And you think Second Life land is expensive?

With often the comments coming about how expensive and commercial Second Life is becoming, with land sales, commercial deals, private sims, and such.... I thought I would post you all a recent advert from one of the other Virtual Worlds I play, Project Entropia which like SL has had a 2L to 1L two way economy running for a year or two now...and has also grown and changed beyond recognition from its earlier self. Myself and friends who study how virtual currency has evolved have followed SL and PE with interest noting how each one has evolve.

For non PE people, the unit of currency is the PED which can only be bought thru the in game exchange as they killed off private exchanges to run their own (!!..) exchange rate $1 US = 10PED

NB: Although this is of genuine general virtual worlds interest to avoid over promoting another world in an SL forum I have removed the game name repeated thru the announcement.


SPACE RESORT FOR SALE BY PUBLIC AUCTION

The ownership deed to an as yet unnamed commercial SPACE RESORT under construction amidst the treacherous but Mineral Rich Paradise V Asteroid Belt has been placed in the Auction. Designed as a Pleasure Paradise the Resort built on an Asteroid is a monumental project aimed at being a primary destination for Entertainment in the known Virtual Universe.

Land Description

Boasting a 1000 Apartment complex, Commercial Space Ship Docking, Themed Shopping Mall, Mega Stadium for championship sporting events, Nightclub with multiple Dance floors, Live Amphitheater, lounges, and 10 Hunting Biodomes with individual land management facilities which will enable the creative owner to create Rare, Unique and Exotic creatures. Mining and PVP areas are available. In addition the Resort will feature Owner Operated PA System for Streaming Music and Video to biodomes and screens/billboards strategically placed throughout the space resort and for a fee even a Planet side Video Billboard Network located in all major towns and cities can be accessed for marketing.

No teleporter available at the resort, travel to and from the resort only by Space ships.
No central storage available at Space Resort.

Ownership rights will include all:
Space Station Naming Rights.
Apartment Deeds 1000 Pcs.
Mall Shopping Booth and market stall Owner deeds 100 Pcs.
All Hunting taxation rights.
All Mining taxation rights.
Land management system.
Operating control and revenues from Event areas, by use of the upcoming event system.
Billboard marketing management system, by use of the upcoming billboard management and marketing system.
Spawning point for newcomers to Project Entropia through a tagged client. This will enable the owner to market his Space station Resort outside the Virtual World so that the newcomers will arrive directly at the resort instead of in Port Atlantis].( Editor note:this is familiar isnt it,,?)

Current Auction Bid

Only shown in Auction view ("Estates", at the moment
For the person not willing to take the risk of loosing a bidding war there is always the possibility to use the Buy out button.Provided you have the necessary funds available. Shall we say an even million PED?[/

Delivery
Delivery to the new owner will be commence from 21st December 2005, until completion.

........."Shall we say an even million PED" WEll, as you see thats a COOL $100,000 US ! Would you buy that? Someone will I assure you !

I wonder if Anshe-san would if she was in that world ? Just as a note someone recently paid just under $30,000 US for their own island there with castles and hunting etc, and if you think SL is expensive, a pair of crafter made sun glasses for your AV in PE costs about $200 US, and rare armors like Shadow sell for a full set at prices like $6 -7000 US !!!

I wonder if we shall see this kind of large scale themed regional selling and game semi ownership emerge in a different way in SL to any extent. Though of course content and gameplay are so totally different in SL, we dont have hunting, loot, skill levels to gain, or resources worth money coming along with the land. We do however have land value, building rights, rental incomes, etc... At present you can buy a sim in auction I wonder if we may see auctions for mini continents, sim groups, special terraform and custom land forms with owner privileges. We have already seen the beginnings of language and decor themed areas by both Anshecom and LL, and island sales, and new player direct tagging to private land... and event management systems. there are lots of similarities here..though the quarterly auction of Luna Mall slots seems a long way off these prices eh?

Does this give anyone any ideas?

Where is it all heading ??

To one great big virtual property value bust, once the investors realize they're just paying for server space anyway.

TODAY's announcement !


The ASTEROID SPACE RESORT was today, 24th of October 2005, bought by avatar "Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs" for a sum of 1,000,000 PED (100,000 US Dollar)! The public auction offering the Space Resort started Friday 21st of October at a staring price of 1 PED, and with a buyout price of 1,000,000 PED. The response to the news of the Space Resort was immediate – just during the weekend eight parties approached MindArk expressing serious interest in purchasing it. Just three days after the launch, the buyout price was met by Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, before the competition.

We congratulate him on his purchase and look forward to a grand opening around Christmas time!

YOU see I was right... someone actually PAID $100,000 US$ today for this land in a virtual world !! and no one else even had a chance much..even tho few would have anyways.

PS for non pE people Jon (NEVERDIE) Jacobs is the PE equivalent of Anshe Chung and highly favoured mega player favourite of the owning company...now there is a surprise eh?

dang, that seems like a lot given the economic fundamentals that usually confer value -- like, say, land title recognized by conventional legal means -- is a huge grey area in most places. Intellectual property is one element of online ownership, but when virtual, privately-run worlds are involved, I don't see the garauntee of value. If Entropia folded, for example, what are Mr.$100k's recourse options?

It's a fascinating development, but is this just a new kind of property bubble? Akin to the hype-fest that helped fuel the dot-com bust. Or is SL under-valued?

See, small-bean land owners like the land trust I help manage -- less than one sim -- probably carry the cost of tier as the admission price of participating deeper in virtual worlds. But is any of this land an investment?

I'm guessing that there are two things that would have to happen before we see virtual land as something most people could trust: currency stabilization, and slight but constant rate inflation so that appreciation of investment is inherent (and a monetary policy for virtual worlds which is no doubt someone's PHd thesis at this moment); second, some RL legal precedent which recognizes some degree of real title to virtual lands, not just some company's assurances. The second one may be happening already, I don't know -- law nerds, do you know?

(Snakekiss, by the way, thanks for running so many great and inspiring sites in SL. The Milarepa Land Trust has launched with the hopes that it can capture the immersive and authentic feel of places like Silk Waters Mountain or Red Dragon Street Market.)