tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67665345618968536452011-08-16T23:09:34.589-04:00Economics of Virtual WorldsAn occasional blog of news & developments of interest to virtual worlds, with particular emphasis on economic & public policy issues.Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comBlogger521100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-80160157077852191572009-04-01T17:09:00.002-04:002009-04-01T17:13:49.992-04:00Virtual Worlds & Pop CultureI have just updated an old post, Virtual Worlds & Pop Culture, and wanted to make a note that this is a list that I will be trying to keep active. So if you see any TV shows or movies in which virtual worlds or game worlds comprise a significant portion of the plot, please drop me an email.Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-72611083069986833302009-03-26T14:38:00.003-04:002009-03-26T14:58:51.997-04:00Blizzard L00t, pt IIJust a quick follow up on my September 2008 post Blizzard L00t, which discussed the profitability of World of Warcraft. In that post, I arrived at an extremely rough estimate of $80 million a month in revenue from WoW. Although I didn't get directly into annual WoW profit figures, a Wall Street Journal article provides some perspectives from the financial markets:Blizzard generated $704 millionDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-11126334199605635442009-03-10T10:54:00.007-04:002009-03-10T16:32:06.548-04:00Farewell, DaedalusSadly, I received an email this week notifying me that Nick Yee’s The Daedalus Project website is going into “hibernation mode,” which unfortunately sounds to me a lot like a permanent end to this much-valued resource. The website and its research will remain up, but the man behind the magic, Nick Yee, has completed his PhD and has other challenges to undertake. In his farewell, he says "I’m Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-40343390508603333142009-02-05T10:04:00.008-05:002009-02-11T10:53:48.099-05:00Virtual Warfare -- PEO STRII went this week to a demonstration/ exhibition put on for Members of Congress and their staffs by the U.S. Army's PEO STRI office. The purpose of the event was to give us "the chance to experience interactive military simulations and training devices that currently prepare Warfighters for their missions." I came away impressed by what our military is already doing with virtualization and the Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-11765446228063396192009-01-16T16:50:00.005-05:002009-01-16T17:16:55.406-05:00There’s an interesting article up on BusinessWeek.com about commercial uses of World of Warcraft to foster innovation in the business environments. It’s written by John Hagel and John Seely Brown, co-chairmen of the Center for Edge Innovation at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsus.Hagel and Brown argue that conventional training programs run by corporations suffer from an inherent limitation in that they Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-12559715848339267842009-01-12T15:21:00.002-05:002009-01-13T16:18:32.815-05:00IRS Looks at Virtual Worlds<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-45802250796630088722008-10-01T16:52:00.008-04:002008-10-14T10:53:00.356-04:00The Rarest of LawyersNo, I am not talking about lawyers who are disinclined to sue at the drop the hat (my apologies to all my lawyer friends out there). What I am talking about is a lawyer who understands economics. We all specialize in our field of expertise, and it’s refreshing to see a specialist in one field demonstrate insight in another.Such understanding is on display in article by a pair of attorneys, Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-30778728404407215792008-09-19T14:18:00.005-04:002008-09-20T23:25:04.257-04:00Blizzard L00t<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]--> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {color:yellow; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visitedDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-29375862331415220452008-09-12T16:51:00.008-04:002008-09-12T17:25:14.285-04:00The Air Force Embraces Virtual WorldsThe U.S. military has been at the forefront of exploring the uses of online gaming technology, primarily as a training tool. In January 2008, the Air Force published “On Learning: The Future of Air Force Education and Training,” a white paper from the Air Education and Training Command. The paper was notable because it laid out in some detail a proposal for an Air Force virtual world called Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-24005967058042413122008-09-10T12:07:00.007-04:002008-09-12T17:22:38.787-04:00Virtual