Somedays I feel like I have woken up in a Neal Stephenson novel. The following is not science fiction:
The poster child for profitable Second Life businesses is Ailin Graef–better known by her avatar’s name, Anshe Chung–and
Anshe Chung Studios, the business she
runs with her husband, Guntram Graef.Originally, the two ran the company from Germany, but at the beginning of
this year, they set up shop in Wuhan, a large city in China, and are now
employing more than 30 people full-time at, she says, better than local average
wages.Last month, Ailin Graef issued a press release announcing that the company’s
total holdings, comprised mainly of virtual land in Second Life, were
worth more than a million real-life dollars. For those who aren’t familiar with
the complex economies of virtual worlds, such a claim may seem incomprehensible.But for anyone who has spent significant time in Second Life, the
number seems all too possible, given Chung’s dominance of the land market there.On Monday, Graef visited Second Life for a
discussion about her business, how best to set up businesses in Second
Life and the nature of competition there.Unfortunately, as the interview was commencing, the event was attacked by a
"griefer," someone intent on disrupting the proceedings. The griefer managed to
assault the CNET theater for 15 minutes with–well, there’s no way to say this
delicately–animated flying penises.It’s not clear why the griefer attacked, but Anshe Chung is controversial to
some Second Life residents for reasons such as inflexibility on land
pricing, the signs she has placed in many areas of the virtual world that are
visible to anyone flying overhead, and her ability to get many residents to sell
their land to her.
I find it oddly ironic, that businesses in second life are seen as little more than child’s play, but Microsoft has been, and regularly jockeys for, the position of most valuable company in the world. Pray tell, what is the difference between Ailin’s company and any software company?
Physical land is valuable because “God isn’t making any more of it”. Virtual real estate is overseen by a much more capricious “God”, one who can create infinite amounts of it at the push of a button. Doesn’t sound like such a great investment to me.
It’s always funny how libertarians see “Snow Crash” as a libertarian uptopian novel, when Stephenson’s “The Swarm” is lifted straight from Jean Raspail’s “The Camp of the Saints.”
I believe that land is to some extent limited by server capacity at Linden. People like to think that VR is completely unlimited, but it is in fact implemented on physical hardware, and that does impose limitations.
Borovan, your post was pedantic. Just because we appreciate the values in other people’s art doesn’t mean we are political fanatics.
Bill,
While not quite $1M USD, I was able finance my first 2 years of college with sales of items acquired in Everquest. I figured out I was roughly making about $16/h, but that also included time for which I was not specifically acquiring items to sell, but rather just playing for my own entertainment.
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