What's that saying about a fool and his money...

@Zaphod

I love to see clueless people talk about things they don't know... The Buzz will probably get his money back in 1 year and then he will start making the profit... So inform yourself people b4 trash talking

How does he report that on his taxes?

I have this bridge in Brooklyn that I am willing to part with for a song, e-mail your bids to sucker@borneveryminute.com

He doesn't. Welcome to the lawless virtual world, reason why item-mall based MMOs fully bloom and milk people around. Hopefully this will change soon.

Calypso at least takes a Real Economy approach. So this lucky guy that had enough capital will actually be making money a few months from now, this was an investment.

Yes.. Joystiq reporting on one man's stupid buying will create so much media attention for this man, Barbara Walters will be BEGGING for an interview and he will surely make over 330,000 dollars from all the media sharks swimming around him for him to grace them with a story. You are truly informed, jack@ss.

Nope, this will be just an extra, Mr. Anonymous. His revenue from in-game taxes on the facilities of the space station that players use and pay for everyday is the reason he will be earning his money back and eventually starting to profit from this passive source, because this game allows you to cash in... and cash out.

Obviously the real passive profit opportunities are rare and very expensive - this was one of them and the media loved it.

Someone who has $330,000 isn't a kid blindly spending a few dollars of real money for some virtual pointless item to look cool as it happens on other "Free to Play" MMOs.

I'm pretty sure Alex was referring to the in-game money Buzz can now make off of his space station, not any money he might get from media attention. Unlike other MMOs, Entropia Universe/Planet Calypso uses a "real world" economy where there is an actual exchange rate between US dollars and the in-game currency and you can actually earn a living from playing the game.

That is until the game inevitably shuts down like all MMOs and Buzz has absolutely nothing to show for his $330,000 "investment".

Dude, u are aware this game has been running about 8 years already and has just upgraded to Cry engine for another 8? Its a ballzy manouvre but this guy will almost definately make his PED back.

So does anyone know of anyone else who's bought property like this guy and made money on it?

@Alex

You can say that Zaphod is uninformed all you want, but it doesn't change things. You yourself say he will "probably get his money back" and hey, maybe he will. Danieros calls this an investment, an technically, yes it is.

But maybe, and probably, do not make this a wise investment.

I don't know how much any of you actually know about economics, or what has actually happened to the economy, but this article made me laugh because it so perfectly sums up what is wrong with the economy. This particular case takes the problem to the n-th degree.

The reason there is such a credit crunch, and failing banks and a wrecked housing market is that the things people have been buying for the past 20 years have zero value. Let me say that again: even if you pay $330,000 dollars for some piece of 'virtual' real estate, and even if you get that money back (and you manage to turn a profit on it) there is not intrinsic value to the purchase.

When we stopped manufacturing things, and building bridges, ect. money starts getting wasted on things that have no intrinsic value.

The funny thing about the article is this: let's say they did renew all of their servers for another 8 years, and another 10 after that, at some point the 'value' of this property is going to go down; way down. If it can happen to real properties that people can actually use, then it will certainly happen to a 'virtual' property. So this is just a really expensive game of hot potato.

Personally, I would be just as pleased to see a follow-up story reporting this guy making all of his money back through his in-game earnings as I would be to hear that there was a massive server failure or hack and this guy lost his 'virtual' property.

Um...you really can't call yourself Zaphod and criticize. Zaphod Beeblebrox would think it was a hoopy thing to do! Belgium man, Belgium.

Al Gore should sell carbon credits there...

Yes, another has made a similar move in the same game by purchasing an asteroid for 100k USD. Made his money back in about 8-9 months. Has owned it for around 3 years now.

I have played the game since 2003 personally. With the recent upgrades visually, I do not see why it wont last another decade easy... it is surviving the world wide recession, period.

http://www.worldsinmotion.biz/2007/09/entropias_club_neverdie_makes.php

"In 2007 alone, the real cash turnover between players in Entropia Universe exceeded $400,000,000 USD!"

http://www.virtualmindhive.com/component/content/article/3-press-releases/38-lemmys-army-to-decend-on-entropia.html

research, learn, educate yourself before speaking on things you know nothing about.

Never heard of the game. O_o

@Ebo-Ice

I know that you are all warm and fuzzy about your little game, but before you shoot back another reply riddled with grammar errors, and essentially just repeating what others have already said in this thread, why don't you go to the library and actually pick up a book.

And before you ever decide to tell me to educate myself on what I am talking about, maybe you should at least understand what topic I'm talking about. My post had little to do with video game, and much more to do with basic economics.

You can naysay all you like, but economics is a science, and making guesses about the future of a video game is no different than the people who make guesses about how well actual real estate, or oil or even tech stocks will do.

Don't believe me. I'm full of it. Go put all of your money into some virtual property. I'm sure your investment will be well worth it.