universe has been launched. Gamers can use the card at cash machines around the world to convert virtual dollars into real currency. The card is offered by the developers of Project Entropia, an online role-playing game that has a real world cash economy.""
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Real Life Cash Card Launched To Access Your Virtual Money More

Real Life Cash Card Launched To Access Your Virtual Money

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  • Form 1040 VR (Score:4, Informative)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:01PM (#15247841)

    From TFA (emphasis mine):
    Last year $165m passed through the game and the founders of the online Universe expect that to at least double in 2006.
    The new cash card blurs the boundary between the virtual and physical world even further.
    It allows people to access their virtually acquired PEDs and convert them into real world money at any cash machine in the world.
    "We are creating the next level of the online experience," said Mr Welter.
    Well, prepare yourself for the next level after that...taxation of virtual currency [slashdot.org].

    Here's an excerpt of the first comment [slashdot.org] on the above referenced story (again, emphasis mine):
    In the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service will eventually take notice of the phenomena when someone who makes lots of real-world money by selling virtual goods gets audited by an ambitous Revenue Agent. Until then, unless you're actually converting virtual goods into real greenbacks, there's not much to say on the subject.
    That sure was quick.

    Of course, if this comes to pass, it should also work both ways...e.g. I can write off my Second Life costs as 'business expenses'. IANACPA, but I'm sure other, more fiscally talented individuals could take this idea and run with it.

    • Re:Form 1040 VR (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MyLongNickName ( 822545 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:07PM (#15247896) Journal
      I'd expect the real reason notice is being paid is the potential for money laundering. Anyone around the world can "produce" "goods" for sale. A U.S. based person pays a price for the "item". Real money flows overseas.When dealing wth other types of business, it is easy to set a range of expected revenue. What is the "fair market value" for a +15 sword of the undead? Hard to know if something is a legitimate transacation, or a money laundering scheme.

      Expect more scrutiny from homeland security. Expect this to be a recurring theme for the rest of your life.
      • I'd expect the real reason notice is being paid is the potential for money laundering.

        What would be cool, is a virtual underworld that can create real money. Then, I can use my flight simulator and become a virtual smuggler! Of course, I'd have to get the "Drug runner/Smuggler" add-on package for Flight Simulator.

        • What would be cool, is a virtual underworld that can create real money. Then, I can use my flight simulator and become a virtual smuggler! Of course, I'd have to get the "Drug runner/Smuggler" add-on package for Flight Simulator.

          That's awesome! Then I can be a "virtual drug lord", and you can come fly for me.

          Failing that, I can be just some lowly "virtual crackhead" begging for money for my next hit.
        • I'd have to get the "Drug runner/Smuggler" add-on package for Flight Simulator.

          There was an older virtual airline that did just that. I forgot the name. It's based out of Australia. The flights you download have a "co-pilot" that makes you stay low to the ground to avoid radar as you're flying "questionable" carge/people around in mainly a DC-3. If you don't follow his instructions, you'll develop a sudden "headache" from a high speed projectile pointed at you (then the flight ends). No autopilot allowed un

      • Re:Form 1040 VR (Score:5, Interesting)

        by 7macaw ( 933316 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:34PM (#15248174)
        >What is the "fair market value" for a +15 sword of the undead?

        Why, 500 mana crystals, of course! This isn't a new problem, actually -- what's the fair market value of a "The Ybarra 'Don Quixote', 1780 (four volumes)", for example? Son: They're no use to Father, not anymore. His games were his own little world. Now it's just a painful memory. Daughter-in-law: Unbearably painful. Corso picks up a notebook, adjusts his glasses with an instinctive, habitual movement, taps the notebook with his pencil. Corso: Well, at a rough, preliminary estimate, you have a collection here worth around two hundred thousand dollars... See, these little +5 daggers -- they are not particularly valuable, but this +15 sword of the undead I can take off your hands for... 4 thousand dollars

        • >What is the "fair market value" for a +15 sword of the undead?

          Why, 500 mana crystals, of course! This isn't a new problem, actually -- what's the fair market value of a "The Ybarra 'Don Quixote', 1780 (four volumes)", for example?

          The market value of such a book is fairly easily obtained - if you know where to ask. I do, so do many insurance companies, and so does the IRS. (Back when I was one of the persons to ask, I got calls from both.) For any type of property you can think of (real, personal,

      • What is the "fair market value" for a +15 sword of the undead?


