According to the sales ad, the successful bidder, Australian
David Storey, aka Deathifier, has purchased:
"A large island off a newly discovered
continent surrounded by deep creature infested waters. The island
boasts beautiful beaches ripe for developing beachfront property,
an old volcano with rumours of fierce creatures within, the outback
is overrun with mutants, and an area with a high concentration of
robotic miners guarded by heavily armed assault robots indicates
interesting mining opportunities."
The island was put up for auction by the developers of Project
Entropia, an on-line multi-player universe, and is the latest
example of the move away from subscription-based gaming towards the
development of real cash economy games, where users can make
purchases, sales and exchange real life currency into PED (Project
Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money.
PED, says MindArk, developers of the game, allows members to
invest in personal development and growth through the acquisition
of goods, buildings and land in the Entropia universe.
According to Mind Ark, the treasure island will provide instant
real cash revenue from "mining and hunting" rights as hundreds of
gamers flock to the new world in search of new gaming and gold. The
island will also provide additional revenue potential through the
selling of housing lots and market places, some of which have
already been sold and claimed due to the high demand.
"This is a historic moment in gaming history, and this sale only
goes to prove that Massive Multiplayer On-line Gaming has reached a
new plateau where the gamers themselves have discovered the true
economic potential of an on-line community," said Marco Behrmann,
Mindark's Director of Community Relations. "This is an incredible
milestone."
"This type of investment will definitely become a trend in
on-line gaming as the standard monthly-fee based on-line games will
struggle to make any sort of cash investment viable," said David
Storey.
