AnimeSuki Forums

deadplayer · 2010-02-08, 03:35

Source: Player Purchased a Virtual Egg for $69,696.00 USD

Quote:

Can you believe that? A virtual Egg can be sold for a stunning $69,696.00 USD. It just happened in Planet Calypso, a MMOG that used to announce the sale of a Space Station for $330,000. Sequence of the Egg sale is as follow:

Jon "NEVERDIE" Jacobs held a public auction Sunday, inside Planet Calypso, and sold the Virtual Egg to David Storey aka Deathifier. Deathifier owns "Treasure Island" in the game, a tax generating Virtual World Destination. NEVERDIE purchased the Virtual Egg for $10,000 USD in 2006 from a gamer who completed a unique quest. The Final Chapter in the Egg's History has yet to be written as thousands of players speculate what will actually hatch from the it and if it will be worth the extraordinary price tag.

$330,000 for a virtual Space Station! $69,696.00 for a virtual Egg! Are they insane?

felix · 2010-02-08, 03:47

Based on the game's description I suspect he may have done it with game money; which in this one has a direct 10 to 1 equivalent to USD.

Quote:

The real cash economy means that the internal Entropia Universe economy is linked to the real world economy, by using a currency called the Entropia Universe Dollar (PED), which has a fixed exchange rate linked to the US Dollar (10 PED entropiauals 1 USD).

As a participant, you use PED to acquire virtual land and entropiauipment in Entropia Universe, thereby investing in your avatar's (Participant representation in the virtual universe) growth and abilities. A unique aspect of Entropia Universe is that a player may elect to transfer PED back into real life currency, thereby enabling them to earn real money while participating in the online virtual universe of Entropia Universe.

Xion Valkyrie · 2010-02-08, 03:55

I'm kind of amazed there are people rich enough to play this MMO that nobody has ever heard of. Okay, I've heard of the island sale before, but that was because of how ridiculous it sounded. I guess maybe rich people have their own set of MMOs that we plebeians can't even imagine.

felix · 2010-02-08, 04:38

Heh yeah, the people playing that probably wipe their arses with money.

problemedchild · 2010-02-08, 05:08

I'm only surprised at the fact that this much money is being dumped into a relatively obscure game. I can easily imagine people spending massive amounts of money on RMT. Hell, several of my guild members in Lineage 2 dumped 3-6k USD into that game without any hesitation.

Syntron · 2010-02-08, 05:25

If someone is willing to pay 70k Bucks for something, its worth that much. Isnt it?

-Sho- · 2010-02-08, 09:50

After the Space Station , now the virtual egg lol
The producer make some business with the player .

Xellos-_^ · 2010-02-08, 13:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syntron

If someone is willing to pay 70k Bucks for something, its worth that much. Isnt it?

it is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it.

Quarkboy · 2010-02-08, 13:22

Is there only as much "money" in the game as people actually invest in it? Or can you earn money by doing things like say, selling materials you spend time "harvesting" from the in game world...

Because what happens if there's a "run" on the game? If that super rich player suddenly finds he needs some cash in the real world and converts all his money, that might spook other people and then the game company is in a world of hurt unless their TOS basically says that it's _NOT_ actually real money and they aren't responsible for paying it back.

And wait, if it's linked to real money, doesn't the game company basically need a banking license?

Xellos-_^ · 2010-02-08, 13:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Is there only as much "money" in the game as people actually invest in it? Or can you earn money by doing things like say, selling materials you spend time "harvesting" from the in game world...

there are chinese company already doing that

Quote:

And wait, if it's linked to real money, doesn't the game company basically need a banking license?

it is no different then monopoly money

Kafriel · 2010-02-08, 13:32

Quote:

Is there only as much "money" in the game as people actually invest in it? Or can you earn money by doing things like say, selling materials you spend time "harvesting" from the in game world...

Doesn't sound like a game if you CAN'T make money in-game...

To the matter at hand, it's illegal to buy/sell game items for real money, it counts as a form of theft since they belong to the company/ies that made the game.