        That depends on how many vampires you have lurking in your neighborhood. As far as I know I don't have any, but it would probably look really cool over the mantle.

    • Just put it down as a hobby deduction.... perfectly acceptable and doesn't require a business license, though I'm not sure what if any cap there is on revenue to qualify... just know that if you make potter for fun and someone buys a few for a couple hundred bucks, you can write off that amount of your materials as a deduction. So you could conceivably make a profit, break even but could never take a loss, which is to prevent people from writing off a boat for instance when they only got paid $200 for a day
    • Well I was wondering what the next PR stunt from MindArk was going to be.

      They seem to come up with about two per year.

      If you're thinking about getting involved in this "Virtual Universe", you should know that there are many times more losers than winners. And to make a withdrawel to your bank account is a minimum of $10 US. And it can take up to 90 business days to happen. Not 90 days but 90 days that the banks are open.

      Anyone interested should do a lot of research first.
    • People have been "converting virtual goods into real greenbacks" for a long time, though. Selling your uber-character on eBay is a form of that. Gold farmers selling in-game money for cash is another one (and should concern the IRS more, since that's companies making a profit off of it, not one-off attempts to recoup years of effort). This is just a little more official.

    • Here's an excerpt of the first comment on the above referenced story (again, emphasis mine):

      In the U.S., the Internal Revenue Service will eventually take notice of the phenomena when someone who makes lots of real-world money by selling virtual goods gets audited by an ambitous Revenue Agent. Until then, unless you're actually converting virtual goods into real greenbacks, there's not much to say on the subject.

      Here's a hint - don't get your tax advice from a Slashdot post. (Mostly because you can be

  • I think this answers this question [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org]. When virtual money is real money, it becomes taxable...

  • Wow... (Score:2, Funny)

    by kitsunewarlock ( 971818 )
    This is...just...horrible... The fact people would waste real money to go to a "virtual club" to waste time in a game that could be spent doing stuff like hunting animals for real money (another enjoyable experience of the game) is just...sad...
    • Tell that to the guy who bought the digital space hotel and is currently renting out suites. You purchase physical items and services to either survive (food/clothing/shelter) or to improve your quality of life. Seeing that we can't yet feed off of clock cycles, you're simply purchasing improvements to your QoL in these digital situations. The major difference being that you can, with relative ease, profit from those improvements. I made a fortune from Diablo II, and I was enjoying what I did in the pr
  • The founding company, MindArk, makes money because all of the tools used by characters in the game have a finite life and need to be repaired.

    At last, software that really wears out.

    • Amen.

      I don't understand economics - at all - but something about this makes me very nervous. Especially when there are six-figure sums involved.

    • Re:One word: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by mdielmann ( 514750 )
      Well, there are three things required to make it work. First, tie it to a real currency. Check. Second, don't allow things to be bought by NPCs (basically by the game owner) at anything near market value - think bankruptcy rates. I don't know about that second part. Third, don't allow exploits to sit around uncorrected. Their agreement seems to indicate some level of seriousness about that.

      But think about it. What does iTunes sell? Ultimately, musicians' time and bandwidth. And they're making good

  • The future is NOW. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Godeke ( 32895 ) * on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:10PM (#15247937)
    I find it amusing that sometimes last year I argued that virtual assets were still assets and the guy who refused to accept that virtual assets were anything at all said "as soon as I can buy my groceries with virtual assets, I will believe you."

    Time to start that grocery trip, it appears.

  • I am curious... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by RobOz ( 972371 )
    How would MindArk go about doing this? Would they need to ride the Visa or Mastercard network? I have seen co-branded Visa or Mastercard cards, but not something like this.
    • This is no different than a gift card, only the currency is generated somehow online.

      Now, if there's ever a game to crack, this is the one because the bad guy makes real money.

      The unintended effect is creating a dual currency system. Though national regulations may/may not explicitely forbid this, you will find Treasuries the world over putting a stop to this.

      It will make what happened to Napster a proverbial walk in the park.

  • Now we are all in trouble! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anon-Admin ( 443764 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:11PM (#15247948) Journal
    So let me get this right, real money and game money are interchangeable.

