Second Life: Get Rich Quick, or Disconnect Trying?

Second Life is perhaps the most controversial MMO I think I've ever come across. It's hardly even a game, as there is even less plot in Second Life than that which exists in most online games of the genre. However, Second Life's popularity approaches the absurd, and there is a very good reason: Second Life pays players real cash to exist in the game world.

Okay, so it's not THAT simple, but Second Life is perhaps the only legitimate MMO in which players can profit from playing, without breaking the EULA Terms of Service. Being an avid gamer and a veteran of several MMORPGs myself, this concept of making the game (which is invariably a tremendous time dump) worth my while intrigues me. We all want money to some extent, and the gamers who spend lots of time in virtual worlds are drawn to Second Life's promise of wealth - and the hype can be pretty intense. This article, though dated, is the pinnacle of money frenzy - people have really succeeded in real life by playing a game! How do they do it? Can you do it? Maybe, Maybe not.

Second life's methods of earning are split into three major disciplines. The first, and the easiest and lowest-paid, is that of the part time job. You guessed it - there are wage jobs in Second Life just as there are in the real world, and companies will pay players to act as hosts and hostesses in their virtual environments. Players who get hired will end up entertaining visitors to a company's virtual space, and perhaps doing some human advertising on the part of the employer. The Second Life conversion rate is about 240 Linden Dollars for $1, meaning at the rate of one or two L$ a minute, you'll be getting paid a small amount just to chat. No-one's getting rich this way, but for the social butterflies of the Internet, the appeal is easy to see.

The second, more profitable (and much more difficult method) to earn money in Second Life is by offering goods and services to avatars by means of shops. If you can code a hat, or a chic pair of shoes, then you may just a livelihood in the virtual world. On the surface, this method is very appealing to the skilled computer artists and coders, as they can leverage their unique skills to generate income (by selling bits of cosmetic computer code no less). However, anyone who's ever made a model in Maya or Mudbox will be quick to tell you the process is involved, and any computer programmer that you meet will tell you the job is difficult and filled with pitfalls. Second Life has tools that help facilitate the process of creation, but be prepared to spend long hours creating something that people will wish to spend their hard earned Linden Dollars on.

The third, final, and vastly profitable method of reaping wealth in Second Life is, surprisingly, the real estate business. Buy your own piece of virtual earth, whether it be an island, a block on a street, or some other geographical nugget, and you might just sell it for thousands of real dollars! That is the crux of our Second Life millionaire's business plan: real estate in a virtual world. The practice is far older than online gaming, of course, and there's a science and discipline to it that most gamers don't possess from day one, but with some starting capital (perhaps earned from easier jobs within Second Life) and an eye for future demand, and this is where prospective earners will make their bacon.

I've been tempted to pursue the last method more than once, but a lack of funds to invest has so far prevented me. If any of you aspiring moguls find wealth in Second Life, be sure to tell your success stories here!

The WoW Generation, and The Finale

The World of Warcraft has graced (or plagued) my campus for years, and before that, my hometown while I was in high school. It is the titan of the MMORPG market, the standard by which all other Massively Multiplayer RPGs are judged, and is still after nearly four and a half years. The players of World of Warcraft, and often their parents who pay for game time, must wonder to themselves at least once: what is so appealing about a game with no end?

I have a thought or two on this. To me, a game without an ending is a horrifying thing - it is a vortex of incomplete plot, and a game without an ending is no game at all. After all, traditional games are made for the ending - a satisfying sequence in which all that is wrong is set to right, and the protagonist generally trots off to go make babies with the damsel formerly in distress off-camera. The ending, which is to me perhaps the most important element of a game, is utterly absent in the MMO, which is fast becoming the business model of choice for many web-based game publishers.

The truth of the matter is, of course, that endings are contrary to the nature of a persistent online world. If the story concluded, and the millions of players who walk around in World of Warcraft "go home," then Blizzard would indeed lose money, and the game would die. But how does one go on enjoying a world in which they ultimately have little to no impact on?

The MMO is special, in that the players themselves provide the staying power. World of Warcraft is more a game about overcoming great adversity with your friends, rather than seeing a plot to its conclusion. It, and other games like Everquest, Everquest II, Lord of The Rings Online and Age of Conan, are all part of the ultimate online teamwork exercise in which large numbers of players strike out to topple a foe that would be impossible to beat with fewer numbers. The challenge of the endgame attracts people to pursue it, even if the path that leads them there never truly ends.

The World of Warcraft to me is iconic of a change in perception. No longer are we out to rescue the princess from the castle. The princess and her captivity are but a backdrop for the more exciting, dynamic world of human interaction. Players talking with players, and cooperation on a large scale, is the driving force behind the online subscription game. EVE Online is a particularly good example of this, as organizations consisting of thousands have banded together to reach the endgame, pitting the resources of the collective against other organizations in what have become titanic clashes between the members of the player base. The leaders of these organizations run their in-game corporations like they would run their own businesses, and in many cases (being a former EVE player myself), their 'employees' take their job just as seriously.

The drive to compete, whether cooperatively or pitted against one another, is immense. The Internet, a land nearly without accountability, is perhaps the best place for aspiring players to do so. The MMO is fast becoming the standard for PC gamers (if it has not already), and with the advent of the genre, our goals in gaming itself are shifted. Welcome to the Web 2.0 of computer games, and settle yourself in for a long ride.