InheritanceBen Duranske (as well as Virtual Worlds News) picked up on an interesting article in the Swedish daily newspaper Göteborgs-Posten, the nation’s second largest. Although it is in Swedish, a couple of Entropia fans have posted translations at EntropiaForum.com (see here and a more polished version here). The main point of the article is that MindArk will begin allowing residents of Entropia toDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-89219051773270352812008-06-23T14:02:00.003-04:002008-06-24T15:12:59.151-04:00Duranske on Virtual LawBen Duranske, the man behind the excellent site Virtually Blind, recently published a book on the state of the law in virtual worlds, titled, appropriately enough, Virtual Law. The book is a valuable contribution and I commend it to anyone with an interest in the topic. The book is a timely addition to the literature, as most legal questions confronting virtual worlds remain largely Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-81896204885290237092008-06-18T17:02:00.004-04:002008-06-19T09:39:48.940-04:00Leeroy Jenkins!I realize that this has absolutely nothing to do with the economics of virtual worlds, but I can’t help but love this video. Yes, it’s been around a while, but every few months I see something about and I watch it again and it makes me laugh.My favorite part: When Leeroy defensively proclaims "It's not my fault!" right after he causes everything to fall into the crapper.For a little background Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-23224484574660089532008-05-21T17:44:00.010-04:002008-06-18T17:17:27.510-04:00Top 5 MMOGs?The NPD Group has come out with its estimate of the top 5 virtual gaming worlds, as reported by Gamasutra.com and GamesIndustry.biz. NPD's list does not include the number of subscribers, so to put things in perspective I have added subscriber counts (in brackets) that I gathered from various sources on the web. Q1 2008 – Top 5 MMOGs by Subscribers World of Warcraft [10 million Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-17475742398473108082008-05-16T11:50:00.008-04:002008-05-16T12:13:57.183-04:00Research Conference in World of WarcraftI had the pleasure of attending Saturday’s session of last weekend’s “Convergence of the Real and the Virtual,” a conference that took place inside World of Warcraft. Attendees had to be on the Earthen Ring server and have a Horde character. The locations varied by day, but on Saturday the session took place in the sewers of the Undercity.I’ve attached some photos of session discussion (click Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-69379420116970719902008-05-06T12:28:00.005-04:002009-04-01T17:09:14.713-04:00Virtual Worlds & Pop CultureRen Reynolds has an interesting post up at Terra Nova about the mainstreaming of gaming and, indirectly, virtual worlds. That got me to think on the number of times virtual worlds had permeated plot lines of major TV shows. Although this list is likely not exhaustive, virtual worlds have made a central storyline for such popular prime-time shows as:CSI: NY, “Down the Rabbit Hole” airing 10/24/Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-34602555947507807412008-04-30T10:49:00.006-04:002008-05-02T10:47:56.141-04:00Apples & Oranges, or Shades of Grey?In a post on Terra Nova, Richard Bartle articulates what seems to be the consensus on a key point regarding the legal treatment of virtual worlds: it seems fairly clear now that game-like worlds (such as [World of Warcraft]) are a different kind of animal to non-game worlds (such as [Second Life]) Leandra Lederman, of the Indiana University Law School, echoes this sentiment in her recent Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-79360388186245276382008-04-23T12:02:00.005-04:002008-04-23T15:50:02.010-04:00On the Lighter Side...Since my recent posts have been a bit heavy on serious policy and legal questions, I thought I’d post a link to a recent Foxtrot comic that just happens to be right on target. Enjoy!Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-68665772652405112732008-04-21T11:41:00.009-04:002008-04-21T12:15:56.442-04:00Sweden to Tax Virtual IncomeA post on Virtual Economy Research Network (VERN) by Vili Lehdonvirta notes that the Swedish Tax Agency (“Skatteverket”) recently issued a statement/ruling entitled “Virtual worlds — value-added tax” (original post). According to VERN, the statement signals the adoption of the idea that “in-game transactions may incur liability for both value-added tax as well as income tax under Swedish law.” Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-22563494061546689542008-04-18T13:08:00.007-04:002008-04-23T15:48:44.804-04:00Money Transactions in WoW and NCsoftTwo giants in the MMO world have taken steps toward sanctioning the flow of U.S. dollars into their games. First, Blizzard Entertainment is currently hosting in World of Warcraft an Arena-based series of global tournaments hosted on special servers. In this Arena Tournament, players pay $20 to participate and in return get “to instantly create level-70 [the maximum level attainable] characters Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-88911907143637275602008-04-11T15:25:00.002-04:002008-04-11T15:37:22.944-04:00WoW Hits 1 Million Concurrent Users in ChinaInteresting milestone was announced today by Blizzard. As reported by MacWorld.com and The9, World of Warcraft recently exceeded 1 million concurrent users in China. WoW operates somewhat differently in China. There, Blizzard contracts out the provision of the game to The9, and players can pay by time spent in-game not by a flat monthly rate like in the U.S. WoW China is almost like a Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-35287425098307935932008-04-01T12:46:00.005-04:002009-03-04T15:45:29.619-05:00Congressional Hearing Wrap-UpJust a quick follow-up on the Congressional hearing today on virtual worlds (see yesterday’s post for additional details). Overall, I thought it was a good hearing. Members of the Committee asked intelligent and pertinent questions, and the witnesses did a fine job in their testimony. Members in attendance seemed to have a good familiarity with Second Life and an understanding of the potentialDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-37488726511762591742008-03-31T11:36:00.005-04:002008-03-31T12:17:59.209-04:00Congressional Hearing on Virtual WorldsThere will be a hearing on virtual worlds on Tuesday, April 1 at 9:30 a.m. (no, this isn’t a joke). The topic of the hearing is “Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium” and it will be chaired by U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.). There will be a webcast online (see here). The hearing is being held by the Telecommunications & the Internet Subcommittee Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-67544171933754962482008-03-26T13:51:00.007-04:002008-03-26T14:08:15.191-04:00Virtual Worlds Conferences Next WeekNext week are the Virtual Worlds Conference and Virtual Law Conference, held in New York City. The two conferences are hosted by the same organization and run concurrently, so I expect to attend sessions in each. They run April 3 and 4 at the Jacob Javits Center. By the latest count, there will be 950 attendees and 519 companies represented. I will be there, as will a great many people with Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-25066626464462137492008-02-28T13:48:00.003-05:002008-02-28T14:11:41.770-05:00MTV Busts a MoveVirtual World News offers this tidbit: MTV has named Christina Glorioso to be VP of sales and marketing partnerships for program enterprises. This is a newly created position whose duties include "maximizing opportunities for the various projects developed under the program enterprises group, including virtual worlds, 'Rock Band' and other videogames" (via Billboard). In other words, part of Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-47114304347287692822008-02-22T16:40:00.009-05:002008-02-27T16:54:19.336-05:00L00t Chase Black market sales of virtual world items have been the bane of many MMORPGs, particularly World of Warcraft. A report on a session at the Game Developers Conference 2008 posted at MTV Multiplayer by Tracey John offers some fresh perspectives on the practice. The session, entitled “Learning to Love Virtual Item Sales,” featured Andy Schneider of Live Gamer and Steve Goldstein of Ping0. John Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-28314647658771566932008-02-01T10:35:00.001-05:002008-02-01T11:21:59.507-05:00WoW GrowthBlizzard recently trumpeted hitting the 10 million subscriber mark for World of Warcraft, a milestone which helped push Blizzard's revenue for 2007 to a record high $1.2 billion.However, WoW does not release detailed subscriber information (like Linden Lab does for Second Life). Instead, Blizzard periodically puts out press releases announcing a new milestone in the WoW subscriber base. Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-48196461536677022142008-01-28T12:53:00.000-05:002008-01-28T13:53:09.737-05:00They Keep Growing, and Growing...Although there is no overall census of the size of virtual worlds, two of the heavyweights recently released new numbers. First, World of Warcraft has now reached the 10 million mark. That’s an impressive milestone for a game that went live in November 2004. More than half (5.5 million) of those users are from Asia; 2.5 are based in North American and 2 million in Europe. That is a large Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-8784896287441889372008-01-15T11:03:00.000-05:002008-01-16T10:30:47.387-05:00Bye Bye BanksLinden Lab made headlines recently by announcing a ban on banks in Second Life that lacked government certification, effective Jan. 22, 2008. This move was brought on, according to the announcement itself, by the collapse of Ginko Financial and the existence of virtual banks offering "unsustainably high interest rates" of up to 60% APR. Investors reportedly lost $750,000 when Ginko went Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-43054453772643751252007-12-05T10:36:00.000-05:002007-12-14T13:18:46.696-05:00Second Life SkullduggeryDaniel Terdiman of CNET points out an interesting story on a San Jose Mercury News blog. According to the blog post, there is “a flaw in Second Life virtual world that allows them to strip a user’s character of all of its in-world money.” The security hole lies not directly in Second Life code, but in Apple’s QuickTime, software which allows video playback. In Second Life, users can embed Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-91908010357787556052007-10-12T08:56:00.000-04:002007-10-13T14:08:24.706-04:00Second Life Forum with MetanomicsI recently had the pleasure of taking part in an event put on by Rob Bloomfield of Cornell's Johnson School of Management and Metanomics. The purpose of the forum was for me to answer questions from an audience of 70+ Second Life residents, moderated by Bloomfield.For my part, it was a good, productive discussion. Questions covered a wide range of territory. Taxes were an obvious concern, but Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-14355804501286196522007-10-05T16:47:00.000-04:002007-10-05T16:58:20.294-04:00Bragg Lawsuit No MoreReuters has reported that Second Life has reached an out-of-court settlement over the lawsuit brought by Mark Bragg. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. While this settlement was self-evidently in the interest of both parties, it still leaves unresolved key questions pertaining to virtual worlds. If the case had gone to trial, then it is possible we would have obtained the first clear Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-73438106250098488412007-09-10T10:08:00.000-04:002007-09-10T10:14:26.529-04:00Credit in the MetaverseNow comes a credit card for Second Life. A credit card for the Metaverse, it is called the MetaCard and comes from First Meta. There are even different versions: Basic, Gold and Corporate. While the MetaCard appears to be the first of its kind, its presence is somewhat limited. First, only participating merchants will accept the card as payment. Second, there are limits on the amount that canDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-9365607013273791672007-07-31T12:21:00.000-04:002007-07-31T12:45:21.059-04:00More on Virtual TerroristsThere is a revealing article in today's The Australian about jihadists' use of virtual worlds.“Terrorist organisations al-Qa'ida and Jemaah Islamiah traditionally sent potential jihadists to train in military camps in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia. But due to increased surveillance and intelligence gathering, they are swapping some military training to online camps to evade detection Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-36099646082450074102007-07-19T15:55:00.000-04:002007-07-19T21:48:14.527-04:00Tunneling between the Web and Second LifeJames Wagner Au picked up in his New World Notes a very interesting development worth highlighting. Heretofore, Second Life existed as a self-contained environment. That is, once someone enters Second Life, he cannot access websites or other Internet content outside of Second Life. Similarly, someone surfing the 'net cannot access Second Life content.Well, all that is about to change. A Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-65171269435124674002007-07-18T15:57:00.000-04:002007-07-18T16:27:36.943-04:00Capitol Hill InternsEvery summer, thousands of college interns descend on Washington, with most landing on Capitol Hill. There is inevitably some embarrassing incident involving an intern and an inappropriate relationship, a misplaced confidential memo, a sensitive document left on a copier, or the like. Well, now it seems DC just narrowly escaped the first intern/metaverse fiasco. As reported on the Second