    So you knock up your virtual girl friend, she gets pregnant and has a kid, costing you $25,000 real dollars for a virtual hospital, virtual delivery room, and virtual doctors. Then they slowly drain your bank with virtual housing, virtual food, virtual birth days, virtual college, etc. Pretty soon you are broke, mowing your virtual lawn, around your virtual house and listening to the virtual wife bi*ch at you about what a looser you are. All the time sitting in your real apartment with no money because it virtually vanished right before your eyes.
  • From TFA:
    "We're bridging the gap between virtual reality and reality right now," said Jan Welter, founder of Project Entropia.

    What's the point in creating a virtual world and the trying to make it into reality? I thought the whole point of a virtual world was escapism. Online game Second Life already has developed a notary for verifying contracts, and that means that it won't be too long before virtual lawyers rear their ugly heads. Why bother escaping to world that has all the bad parts of reality?

    What's next, getting virtual parking tickets or stepping in virtual dog poo? People are sucking the fun out of virtual environments (and I don't mean that in the virtual whore kind of way).
    • No, I think this is for people who /do/ want lives... just not their own. It's pretty sad really, yeah it's tough to build a life in the real world, but it pays off so many more times than a fake life can do.

      It seems, more than anything, a place to stash cash, an "off shore" type account. Just wait til someone disapears with a load of peoples money because they're not held by banking regulations or anything.

      Seems dangerious on so many counts.

    • What's the point in creating a virtual world and the trying to make it into reality? I thought the whole point of a virtual world was escapism. Online game Second Life already has developed a notary for verifying contracts, and that means that it won't be too long before virtual lawyers rear their ugly heads. Why bother escaping to world that has all the bad parts of reality?

      An associate is working in a highly ranked financial institution in London - dealing with commodity trading. We were talking the other
    • Your looks != your avatar's looks
      Also, your sex... you get the idea.
    • Why do we try to add real life to games.

      You say it is a pest. Well I am sure that real world snipers find it a pest that they got to account for wind, distance, differences in elevation etc etc. Yet do we prefer a game that attempts to simulate these OR do we prefer games were the bullet arrives instantly at the target in a straight line?

      The anwer? Depends on the game.

      Offcourse the bullet still ain't real and neither are the consequences. Were as spending real cash on speculation in a game can have some

    • Allow Me To Clarify (Score:5, Insightful)

      by umbrellasd ( 876984 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @03:33PM (#15248728)
      The point of tying virtual economies to real ones is that the truth will out. And the truth is that 99% of what people do in the real world and get paid for is a pointless waste of time. There are certainly people out there that are really do things, but for every such person there are 10 freeloaders pulling down an enormous salary to fuck around.

      Now we just see some honesty. Playing WoW 24/7 is a pointless waste of time, and the more people you have that agree on a particular waste of time as meaningful, the more currency. Currency = current interest of society. Why not have real compensation for people frittering away hours on an entertaining diversion? I've seen the same thing every day for years in the workplace.

      If you are a working chap like myself, head down to a mall some day during business hours and just sit and watch for a couple hours and marvel at the efficiency with which we line consumerbot pockets. Some fellow is sitting at his 9-5 job watching the clock tic-toc while 1 to 5 other people are out mindlessly pouring the earnings back into the feedback loop.

      And around and around it goes.

      Having been the 9-5 tic-toc guy (post-college), one of his consumerbots (pre and during college), and a mindless gamer (all along), I can say, they're all the same hat. Without legislation, an unregulated virtual economy will ultimately find balance with the real economies because it is always a balance of time for money. If you have a working bloke that would invest 36 hours to get Cruel Hammer of +Infinity^2 Ass Kicking--and he can do that because the real economy lined his pocket with enough money that he can piss away 36 leisure hours on a collection of bits off in the ether--and there's no obstacle to him instead spending 2 hours of his salary to get it, well he's not an idiot and he's probably and addict so it's just simple numbers. Lower cost and faster gratification = that hammer is worth real money because I'd spend real time to get it.

      We spend money on things we want. If they are scarce (because of supply or because of the high cost in time to obtain) we pay more. The more addicted people are to virtual worlds, the closer in parity virtual goods will come to real goods. If you spend more than 50% of your time in a virtual world, it is your real world or it would be, if only you could pay your bills there.

      Well someday you probably can. Some people do now.

      Honestly, I think virtual worlds will set us free and give us the strongest dose of reality check we've ever experienced. After a while you notice that you are valuing utterly imaginary things above actual real things and then you start thinking, "Well, Jesus. What is the value of real things? Maybe the 'real' things in my life aren't even real. Maybe the real things I bought are just as hollow as so many bits on the ether. Maybe that's a problem that I should address."

