Entrepreneur Makes Millions Selling Virtual Land [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

kkleiner writes "How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real estate? Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Today, Anshe Chung Studios has 80+ employees managing thousands of rental properties, helping design new 3D virtual chat rooms, and making tons of money on virtual to real currency exchanges. Anshe was the first person whose virtual property exceeded a real world value of 1 million dollars, and Anshe Chung Studios is perhaps the single largest third party developer of virtual property ever."http://a.fsdn.com/sd/facebook_icon_large.png (http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgames.slashdot.org%2Fsto ry%2F11%2F08%2F25%2F0449218%2FEntrepreneur-Makes-Millions-Selling-Virtual-Land%3Futm_source%3Dslashdot%26utm_medium%3Dfacebo ok) http://a.fsdn.com/sd/twitter_icon_large.png (http://twitter.com/home?status=Entrepreneur+Makes+Millions+Selling+Vi rtual+Land%3A+http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FmUsvzd)

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[SpaceHarrier]

humanity is doomed.

[kedawa]

I don't get it.
Don't people realize that what he's selling has no intrinsic value?

[Icarus Moonsight]

That doesn't stop things even more silly than this from being sold or having confidence placed on it.

[Cobra Commander]

Doesn't sound any different than the US government to me.

[Sunnyvale]

I don't get it.
Don't people realize that what he's selling has no intrinsic value?

WoW accounts, D2 items 10 years back, Everquest accounts before that...

[Jorpho]

It still seems to me that Second Life exists not so much because anyone actually uses it, but so that a couple of people can throw large sums of money around and the media can write about it.

[Cornelius]

I don't get it.
Don't people realize that what he's selling has no intrinsic value?

While I don't see the appeal of these virtual properties, or understand what they are used for, even, I can't dismiss it quite as easily as you. If his digital property is worthless, isn't your digital game also worthless? The only difference is that you are interested in one and not the other.

[Baloo]

"A Fool and His Money are soon parted."

[Flashback2012]

"A Fool and His Money are soon parted."

That's kind of how I feel. Maybe not so blunt but it shows me that people will buy just about anything if given the opportunity. @_@

[Zing]

Does anyone here even know anyone who plays this game?

[calthaer]

Does anyone here even know anyone who plays this game?

My thoughts exactly. This "game" seems like some dorky mid-90s vision of what we'd all be doing in...CYBERSPACE...Space...space...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT6UVqBPDdw

Not sure if someone posted this on this forum or elsewhere, but this video just about sums up Second Life in my view. I pull this up for laughs now and again.

[Robocop2]

What would really even be the point of Second Life? I mean I guess I get WoW and stuff like that because you're actually playing a game with a real objective. Second Life as I understand it sounds pretty much like regular life only you pay a subscription fee. Is it basically make-believe or dress up for adults?

[Icarus Moonsight]

My thoughts exactly. This "game" seems like some dorky mid-90s vision of what we'd all be doing in...CYBERSPACE...Space...space...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT6UVqBPDdw

Not sure if someone posted this on this forum or elsewhere, but this video just about sums up Second Life in my view. I pull this up for laughs now and again.

I raise you virtual brothels and online sexports...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqHtr9fgn54

[Gameguy]

That's kind of how I feel. Maybe not so blunt but it shows me that people will buy just about anything if given the opportunity. @_@

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/648/petrock.jpg

[Bojay1997]

Does anyone here even know anyone who plays this game?

Good point. In fact, I have never in my life ever met someone that plays the game and I work with a lot of very video game and tech savvy people, many of whom play various MMOs. It really makes me wonder if Second Life is just some elaborate ponzi scheme with completely made up subscriber numbers.

[Sunnyvale]

While I don't see the appeal of these virtual properties, or understand what they are used for, even, I can't dismiss it quite as easily as you. If his digital property is worthless, isn't your digital game also worthless? The only difference is that you are interested in one and not the other.

My point exactly. If you know someone who bought your Tal-Rasha's Armor on D2, or your stack of gold on Everquest, or your level 70 Paladin on WoW, then remove the swords-n-sorcery, and you might understand some. Not that I personally would ever buy a non-physical copy of anything (yes, I still buy CD's, well, records usually), but some have no problem with this.

[Icarus Moonsight]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_theory_of_value

[Kitsune Sniper]

I know a few people that played the game. It's just a glorified MUD/MUCK.

Then again, I know people that pay for stupid hats in TF2.

[Collector_Gaming]

A sucker is born every minute

remember that

This kinda reminds me of the old (i am talking mid to late 90s) geocities free website services.
I wonder how many people remember those

Back in the day before yahoo bought geocities out. Geocities kept its database of personal sites in the idea of a community

So when you went to sign up for one. They would ask you what the website was gonna be about

Say for instance it was gonna be about Video Games

They would stuff it into the video games community.
And your site would receive a number and you could look through the community and see all these sites around you setup like a actual community.. so say your site was number 5312 of video games community.. you could look over and see what number 5311 or 5313 looked like and what they were up to.

I actually loved that system. Made you feel apart of something in a way. They sadly did away with it when we crossed over into the 2000s and i never saw it ever again any where else since.

[Jorpho]

Actually, looking into the last time something like this came up, it turns out Second Life does have the attention of some 3D modellers, and I guess it's good that 3D modelling artists have a place to try new things and hone their skills, because there's a lot of money to be had in 3D modelling these days?

[moggles]

humanity is doomed.

This.

[JSoup]

Does anyone here even know anyone who plays this game?

A few. I lamented that I didn't get into it myself, seeing that I could have made a land investment that required little to no upkeep.

[Zing]

If you know someone who bought your Tal-Rasha's Armor on D2, or your stack of gold on Everquest, or your level 70 Paladin on WoW, then remove the swords-n-sorcery, and you might understand some. Not that I personally would ever buy a non-physical copy of anything (yes, I still buy CD's, well, records usually), but some have no problem with this.

Buying these virtual items is not buying the item itself, it is buying the time investment to get the item. It's not much different than buying anything else. You buy bread from the store to save yourself the time and effort of making it yourself, despite how easy it is to make bread at home. You are just buying the labor of another person, like anything else.

[Sunnyvale]

Buying these virtual items is not buying the item itself, it is buying the time investment to get the item. It's not much different than buying anything else. You buy bread from the store to save yourself the time and effort of making it yourself, despite how easy it is to make bread at home. You are just buying the labor of another person, like anything else.

With one major exception; The baker isn't staying up at night, dreaming of the oven. He doesn't spend hours there when he's off the clock. To sum it up, I have a major problem calling playing a game 'work'. I used to sell D2 items all the time. If I didn't like D2, I wouldn't have played it, ergo, I wouldn't have sold the items. Personally, I feel that purchasing items in a game is the equivalent of using a Game Genie to beat a game. Weak. Only this Game Genie is only for the wealthy or stupid. Or both.

[Icarus Moonsight]

iMillionare