According to an article on the BBC site, a gamer has paid actual money to purchase the rights to a virtual island -- one that is part of a multi-player computer game. According to the article, he plans to earn the money back by leasing and selling the resources on the island to virtual settlers.
I think this is fascinating. It reminds me of the joke I heard in a macroeconomics class years ago which postulated that all of the gold in the world was shipped to an island so that it could be easily protected. The next year, when someone went back to look, the island had sunk -- but the economy chugged right on. It didn't need to see the money, it just assumed it.
Obviously, there had to be effort in the creation of the virtual island, so you could say that the price paid reflects that effort and profit on it. But more than that, this says that you can earn money for things that do not exist, but which are valued by someone else.
That really tickles me. I don't know what comes next, but I'm looking forward to seeing it.
No comments:
Post a Comment