      Or maybe it won't turn out that way for most. My perspective: there's as much virtual crap at the local shopping mall as there is in the Flavor of the Year online game. It's all the same hat.

      • Not really on topic, but I happened to be listening to "The suits are picking up the bill" by Squirrel Nut Zippers while reading your post. And it went.. well.
    • Games aren't always about escaping reality - in fact, they are often about experiencing some OTHER reality, which may very well have some very definite similarities to "our" reality. :)

  • This is what the future will be like: (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:14PM (#15247981)
    1000 years from now. A customer inquires of a merchant:

    Customer: Do you take visa?

    Merchant: Visa hasn't existed for 900 years.

    Customer: Do you take American Express?

    Merchant: American Express hasn't existed for 750 years.

    Customer: Do you take Entropia?

    Merchant: We don't take Entropia.

  • Is this legal in the US ? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sfjoe ( 470510 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:16PM (#15248002)


    I know very little about this subject. However, I was under the impression that only the US Federal Reserve had the authority and responsibility to coin (or print) money. How is it they can do this?

    • Nope. The US Federal Reserve has the monopoly on issuing US DOLLARS. Not the monopoly on money.

      Money is actually just a commodity. Bought and sold like everything else. That's why there are exchange rates. Exchange rates tell you how much the Euro/Yen/whatever is "worth" in USD. And vice versa.

      Now, if they printed greenbacks and issued their money as USD, they'd get into serious trouble. What they do, though, is by no means different than what every country does: Printing its own money.

      Actually, you could g
      • The US Federal Reserve is the only US entity legally allowed to create any sort of currency. You're *not* allow to create your own money and attempt to get others to take your currency seriously. It seems to be OK if you don't create physical currency, however. IANAL, so I'm not sure what the distinction is.

        There are quite a few retirement communities with "work-hour" based local currencies, but those only exist as journal entries, much like WoW gold. Also Visa and Paypal each created what is effectivel

    • Re:Is this legal in the US ? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by meringuoid ( 568297 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @03:05PM (#15248462)
      However, I was under the impression that only the US Federal Reserve had the authority and responsibility to coin (or print) money. How is it they can do this?

      To issue money which will be legal tender in the US - i.e. which a creditor legally has to accept in payment of debts - you need to be the US Federal Reserve. But the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank all issue currencies which are not dollars, are not legal tender within the USA, but which will surely be recognised by Americans as having value.

      In general, to issue money, you don't need to be a government. You just need to be a bank. If I want to start my own currency, I might gather together a huge pile of gold, and issue vouchers good for exchange for One Gram of Gold at the Bank of Meringuoid. If my promise is good, then those vouchers are as good as gold, and are effectively money.

      If I'm running an online game, I am issuing in-game currency for use by the fighters and rogues and mages who populate my world. What value has this currency? It can be exchanged for powerful weapons and tough armour and spells of mighty devastation, which are greatly prized by players of my game. Useless in the real world, but no more irrational than traditional money - I mean, what bloody use is a great big heap of heavy yellow metal?

      Once virtual money, backed by the notional value created by the players of the game in which it exists, becomes freely convertible at market rates into real money, backed by the notional value created by the people of the country in which it exists... then why NOT issue a charge-card? It's no different in concept from buying goods in Ireland on my British bank card. The currency conversion is handled by the bank, which debits my account of pounds, pays the vendor in euros, and takes a commission for the service. Why shouldn't they take it from my account on World of Warcraft instead?

      • It's specifically illegal for a bank to print its own money in the US. The Fed doesn't like competition, though the law pre-dates the Fed. US Banknotes (IIRC - the blackbacks that predated the Federal Reserve Notes, or greenbacks) replaced bank-issued notes (and Texas notes) by force of law.
        • Well, I have to correct myself - a bank can print its own currency, but only under license from the Fed, which these days amounts to the same thing. Also, there have been any number of notes called "greenbacks", the "Federal Reserve Bank Notes", which predated "Federal Reserve Notes", are distinctively less green than other US currency, though the artwork is familiar.
        • It's specifically illegal for a bank to print its own money in the US.

          I wonder how American Express gets away with its travelers' checks then. Maybe it's the signatures? They're effectively cash, though up to the recipient to honor them.

          • I wonder how American Express gets away with its travelers' checks then. Maybe it's the signatures? They're effectively cash, though up to the recipient to honor them.