Quote:

Heh yeah, the people playing that probably wipe their arses with money.

Yeah, even for special cash shop money bargains that shit's way too expensive, 1:10 ratio and you need some hundred thousands!

synaesthetic · 2010-02-08, 13:49

It's only illegal if they say it is, else many Korean free-to-play, pay-to-stay-competitive MMORPG models would fail. And really, it just violates VeRO and the only thing that can ever happen to you is to get your item or character pulled off of eBay.

And it's easy enough to get around the VeRO law; just sell your game discs along with the character. That's what I did when I gave up my WoW character back before WotLK came out. Sold my game discs for $700... which just so happen to come with an account containing several characters dripping in Tier 6 and BT/Hyjal piecemeal gear.

No different than selling a CD or console game to someone.

Kafriel · 2010-02-08, 14:23

Dunno what VeRO law is, I was talking about copyright infringement, and although it accounts for some very serious damage in cash shop sales thanks to the bagillion chinese bots that sell in-game money cheap in order to survive, companies do little to nothing about it and yet send lawsuits to anyone who opens up a private server

Anyway, to try and stay on topic, most extreme case of purchase I've heard of is some super rare enchanted artifact sold for 17k USD in WoW, never bothered confirming it though, must have been around a year and some months ago.

FateAnomaly · 2010-02-08, 22:53

There are people rich enough that this sort of money is nothing to them. No point in thinking too much about it.

Vagrant0 · 2010-02-09, 03:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quarkboy

Is there only as much "money" in the game as people actually invest in it? Or can you earn money by doing things like say, selling materials you spend time "harvesting" from the in game world...

For the record, that the game has no such farming potential other than the islands. Everything from hunting to resource mining has a real money cost associated with it. Although world spawns do drop money and the rare item, every means of attack wears out the weapon which can only be repaired using real money, and items only sell for their remaining usage value. Although resources can be gathered from the world, they have 0 value when sold to NPC. The only real generation of money comes from owning an island, which cost quite a bit more for the initial payment than you would ever get from it. (consider it gambling). This is one of the reasons why the game has gone unnoticed for as long as it has, either you're dumping insane amounts of money to play it from day 1, or you don't do much else. Back in 2004 or something when I played it, the graphics also kinda sucked, which is the other reason why nobody cared.

But all of this is one reason why the economy there hasn't gone totally to crap, unlike Second Life which got taken over by the bots.

Eisdrache · 2010-02-09, 06:14

The story is also on their homepage in a more readable way.

It seems they now have pretty good graphics.
He mortgaged his house? o_O
Where does an online gamer get $300.000 from? D: Maybe you can split the price with real money and ingame money.

felix · 2010-02-09, 06:47

Maybe its a publicity stunt, seems to be working that way anyway.

Kafriel · 2010-02-09, 16:53

Quote:

He mortgaged his house? o_O
Where does an online gamer get $300.000 from? D:

Next time a bank gets robbed, you'll know who did it

Ithekro · 2010-02-09, 17:42

...

Now this is a game I do not understand. We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for people who have in-game companies worth millions of dollars.

Is this a viable real world economy? It seem European based, though I could be wrong (the article said Sweden), where the Euro was about equal (if maybe slightly over) the dollar in value. But still...who are these people who can invest that much in active-entertainment? WoW is tiny in terms of monetary investment compared to this. Aside from possibly making your money back, this better be a hell of a good game to warrent that sort of expense.

2H-Dragon · 2010-02-09, 18:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cats

Maybe its a publicity stunt, seems to be working that way anyway.

