Buying Virtual Land in Cyberspace

Posted on December 21, 2004

The virtual world of game playing is becoming a little more real now that people are buying and selling "property" inside the virtual worlds. The BBC reports that a Project Entropia player, who goes by the name Deathifier, has spent $26,500 to buy an island in the massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPGs). The buying and selling of online gaming characters, items and property is growing on online auctions like eBay. For example, a search on eBay.com for the keywords "Warcraft characters" brings up several characters being auctioned with prices in the $200 - $500 range. Deathifier actually sees his purchase as an investment. He told the BBC that he expects to profit from his purchase of the island, which contains a castle and beachfront property, by selling plots to cyber inhabitants. "This type of investment will definitely become a trend in online gaming," Deathifier told the BBC.