            Not really, they're just checks. Sure, they're not like personal checks because they'll never bounce, but they're like cashiers checks or money orders. The thing that makes traveler's checks (American Express or otherwise) not cash is that if I pay you with a traveler's check, you can't just bring that check to store and use it to pay for some

      • In general, to issue money, you don't need to be a government. You just need to be a bank. If I want to start my own currency, I might gather together a huge pile of gold, and issue vouchers good for exchange for One Gram of Gold at the Bank of Meringuoid. If my promise is good, then those vouchers are as good as gold, and are effectively money.

        You don't even need to be a bank. You don't even need piles of gold.

        All you need is some pieces of paper [google.com].

        • No, but you have to be able to convince people that the money you're printing has value and it's a lot easier to do this if you have something to back it (Gold, silver, a copy of the Beatles' "Yesterday and Today" with the butcher cover, etc.). You're right it's not necessary though, most currency used in the world is not backed.
    • The virtual money is not actually legal tender anywhere but in the game. It is not guaranteed to be worth anything by the Federal Reserve, but by the game publisher. They agree that they will pay you X dollars for Y game dollars, but if they go under, you're fucked.
      • By the way, I have a Entropia bridge for sale. No really I do. It goes up for auction on ebay next week. God P.T. Barnum would have loved this. Next up: ebay auctions for Entropia dollars.
    • However, I was under the impression that only the US Federal Reserve had the authority and responsibility to coin (or print) money.

      Easily relevant sections of the US Constitution and amendments:

      The Congress shall have Power [...] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; [...] To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securiti

  • makes you wonder (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Burlap ( 615181 )
    where did he get $100,000?

    can you imagine the look on the loan officers face when you tell her you want to borrow 100 grad to buy a virtual space station in a computer game to turn it into a night club?
    • Can you imagine the look on the loan officers face when you tell her you want to borrow 100 grad to buy a virtual space station in a computer game to turn it into a night club?

      5 years ago they called them websites and you went to venture capitalists to get the funds. They seemed to be more than happy to fund stuff like that a little while ago.

  • Already been done ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by operagost ( 62405 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:19PM (#15248035) Homepage Journal
    We already have fantasy worlds where one plays games for funny money and cashes it in for real money-- it's called a casino! And most of the women are actually female! And attractive!
    • And most of the women are actually female! And attractive!

      And old. Very, very old .
    • A real casino? No way. I don't play any games online (anymore), but I know that I would find casino games terribly *boring* in relation to online role playing games. Of course, if you look at the online casino's, many other people think different.

  • Here's a bet nobody will hold (Score:3, Funny)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:20PM (#15248051)
    I bet it doesn't take a day before the first virtual hooker offers his (yes, HIS. NO matter what sex the avatar has) service.
    • Actually, Project: Entropia already had an attempt at a call girl/escort service, way back around 2001 or so. It never got off of the ground because the parent company running the game, MindArk, refused to allow them to implement their idea. For what it's worth, the name of their group was the L.O.V.E. Society.

      There's probably only a handful of people left in the world who know about that particular bit of history from Project: Entropia.
  • Entropia: Licensed software that's a license to print money.

  • PR Stunt (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zerosignal ( 222614 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:25PM (#15248103) Homepage Journal
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Entropia [wikipedia.org]
    "On 24 October 2005, an 'Asteroid Space Resort' was bought by "Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs" for a sum of 1,000,000 PED (100,000 US Dollars), greatly surpassing Treasure Island. According to a Digital hollywood Bio, Jon Jacobs is the U.S. Spokesperson for Project Entropia, where his functions include US strategic relations as well as, business development, marketing and content acquisition. He is also the writer and producer of a song played within the Project Entropia Universe called "Gamer Chick". The Asteroid was named Club NEVERDIE after Jacobs's own in game Avatar and has made headlines around the world for the high price of the purchase and his own ambitious plans to turn the resort into a venue for "Live Entertainment in Virtual Reality"."

  • Uhhhh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Reality Master 101 ( 179095 ) <RealityMaster101 ... NBSDom minus bsd> on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:26PM (#15248111) Homepage Journal
    A real world cash card that allows gamers to spend money earned in a virtual universe has been launched. Gamers can use the card at cash machines around the world to convert virtual dollars into real currency.

    Er, forgive my leap to conclusions here, but isn't this basically gambling?