Your theory sounds mighty plausible to me. 70k for an unknown game just seems weird. o_O

2010-02-08, 04:38	Link #4
felix sleepyhead Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: event horizon	Heh yeah, the people playing that probably wipe their arses with money. __________________

2010-02-08, 13:22	Link #9
Quarkboy Translator, Producer Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: Tokyo, Japan Age: 44	Is there only as much "money" in the game as people actually invest in it? Or can you earn money by doing things like say, selling materials you spend time "harvesting" from the in game world... Because what happens if there's a "run" on the game? If that super rich player suddenly finds he needs some cash in the real world and converts all his money, that might spook other people and then the game company is in a world of hurt unless their TOS basically says that it's _NOT_ actually real money and they aren't responsible for paying it back. And wait, if it's linked to real money, doesn't the game company basically need a banking license? __________________ Read Light Novels in English at J-Novel Club! Translator, Producer, Japan Media Export Expert Founder and Owner of J-Novel Club Sam Pinansky

2010-02-08, 13:49	Link #12
synaesthetic blinded by blood Author Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Oakland, CA Age: 40	It's only illegal if they say it is, else many Korean free-to-play, pay-to-stay-competitive MMORPG models would fail. And really, it just violates VeRO and the only thing that can ever happen to you is to get your item or character pulled off of eBay. And it's easy enough to get around the VeRO law; just sell your game discs along with the character. That's what I did when I gave up my WoW character back before WotLK came out. Sold my game discs for $700... which just so happen to come with an account containing several characters dripping in Tier 6 and BT/Hyjal piecemeal gear. No different than selling a CD or console game to someone. __________________ Indie science fiction author and all-around weirdo: Check out my original fiction here! Read an excerpt from my sci-fi novel Binary System!

2010-02-09, 06:47	Link #17
felix sleepyhead Author Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: event horizon	Maybe its a publicity stunt, seems to be working that way anyway. __________________

2010-02-09, 17:42	Link #19
Ithekro Gamilas Falls Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Republic of California Age: 46	... Now this is a game I do not understand. We are talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for people who have in-game companies worth millions of dollars. Is this a viable real world economy? It seem European based, though I could be wrong (the article said Sweden), where the Euro was about equal (if maybe slightly over) the dollar in value. But still...who are these people who can invest that much in active-entertainment? WoW is tiny in terms of monetary investment compared to this. Aside from possibly making your money back, this better be a hell of a good game to warrent that sort of expense. __________________

2010-02-08, 03:55	Link #3
Xion Valkyrie Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007	I'm kind of amazed there are people rich enough to play this MMO that nobody has ever heard of. Okay, I've heard of the island sale before, but that was because of how ridiculous it sounded. I guess maybe rich people have their own set of MMOs that we plebeians can't even imagine.

2010-02-08, 05:08	Link #5
problemedchild ô_ô Join Date: Nov 2003	I'm only surprised at the fact that this much money is being dumped into a relatively obscure game. I can easily imagine people spending massive amounts of money on RMT. Hell, several of my guild members in Lineage 2 dumped 3-6k USD into that game without any hesitation.

2010-02-08, 05:25	Link #6
Syntron Shiny Hardware Join Date: Dec 2009	If someone is willing to pay 70k Bucks for something, its worth that much. Isnt it?

2010-02-08, 09:50	Link #7
-Sho- ~Omedetô~ Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Somewhere between heaven and hell !	After the Space Station , now the virtual egg lol The producer make some business with the player .

2010-02-08, 14:23	Link #13
Kafriel Senior Guest Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Athens (GMT+2) Age: 35	Dunno what VeRO law is, I was talking about copyright infringement, and although it accounts for some very serious damage in cash shop sales thanks to the bagillion chinese bots that sell in-game money cheap in order to survive, companies do little to nothing about it and yet send lawsuits to anyone who opens up a private server Anyway, to try and stay on topic, most extreme case of purchase I've heard of is some super rare enchanted artifact sold for 17k USD in WoW, never bothered confirming it though, must have been around a year and some months ago.

2010-02-08, 22:53	Link #14
FateAnomaly Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2007	There are people rich enough that this sort of money is nothing to them. No point in thinking too much about it.

2010-02-09, 06:14	Link #16
Eisdrache Part-time misanthrope Join Date: Mar 2007	The story is also on their homepage in a more readable way. It seems they now have pretty good graphics. He mortgaged his house? o_O Where does an online gamer get $300.000 from? D: Maybe you can split the price with real money and ingame money.