Are MMOs illegal now?

[shamus]

I wasn't familiar with MMO's until this week when I heard a story on NPR's Marketplace reporting that Reuters now has employed a full-time bureau chief to report on the economy of Second Life. Here's the Marketplace story. And here's the site on Reuters devoted to reporting Second Life's economy. Crazy stuff . . . .

My first thought, of course, was to get in there and build a casino . . . maybe call it Lucky Leach's or the Golden Goodlatte or something. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

[Vex]

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My first thought, of course, was to get in there and build a casino . . . maybe call it Lucky Leach's or the Golden Goodlatte or something. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

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Inside Second Life you can hardle swing a stick without hitting a slot machine, blackjack table, or simple random lottery game.

I've seen some Holdem tables in there, but nobody was ever playing them.

This brings up an interesting point, however. What would be the implications if a fully functional online poker game were to be built there, using Linden Dollars as chips?

The Linden Dollar is backed by virtual real-estate, the supply of which is carefully controlled by Linden Labs. It works in part as a fiat currency, just like real money. The "government" is Linden Labs, and they tax your property if you own more than a certain amount, and the tax must be paid in Linden Dollars. Linden Labs also grants all paying customers (think of 'em as enfranchised citizens) a weekly stipend in Linden Dollars.

You can also play for free -- if you do that, you can hold currency but not own property, and you get no stipend. Someone with talent could go into the game, and sell his own intellectual property for Linden Dollars, with no investment of real currency required.

There is an exchange of Linden Dollars to real-world currencies. Some people do in fact make some mad bank off Second Life, just by designing things like virtual clothes or custom avatar animations, selling them for Linden Dollars, and selling the Linden Dollars for real money.

I personally doubt the thriving online poker thing could be done in Second Life right now, in practicality. In-game development tools don't offer much in the way of UI functionality -- just play a couple hands at a virtual blackjack table there and you'll see what I mean.

[Thebes]

Dunno what its worth, or have details on it, but I spoke with someone recently at the Portable Media Expo who was trying to build a functioning Second Life poker room.

[Uglyowl]

Second Life is a "pyramaid scheme"

Here is an interesting article about Second Life which is run out of San Francisco.

90% of the industry is sex and casinos. My understanding (never played), is that USD (U.S. Dollars) are exchanged for “Linden Dollars”. These Linden dollars can be used to gamble, buy land, etc. Later these dollars can be exchanged back to real USD.

There are million of subscribers to this game and am wondering if the DOJ would be interested in going after these guys. This company is based in the U.S. and for all intents and purposed in running a gambling ring.

Thoughts?

[1p0kerboy]

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Thoughts?

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Isn't etrade also a mechanism for gambling?

I think the only viable option here is to shut the internet down.

Thoughts?

[Uglyowl]

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Isn't etrade also a mechanism for gambling?

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This is interesting. Some people may use it gamble or satisfy the need for action, but in reality they are just buying and selling pieces of companies.

I think the poker/stock market comparison is very very limited

[grizy]

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First of all, only 1.75 million (North America/Europe) of the now 7 million subscribers to WoW pay the flat $15/month. Most of the Chinese/Korean subscribers pay about $0.09/hour that they play ... lots of inactive accounts. Even if you assume that the other 5.25 million accounts are played 10 hours/month, World of Warcraft is less of a compelling cash cow than you might think.



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while i agree with your point... the idea that the average wow player logs less than 10 hours a month is laughable. 10 hours per week is about as casual as they come.

i am a recovering addict.

[Uglyowl]

I am still coming back to:

Credit Card----->US Dollars--->Linden Dollars---->Second Life slot Machine----->Linden Dollar------>US Dollars------>Credit Card/Bank Account

Is this accurate, I have never played, but this is my understanding based on my reading of what Second Life is.

[soneill34]

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In WoW you can play poker for play money. This money is totally separate from the in game money/gold so it's just there for fun.


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Where?

[xprimex]

"Raise the issue in the appropriate games forums"

do you know of any good games forums? also why do you think tournaments have not caught on in the MMORPG or for that matter video games?