GTAIO has sent you a message from Maximum PC

Reposted from Maximum PC
South Korea Rules Virtual Currency is as Good as Cash by opulent_rigs The global market for virtual goods is already worth billions of dollars annually. In fact, several small countries around the world have smaller GDPs than the total worth of the virtual economy. But there are very few laws to regulate virtual commerce in its infancy. At this stage, it is only fair to expect the courts and lawmakers to only tackle issues related to virtual trade as and when they appear before them. Click here to read more

Second Life citizens spend $1 billion in first life cash

[reposted from Joystiq]

Industry Gamers reports that Linden Lab, developer of Second Life, has announced that citizens of the virtual world have exchanged over $1 billion in digital goods and services with one another. Furthermore, said citizens have also logged over one billion hours of their first lives in Second Life. The creators elaborated that the game currently has "the largest virtual economy in the industry" generating $50 million per month in user-to-user transactions.

Linden Lab drops some other Second Life statistics, including the fact that over 250,000 virtual goods are created every day, 1,250 text messages are sent every second and that the world now occupies 2 billion square meters of virtual land. According to Linden Lab, that's roughly the size of Rhode Island.

It's not stopping there either, as CEO Mark Kingdon notes that the company is "positioned for reinvigorating [its] growth in 2010 with a range of strategic initiatives that will enhance the experience for existing Residents and propel [its] expansion with new users." We're not sure exactly what's planned for Second Life, though we hear cataclysms are all the rage these days.

Second Life citizens spend $1 billion in first life cash originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see their terms for use of feeds.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/23/second-life-citizens-spend-1-billion-in-first-life-cash/

--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com

Google Looking To Challenge Gaming's "Corporate Mentality"

Right now, Google Lively is a Second Life clone. And an unremarkable one at that. But that's now. In the future, they want it to be much, much more. Google's Kevin Hanna has told GI.biz that it's hoped that, somewhere down the line, Google Lively can become an "online games platform", in which people can just switch on a PC and enter a "creative space". And, once there, get away from what Hanna describes is a "corporate mentality" that's "sucking the life out of what should be the most creative and innovative medium out there". Basically, something like LittleBigPlanet or XNA. But courtesy of Google's corporate mentality. As opposed to Sony's or Microsoft's corporate mentality.

Google Lively to become online games platform [GI.biz]

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/406266752/google-looking-to-challenge-gamings-corporate-mentality

--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com

Casual MMOGs Money Stats

[from Kotaku]

Lightspeed, a venture capital firm, checked out the average revenue per user for some casual, free to play MMOGs (Club Penguin, Habbo Hotel, Runescape, and Second Life), establishing that other that SL - which pulls in a little over $9 a month in ARPU, thanks mostly to virtual land upkeep - these sorts of casual MMOGs pull in around $1.25 ARPU per month. Which, until one considers the user bases of games like Club Penguin, seems like a damn hard way to make some money:

Second Life: $9.30/mthly user/mth
Club Penguin: $1.62/mthly user/mth
Habbo: $1.30/mthly user/mth
Runescape: $0.84/mthly user/mth

Having spoken to many other MMOGs and virtual worlds on a private basis, this estimate seems to be a good gauge for what a well performing MMOG can aspire to from a free to play business model.

Left out are a number of other popular MMOGs like MapleStory; I'd be curious to see firmer statistics for a wider spread of games, though the comments section does include some speculative numbers for a few other games.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/kotaku/full/~3/311919656/how-casual-mmogs-are-making-money

--
This article was sent using my Viigo.
For a free download, go to http://getviigo.com

Gangstaconomy

Continuing our thought experiment about an economic system fit for a GTA-like MMORPG, I'd like first to explore one of the possible sources of money in the game.

1. Selling Items
Rather than a medieval-like town/store/craftsmen approach to turning in items for cash, I expect pawn shops, fences and players to be involved in the exchange of items for cash.
The pawn shop can mirror the real-world model by giving a claim ticket for the player to use later when they are at more of a cash advantage in order to recover their item. This would be especially useful if the use of some items are skill or level-based so that a newbie can get some working capital until they're ready to use the item. Pawn shops will pay the "street" price for the item which may be higher or lower than it's "listed" value subject to variables like which town you are in or even which game world you are in - tied to the supply and demand of the item in that specific environment.
Fences could be NPCs or maybe even a player class. They would try to give the least possible amount for your item - maybe with some "negotiating" taking place during the sale transaction - and you wouldn't be able to get it back like from the pawn shop. But maybe, as opposed to the pawn shop, selling to the fence makes the item untraceable back to you,which is convenient if you are cashing in a stolen item that is marked with the original owner's ID. Keeping rival gangs off your trail should have some value in this kind of gaming environment.
Player-to-player selling would probably take place through the usual item exchange window. Maybe there are player skills that allow you to remove identification from objects so they don't trace back to you. If you are familiar with Second Life you will recall that in-game objects there have properties related to creator, ownership and the ability to give the item to someone so this would be relevant here as well.

Next topic - Payment for services