Life Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-74694264990095946792007-07-12T14:26:00.000-04:002007-07-12T14:39:15.700-04:00Real Companies in the MetaverseSecond Life resident Tateru Nino has compiled a list of real world companies operating (to one degree or another) in Second Life, and has posted the list to New World Notes. By her count, there are 139 "mixed-reality" sites (mixed-reality = virtual world + real world). The list includes corporations and companies, as well as non-profits and governmental organizations. She acknowledges the listDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-15711025909508007342007-06-22T17:16:00.000-04:002007-06-22T18:17:52.168-04:00Commoditization of Virtual CurrenciesAn entry on Daniel Terdiman's CNET News blog reports that Brock Pierce, the head of IGE, the leading marketer of virtual goods and currency, feels that virtual currencies are increasingly a commodity product. As a result, profit margins are shrinking as gamers discriminate among suppliers by price alone. It sounds like much of the commoditization push comes from China:In fact, [Pierce] said, asDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-12282503063835605152007-06-04T11:17:00.000-04:002007-06-04T13:01:41.925-04:00The Courts Weigh InIn what could have very significant implications for virtual worlds, there was an important ruling last week on the enforceability of the contracts governing virtual world usage. Last year, Second Life user Mark Bragg sued Linden Lab over the cancellation of his Second Life account. Linden Lab argued that Bragg had violated the terms of service (TOS) agreement for Second Life. Linden Lab Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-33363602586694919682007-05-31T14:44:00.000-04:002007-06-01T13:47:12.504-04:00Virtual ChinaEntropia Universe scored a big win yesterday, announcing that it had been selected by China to build a cash-based virtual world for that nation, according to an AFP story. The agreement with China's Cyber Recreation Development Corp. (CRD) apparently took a year to negotiate.Here are some of the newsworthy facts to emerge so far:CRD estimates that this new virtual world (or worlds) will create Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-4534469621557910462007-05-25T09:44:00.000-04:002007-05-25T11:15:42.010-04:00Virtual Terrorism in Second LifeLast night cyber-attackers set off some sort of bomb on the ABC island in Second Life. As the before and after pictures show (hat tip: Kotaku), the bomb utterly nuked the place. While the island was restored within a few hours, ABC did spend tens of thousands of dollars to create the island in the first place, according to News.com.au.If we place this event in the larger context of virtual Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-41736935104980028532007-05-24T15:29:00.000-04:002007-05-24T15:46:43.749-04:00Virtual Money, Real PizzaA recent news story reports that Second Life residents will soon be able to order -- from within SL -- real pizza for delivery to their home. (This ability was once available for players of Everquest, but has been discontinued.) More importantly, residents can pay for the pizza with Linden dollars. Now, in and of itself, this is not a major development that will dramatically change the Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-36222784970755352592007-05-21T14:14:00.000-04:002007-05-22T14:05:46.467-04:00Cross-Platform TransfersNow this is interesting: a new venture will soon be offering cross-platform transfers, as in transfers between two different virtual worlds. Reuters reports that Anshe Chung Studios will offer the ability to transfer virtual money from Second Life to Entropia Universe, and vice verse. Now this project still won’t directly offer users the ability to trade virtual currencies for dollars (or otherDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-8211457184988906972007-05-15T10:30:00.000-04:002007-05-15T11:19:47.071-04:00U.K. Report on Financial Crimes in Virtual WorldsA new report from a British group has concluded that there is a growing risk of financial crimes in virtual worlds, according to Reuters. The panel also recommends that governments treat transactions on MMO websites "as genuine financial instruments covered by existing laws and regulations." The report specifically discusses the potential problems with credit card fraud, database Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-88768551000844772942007-05-10T13:26:00.000-04:002007-05-10T16:05:53.272-04:00Rolling Stone articleThere's an interesting article in Rolling Stone about Second Life. The article includes a noteworthy quote from Linden Labs founder Philip