    "Yeah, I converted my cash into this 'virtual money' they call 'chips'. It's fabulous, this place called a 'casino' has its own virtual economy! I can go to different parts and perform 'business transactions' that can make me virtual money (or lose virtual money, of course). Then, I can convert my virtual money back into real money! It's amazing!"

    • Re:Uhhhh (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 )
      Sort of... but the stock market is sort of gambling too then.

      The difference is that in mmorgs, if you put in enough time, you will produce a certain amount of "product" that you can sell. The value of that product is related to the amount of time you spend.

      The reason the "+5 Uber Sword" is worth $700 is because it takes 20 hours of work/playing to get one AND there is a matching lawyer/doctor/rich person who says, "Wow- I only have to spend two hours of my income to get an item taht would take me 20 hours
    • Er, forgive my leap to conclusions here, but isn't this basically gambling?

      For fuck's sake SHUT UP.

      When you log on to a MMORPG you are putting at stake your character and all his equipment. You may, by skill and luck, gain levels and acquire better equipment, and increase the value of your character, or you may suffer the misfortune of being devoured by a terrible dragon and have to start afresh (or at least be considerably set back - depends on local rules.)

      The moment MMORPG characters and equipment

    • Er, forgive my leap to conclusions here, but isn't this basically gambling?

      It depends on how you define the word gambling. Going by the dictionary, a gamble would be betting on an uncertain outcome, but often people reserve "gamble" for something that relies purely on chance. For instance, some people might refer to investing in the stock market as gambling because the outcome is uncertain, but many people would abstain from referring to it as such because the outcome is, at least partly, controlled by ski

  • WOW! People are in debt enough without having to worry about virtual debt.

    Just think about it, the dot com bubble burst because of companies with over valued stock failed to ever produce a real profit. A lot of people lost jobs and a lot of money - but the stock market, at least in the USA, has an aura of risk around it. Most people who play the stock market know the risks (granted, not all).

    In this however, I can see total idiots losing everything they own - kind of like how people spend life savings
    • Nevermind the potential for GM/Corporate Fraud - Unlike 'real' world property, the virtual world property is under the jurisdiction of the company you're buying access from - how much do YOU trust the folks running WOW to play fair?

      The only other solution is government regulations to virutal game rules and that should alternately make your head spin and cause you to retch.

      Yuck.
  • well. At least it removes the Middleman for the Gold farmers.

    That is, if you can even farm in this game...

  • Virtual goods feel like stock/property (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @02:33PM (#15248161)
    They change in value over time.

    So if you have the "uber rare sword +5" which is worth $20,000, then could the government charge you property tax? Then can you take a loss if the game closes (and as a result the item becomes worthless)?

    Part of the reason these items can take these values is because taxes are not included in the transactions. Add back in taxes and the prices will drop.
  • On the one hand, all major currency is virtual nowadays unless you are bartering with gold or jewels or something. The paper and base metals in your pockets are not worth what's printed on them, in and of themselves.

    On the other hand, at least in the US, only the government can create legal tender currency out of nothing. (Or so I bvelieve, and IANAL.) Casinos have to fill in the right forms / get friendly with the right lawmakers or mobsters / jump through a zillion hoops in order to be able to maintain

  • For Project entropia Item duplication (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02, 2006 @03:17PM (#15248577)
    For Project entropia Item duplication :
    Project-entropia is a very glitchy game, there are many ways to Glitch in this game, simply editing the registry.
    1. go to start, run and type in regedit
    2. press ctrl+f and find somthing called pema.reg
    3. Open and log on into Project-Entropia.
    4. get any item and go to a trade terminal and put it in like you are going to sell it.
    5.Minimize project-entropia and and edit pema.reg and change the Vaule code to 82.617.
    6. close Project entropia and log on again. there should be two copys of the item in your Inventory. Good luck and have a good time getting rich :)
  • Will a new set of laws need to be created to cover hacking online currency? It's kind of a grey area -- what is the economic impact of diluting virtual currency that has an exchange rate in the real world? Doesn't seem like it'd fit into the 'normal' counterfeiting mold.
  • In My Humble Opinion....I would guess that one's undocumented day laborers might not be able to get a bank account but they could get a Project Entropia account. The key to all this is that direct transfers between parties do not occur and instead go through the PED intermediary currency which obscures who is paying whom and is the cause of all the mischief.

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Heard that the next Space Shuttle is supposed to carry several Guernsey cows? It's gonna be the herd shot 'round the world.

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