Most massively multiplayer online games have avoided the potentially complicated entanglements of converting virtual world to real-world currency. One game that has embraced the possibilities is MindArk’s Entropia Universe. Entropia Universe is a virtual universe inhabited with 200,000 players and a collection of planets run by various commercial games and privately run interests — and an in-game economy with a currency tied to the U.S. dollar. Entropia Universe‘s currency, the PED (Project Entropia Dollar) can be exchanged for the U.S. dollar at a fixed 10:1 rate.
Interestingly, MindArk has claimed this fixed currency and stability of its virtual world has helped it to become a safer harbor for investors during volatile, recessionary economic times. That is, investors have shifted assets from real-world holdings to virtual holdings, such as virtual banks and virtual real estate, within Entropia Universe. As long as demand for virtual planets, asteroids, and other real estate remains high, the basic rules of supply and demand should ensure inflationary growth in the value of holdings. One downside is that inflation will drive up costs for equipping new players and increase risks for new buyers of big-ticket holdings.
Yet, Entropia Universe players continue to set new records for sales of their EU holdings. Last year, an asteroid sold for $635,000 by a group of investors looking to recoup the cost from players. The same property was originally sold for $100,000 in 2005 and set a record as the most valuable virtual propery at the time. EU also recently sold five commercial banking licenses for $320,000 each.
For now, what these headlines signal is that Entropia Universe has continued to minimize risk and maximize reward for investors, allowing for new high-end digital projects to be built and for rising valuation for property already within their world.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