Rosedale:“I’d like to see it get to a point where it’s all irreversible. It’s all a little bit too under our control. That power shouldn’t be in our hands. We don’t want to make mistakes. For me, there’s a critical point that we’ll get to where everyone canDan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-61216319615204972152007-05-10T12:34:00.000-04:002007-05-10T13:19:09.421-04:00WoW credit card?A Gamespot.com article reports that Blizzard is now offering a World of Warcraft Visa card, in partnership with First National Bank. Called the World of Warcraft Rewards Visa, applicants can choose from 13 different artistic designs. Users of the card will earn free game time at the rate of 1% of purchases. Applications can be made online.As the story notes, such a move by Blizzard carries a Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-1261268616656425242007-05-09T11:47:00.000-04:002007-05-09T12:11:39.765-04:00Second Life NationalitiesA new study from comScore estimates that 61% of active Second Life residents are European. As reported by Reuters, Germany alone has (slightly) more active SL users than the United States.Germany 209,000 (16.3%)United States 207,000 (16.1%)France 104,000 (8.1%)Britain 72,000 (5.6%)comScore also found that the number of U.S. residents in SL grew by 92% from January to March. The European growth Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-65409193205175498752007-05-09T11:40:00.000-04:002007-05-10T14:10:47.328-04:00Sony's Experience with Its RMT SiteAlone among the major MMORPGs, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) maintains a sanctioned RMT site, called Station Exchange. There, players can buy and sell in-game items, currency, and characters. Station Exchange launched in 2005 on two Everquest servers and in February SOE released a white paper detailing its experience with the first year of Station Exchange. Although this white paper, “Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-10782656113732009082007-04-30T12:04:00.000-04:002007-05-15T16:35:54.131-04:00Prices for WoW GoodsCurse-gaming.com posts weekly reports on the median sale prices of more than 100 goods commonly seen at the World of Warcraft Auction Houses. The report for the week of April 26, 2007 can be found here.When these prices are paired with the market value (in U.S. dollars) of gold, it is easy to see that even fairly mundane crafting and consumable items have substantial economic value. One study Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-5376173101599955842007-04-25T12:05:00.000-04:002007-04-30T12:34:02.050-04:00RMT Sites for MMORPGsInteresting round-up and review of 10 third-party real money trade (RMT) sites.MMORPG Service Reviews 2007http://mmorpg-service-review.toptenreviews.com/Not surprisingly, IGE tops the list. The summary table lists sample pricing for each site, like how much 500 gold costs in WoW. The reviews also cover which sites allow players to sell or trade items to the third-party sites.Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-74903085137532883272007-04-18T13:08:00.000-04:002007-04-30T12:34:14.851-04:00New Research on Tax Issues Affecting Virtual WorldsA pair of recent articles by legal scholars attempts to shed light on the tax questions related to virtual worlds.The first is by Bryan Camp, a tax law professor at the Texas Tech School of Law who previously worked in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel. His paper is available for download from the Social Science Research Network: The Play's the Thing: a Theory of Taxing Virtual WorldsThe second Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-36656049176842553092007-04-18T13:02:00.000-04:002007-04-30T12:34:38.448-04:00World of Warcraft Tops 8.5 million UsersA recent news story posted on Gamasutra.com reports that the MMO World of Warcraft has now surpassed 8.5 million paying subscribers.http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13022Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6766534561896853645.post-25188215121970726372007-04-18T12:55:00.000-04:002007-04-30T12:34:50.391-04:00Press Release: Virtual Economies Need Clarification, Not More TaxesVirtual Economies Need Clarification, Not More TaxesOctober 17, 2006WASHINGTON, D.C. – The past few years have seen a dramatic increase in the popularity of online gaming and the virtual economies that accompany them. The population of these online worlds has been estimated to exceed 10 million people worldwide. Because of their newness, some uncertainty exists regarding taxes and intellectual Dan Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09383102280602861845noreply@blogger.com