Link

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

Of course it is. Game economies with direct ties to real world economies are notoriously stingy on the cash spigots, so the primary source of currency is the players themselves.

The kicker is, its not so much a pyramid scheme, because you're not investing in the game looking explicitly to make money, but to be able to enjoy the game and the content within. You're paying for the right to play through a very backhanded method.

The only other direct cash to game currency game I know of is Entropia Universe, and they're slightly more generous, in that there is a limited means of turning a profit in the game through strict play, but it requires the investment of extraordinary play time to acheive the necessary set up to be profitable. There's also a way for new players to acheive limited profitability, but its a diminishing returns system that is eventually cut off after a certain level of progress is achieved (the so-called "Sweat Economy") when they are then required to start developing their game skills and make money that way.

I've since discovered a very odd backdoor way in which EVE Online possesses a cash to game currency system, but CCP put their hand in the till to pull it off. You buy time codes from CCP, which are basically 30 or 90 day virtual game cards, which you are then allowed to sell for game money. This is actually a little stroke of genius, because it allows extremely successful players to earn their game time through actually playing the game, essentially making it free, while ensuring a constant flow of game currency from the most wealthy, acting to mitigate severe hyperinflation that settles in when the leading edge players acheive a level of economic overkill that overwhelms the existing money sinks.

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I'm not completely heartless, the doctor who removed it told me he'd never be able to get it all.

http://www.getafirstlife.com/

Then here.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

That is a good one

If you're trying to get money out of a MMO like Second Life, then you're not playing it right.

- Maha "(second) life of pleasure" Vailo

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When you get down to it, Science answers how. Religion answers why. - hippietrekx

I´m all for that!

Fortunately I had a very rich outdoors life in childhood and adolescence. And to a great extent I´m still a sportive adult. I could play Second Life without guilt, though I haven´t tried it yet.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

Hi Argos, I have not read your link fully but partially I can say here that "any investement is being done in any share market is suppose to invest eighter to get a hike on it or eighter it will be assume that the invested money may disaapear, because in share market there is no fix transaction as far as hike is concern. the doe jones is a term usally use in the nasdaq share market. the individual invester always find some good returns over his money, the share market in other word is working as a "juggler of your money" and the hike on the returns is based upon the reputations(business) of the companies, hence the selection is must before investing anywhere in the world, on earth there are 3 major role play models in the sharemarket i.e. new york share market, london money market, and mumbai share market, these 3 are giant in the transactions. And there is no big risk in investing in the share market if someone have a huge amount with him. today people are interested in 3 things 1. investing the money in the share market, 2. buying gold, 3. buying lands. so areawise the interests are differes. I am not precisely talking about nasdaq, what is going on there, but I am talking through the customer point of view.

There are huge differences in the defination of the "investment".

sunil (not mandatory for you to agree with my views)

Hi, Sunil.

Well, I´m a conservative investor, and I don´t like to lose any amount of money.

It´s always interesting to hear opinions from a different vantage point.

Regards.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

well I did a MS in economics before some 17 years ago. ( I am very much interested in economics too, but it is just rare thing to see the economics topic on 'baut') it is called here as the MA(master of arts) in economics, I have written in western style " MS".


thanks for your interest in hearing the opinions from the different "vantage" point.

sunil

Small world... I´ve been to Economics school, too, though it´s not my current work field (IT). I´m particularly interested in the maths behind derivatives.

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"As truth is gathered, I rearrange,
Inside out, outside in - Perpetual change." - A British rock band

I was looking at creating an Orion's Arm presence in Second life; some Second Lifers were quite keen on the idea, and actually suggested that we have a go. But when I went into the environment for a look-see it seemed to me that all the best functions of the environment can only be acquired by spending converted money.
Perhaps I am just too addicted to free software like Celestia, Anim8tor, Blender and Gimp; spending real money in the Second life environment simply didn't appeal to me at the moment

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set

hum,
slackers astronomy has a presence there, perhaps you can just use their place. There is no need to spend money.

(An alternative is to set up your own VR world; a quake 3d server would even do, for a start...)

BTW, GetAFirstLlife.com Gets 'Un-Cease-And-Desist' Note from Lawyer...

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`Irony` actually does mean `metal like`...

Well, I'll look them up when I get the chance.

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Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set