Second Life MMO To Let Players Make Money In-Game 41
Thanks to Terra Nova for its post revealing that MMO 'virtual world' Second Life will allow virtual money made in-game to be converted to real cash, as part of a complicated new scheme which reduces subscription fees for many, but makes players pay for the amount of virtual land they rent. The post explains: "Anyone who pays [the monthly subscription] fee can now use the object-creation tools within the world to make content... charge Linden dollars for that content, and eventually turn some of those virtual dollars into real ones through a cash Developer Incentive program." The official announcement and discussion follow-up have more information on changes for this MMO, which recently announced it recognizes the IP of objects created in its virtual world.
Wouldn't it be weird... (Score:4, Interesting)
Put your money in (Score:4, Funny)
Put your money in and you shake it all about
Go to the pokey for gambling online.
That's what it's all about.
Anyone played it? (Score:1)
I got into EQ for a while but this just seems like a simulation of real life.. a bit much for my tastes.
Re:Anyone played it? (Score:1)
Re:Anyone played it? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Anyone played it? (Score:1)
This is an amazingly great concept.... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:This is an amazingly great concept.... (Score:3, Interesting)
The market EQ stuff is small, nay tiny, because it consists of those willing to pay beyond the monthly fee. In other words, other EQ junkies.
In contrast, Linden Labs is passing Second Labs revenue on to content creators without any additional cost the average users. This dramatically increases the market for the creations. To the point of being incomparable with EQ.
Not mention, as many times in previous stories, Second Lifers are real content creators, not just stat pushers.
Anm
Re:This is an amazingly great concept.... (Score:1)
You know Yantis [mysupersales.com]?
Re:This is an amazingly great concept.... (Score:2)
Pay your money, take your chances (Score:3, Interesting)
Funny. Considering how poorly and how contentious "IP" concerns are in the real-world, can anyone really expect a game company to do a better job? Doesn't this just sound like yet another reason for kids to get hold of credit cards, legally or not?
Will be interesting to see how this evolves.
Re:Pay your money, take your chances (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not saying that kids are too dumb for this; I'm saying that the kids which Second Life would appeal too probably aren't the type to steal a credit card. This is just a guess though based on the fact that when I was a kid I would've loved to play this. And I wouldn't have stolen a credit card :-)
Silly (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Silly (Score:4, Insightful)
The real question is weather this game is worth paying for in the first place.
Re:Silly (Score:5, Insightful)
In a sense, the land might be infinite, but the player presense to make it profitable might not be.
Re:Silly (Score:2)
Re:Silly (Score:2)
To add more land, they have to add more servers. To add more servers costs real money.
At least this business model makes more since, as it ties their income to their costs more directly and will allow the world to grow more quickly with demand.
Re:Silly (Score:1)
You play the game. You earn your Lindenbucks. You buy land. Your subscription rate is based on how much land you own. If you think of it more like varying website hosting plans (disk space/bandwidth/etc) then it makes more sense.
Just to clear it up: Your subscription rate depends on how much land you own (how much of the server resources you use), you cannot yet buy land with real money.
MMOG.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MMOG.... (Score:2)
You can be anything you want in there. There's a bunch of strippers and even a prostitute =)
Re:MMOG.... (Score:1)
Re:MMOG.... (Score:2)
A furture to come? (Score:3, Interesting)
Im not sure exactly what happens when you sell an item you create. Do you sell the item you create? Who keeps the copyright? Or do you sell a copy? Just licencing the item. What happens to the economic system if an item can be instantly duplicated?
Some of that applies to the sale of music and movies in the real world.
Re:A furture to come? (Score:3, Interesting)
For example, I can sell a wall clock that's an original piece and cannot be copied, or I can sell a chair that can be copied and modified.
Unfortunately there's no way to impose the GPL on SecondLife objects yet :-)
Re:A furture to come? (Score:2)
Correction: There's no in-game code to enforce the GPL yet. You can make an object, add a notecard with the GPL on it, and make everything free to copy, and you've got a GPL'd object.
Re:A furture to come? (Score:2)
Re:A furture to come? (Score:2)
[modifyable by the user who currently owns the object:]
* Allow anyone to move object
* Allow anyone to freely copy this object
* Sell *this* copy of this item for n amount of currency
* Sell a copy of this item for n amount of currency
* Next owner can modify
* Next owner can copy
* Next owner can sell or give the item away
[unmodifyable by the user who currently owns the object:]
* Current Owner can modify this object
* Current Owner can copy this object
* Current Own
Interesting taxation issues... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Interesting taxation issues... (Score:1)
The more interesting question to me is what happens to the casinos in Second Life. There are a few, somewhat popular, and a Bingo game which gets lots of traffic. If L$ can be changed into US$ that easily, won't the casino games eventually be shut down? It seems that way to me, and that's disappointing.
Re:Interesting taxation issues... (Score:2)
I don't know if this little fact will spare them the potential problems or not though...
Re:Interesting taxation issues... (Score:2)
If you want to convert your L$ directly to US$, you need to use eBay or the Gaming Open Market.
RTFA? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think thats an awesome idea, and I hope more MMORPGs include something similar. It seems like a great way to reward players and remove built up currency...
Re:RTFA? (Score:2)
The more interesting part of the changes I think is the lowered entry barrier for casual users:
"Starting a Second Life no longer means committing to a monthly charge - new Residents can get started with a one-time fee of just $9.95. With no recurring bills, it's a perfect
Re:RTFA? (Score:2)
They really are 2nd (Score:1, Informative)
Tough I Was one of the lucky ones. In the end, it's the house that always wins
SL (Score:1)
1) pay $x fee
2) you make content
3) you sell stuff
4) you get real $y
5) you $(x-y) fee (minimum is there)
6) goto 1
definatly something i've been looking into, i'll grab it when i get a CC and some time after the first of the year
Won't Fly (Score:3, Insightful)
You build the game first, and then the player economy grows on top of it. You can't build the economy first. You need to start with a fun game, that people enjoy playing. Once you have that, then they will start thinking about "making money on the side". Additionally, you need a large player base to support the market of virtual goods. Building neat stuff is all well and good, but you need people who want to purchase it. Megadeth said it best, "Peace Sells (but who's buying?)"
Building the mechanism into the game is novel, but encouraging producers and trade is only part of the equation. Consumers play just as an important role!
Anyway, I didn't bother to RTFA, but it looks like this is a gimmic. Trade and sale of virtual goods is verboten in most MMORPG's, but unenforced. You can go to Ebay and sell 100 Million Earth and Beyond Credits or 20 Million Platinum Pieces on any Everquest server, and get real US currency in return. Like, the kind you can spend on things. Not some "subscription discount". Screw that. I want cash for my hard in-game toils!
game? (Score:1)
so you have to PAY these dudes so that you can WORK?....
where does the word GAME kick in?...
aka!/.,.,