Titled "You Only Live Twice", this Monday night's episode of Four Corners looks at virtual worlds, their possibilities & their limits. Should be interesting.
The reporter is answering questions after the episode from an ABC Island within Second Life.
Here's the link to the Four Corners website that explains a bit more about it
http://abc.net.au/4corners/
Mark's Contribution:
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"here's nothing real about Anshe Chung's real estate portfolio, but that hasn't stopped the virtual property magnate amassing a small fortune which she intends to turn into a much larger one.
In just 32 months, Chinese language teacher Ailin Graef has transformed an outlay of $US9.95 into virtual assets worth at least $US1 million in real money.
Graef has achieved this in a virtual world called Second Life where she is better known as Anshe Chung, the community's foremost property magnate.
Anshe's Second Life portfolio includes virtual property assets equivalent to 36 sq km in size. But there's nothing real about this real estate. It's actually a 3D simulation housed on 550 networked computers.
And, believe it or not, there are people willing to pay sums ranging from $US100 to $US1000-plus to own a plot of land in Second Life."
Last edited January 15, 2007 - Note created January 3, 2007
Virtual property queen says thanks a million - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.auFrom TechNewsWorld
The Quest for Big Business in Second Life
By Leslie Brooks SuzukamoPioneer Press
03/24/07 4:00 AM PT
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/56491.html
3 comments:
HERE WE GO!!!!!
Big question - How do you make money in Second Life????
Marketing question - How can you run a marketing campaign in Second Life??
Read the following news clipping!!!!
Since its public launch in 2003, the virtual world Second Life has become a haven for entrepreneurs. And while the number of people making a considerable profit is still relatively small, it is growing rapidly.
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.
Big question - How do you make money in Second Life????
Well in theory you should be able to make money in Second Life in the same ways you can make money in the real world. If you can build a property portfolio then no doubt you can build a business people would want to purchase, either retail, service, b2b or consumer focussed.
Marketing question - How can you run a marketing campaign in Second Life??
Given Second Life is a virtual world then can you not take advantage of this through strategic product placement as part of a marketing campaign? Ie. couldn't the Avatars be driving holden brand cars, drinking Lavazza coffee and using Ansell condoms? What about advertising on virtual billboards and other outdoor media? Also - could you sample in Second Life? Might be a way to test launch a new product before putting it out into the real world.
virtual asset
From TechTarget
This e-newsletter is published by WhatIs.com, a targeted Web site from TechTarget, the most targeted IT media and events company.
Copyright 2007 TechTarget. All rights reserved.
A virtual asset is a representation of currency in some environment or situation. In this context, currency can be defined as either a medium of exchange or a property that has value in a specific environment, such as a video game or a financial trading simulation exercise. Monetary virtual assets are often called virtual currency.
Virtual assets may have an equivalent value in real world money. In Second Life, the popular 3-D virtual world, the currency is the Linden dollar (SLD), which characters use in all the familiar ways we use money in the real world. As of late March 2007, the Linden dollar was trading at an exchange rate of 267.97 against the United States dollar (USD). The company behind Second Life, Linden Labs, maintains an exchange called the "LindeX" which is reported to process approximately $230,000 (USD) in currency exchanges on a daily basis.
Virtual asset trading can lead to real-world fortunes. A Wired News article ('Virtual Cash Breeds Real Greed') quotes trader Kenneth Michael Merrill: "What I love the most -- and the idea that gives me chills -- is that I am buying nothing, and then selling nothing, for a profit." In 2006, Ailin Graef became the first real-world millionaire from dealing in virtual assets. Through her atavar, Anshe Chung, Graef grew an initial $9.95 investment into an equivalent $1 million (USD) in Linden dollars and other virtual assets, including shopping malls, chain stores and business investments.
Within the world of gaming, virtual assets also include tokens that give the player greater privileges or abilities, such as a special sword or a magic potion. Like the gold and money in games, these assets can be traded for real world currency. One of the sources of virtual assets for games is low-wage workers toiling in less advantaged areas of the world. In an article in The Observer, Tony Thompson writes about a so-called virtual sweatshop in Caracal, Romania where, at the time of writing, 10 hours of game-playing would yield the worker the equivalent of about $5.50. Through sources such as Gamersloot.net, players who want immediate status in a game can skip the time and work required to get to the highest level by buying a promotion for their character or buying a ready-made avatar.
In what has been termed "virtual mugging," unscrupulous players have sometimes used bots to defeat others and take their properties. Virtual assets have also been involved in real-world crimes, including fraud and murder. In China, a dispute over a dragon sabre in The Legend of Mir III led to the murder of gamer Zhu Caoyuan. His killer, Qiu Chengwei, was sentenced to life in prison. In another case, a vice-president and two accomplices of the company were prosecuted for copyright infringement for selling duplicated copies of rare items in The Legend of Mir II.
The cross-over of virtual assets to the real world is likely to become much more common: According to many analysts, it is only a matter of time before virtual assets become subject to real-world taxes.
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MORE INFO:
> Business Week reports on 'Second Life's First Millionaire.'
> UMMO Letters provides a virtual currency chart.
> For The Observer, Tony Thompson explores a virtual sweatshop in Romania.
> PlayNoEvil.com reports on in-game security, trading and crime.
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