Real Life Cash Card Launched To Access Your Virtual Money

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.""

Re:Form 1040 VR

[MyLongNickName]

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 am curious...

[RobOz]

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.

makes you wonder

[Burlap]

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?

Re:That makes me uneasy

[smooth wombat]

How can people spend money like that?

How can people spend money on multiple pcs? Or getting the newest video card every 6 months. Or buying the latest fashion item, wearing it 3 times then repeating the process. How about buying 20 different jewel-encrusted watches?

While I understand what you're getting at the fact remains that people will spend their money as they see fit regardless of what you or I believe might be a better way. Put another way: People will do what they do because that's what people do.

PR Stunt

[zerosignal]

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"."

Virtual goods feel like stock/property

[Maxo-Texas]

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.

Re:Form 1040 VR

[7macaw]

>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

Re:Uhhhh

[Maxo-Texas]

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 to get in the game."

OTH, except for maybe poker, the more time you spend gambling, the less money you have.

Re:That makes me uneasy

[smooth wombat]

Bingo. I feel the same way. I don't need all those things. I just need enough to make me comfortable. I go for the 'Quality over Quantity' motto.

I went mortgage shopping two weeks ago and in talking to one of the loan officers I met with I told her how after I put the 20% down on the house I would be doing the 1/12 extra payment per month to speed up paying off my loan. I told her I hate debt. She remarked I probably had no credit card debt and paid it off every month to which I replied, "I think I have $70 on it right now."

She chuckled and said she wished she had that kind of discipline.

I've always hated owing people money and have always paid off my loans early or put off buying large items until I had the cash to cover it. Going into debt up to ones eyeballs has never made sense to me. But I guess people are taking cues from the way the country is run.

Re:Is this legal in the US ?

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.libertydollar.org/ [libertydollar.org] is an org that prints and produces "real Money in the US as an alternitive to the Treasury bills.

Next PR Stunt from MindArk

[RealBothersome]

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.

Re:For Project entropia Item duplication

[Wes Janson]

Note: parent is a troll, and attempting to do the above will not possibly work. Furthermore, if MA learned what you were up to, they'd probably ban your account. Mod parent down.

Re:For Project entropia Item duplication

[burnsey]

Some facts about Entropia Universe, formerly Project Entropia Each item ingame has a unique ID to prevent duplication. Items ingame sell for thousands of dollars. The best gun ingame 8-9k USD. The best medical kit ingame 13-15k dollars. There are item tracking sites that track values of items like stocks like www.mytwopecs.com You can own real estate, and tax other players for using it for hunting or mining. Recently three estates sold for 10-20,000 dollars each. You can make between 10-100 dollars a day if not more on these lands. Your virtual items are not owned by the avatars. You basically just have the right to use them. Everything is owned by the company and they retain the right to close your account for any reason at any time. Virtual Theft is a problem in game where trust and defrauded scams have led to many people loosing 3,000-8,000 dollars if not more. There also have been hacked accounts where user's accounts have been emptied of many thousands of dollars worth of items.

Re:Already been done ...

[metlin]

Actually, other than Vegas or Atlantic City, most casinos have older people, rather than younger.

Take any smaller casino in and around your state and go visit - you'd be surprised at the number of older people you'd find.