Virtual bank licenses??
I have to admit, this boggles my mind. Plenty of people seem to have doubts about Entropia Universe already (just today, Scott Jennings quipped “Ponzi scheme? Probably”). When it was announced that they had partnered with financial institutions to get bankcards made, eyebrows were raised. (For those who don’t know, you can get an Entropia bankcard and use it to withdraw real money from your RPG account — basically, cashing out your currency).
Today there’s a press release saying that they intend to auction off to five users “virtual banking licenses.”
…the virtual Entropia Universe banks will work in much the same way as real world banks, being initially provided with secure systems enabling them to:
- Lend money to Entropia Universe citizens and collect interest for this service
- Partake in the design and naming of their own virtual bank building(s)
- Utilize the extensive advertising opportunities available within the Entropia Universe
- Make their own personnel available through avatars that can interact with and provide service to other avatars
My immediate reaction is, “fiduciary laws in Sweden must be really lax.” But then looking at it more closely, I suppose that stuff like lending to other players with the game currency and getting a building are no big deal. It’s the interface to the real world that is the different bit.
Nonetheless, it’s yet another signpost towards the issues that will certainly arise as virtual worlds allow more cashing in and cashing out. If these truly “will work in much the same way as real world banks” as the press release says, then there’s a host of laws associated with that — and I doubt too many videogame developers are ready to incur the sorts of uptime, guarantees, response times, and security rules that banks have. Would something like this mesh with say, Linden’s open source Second Life client? Probably not in the eyes of law enforcement…
Interesting times indeed.
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01/10 12:51 ‘Second Life’ Opens Source Code (Feedster on: second life) 01/10 12:09 Linden Lab Offers Source Code To Second Life Software (AHN) (Feedster on: second life) 01/10 09:17 Virtual bank licenses?? (Feedster on: entropia universe) 01/10 09:17 Virtual bank licenses?? (Feedster on: second life) 01/10 08:43 Second Life Sex-Oddities (Feedster on: second life) 01/10 08:41 Second Life Graphics Card Problems
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[…] Bloggers January 10, 2007 01:50 The perfect storm of user created garbage… Sit down, kids, Uncle Psychochild is gonna go off on a rant. I still like to Slashdot on occasion. Yeah, it’s not where the cool kids hang out these days (Digg.com), but I’m getting old and set in my ways. It’s still a pretty decent site for tech news, and sometimes the discussion is worthwhile. Yeah, sometimes. But, when it goes wrong it goes seriously wrong. Source: Psychochild Categories: Bloggers 01:17 Virtual bank licenses?? I have to admit, this boggles my mind. Plenty of people seem to have doubts about Entropia Universe already (just today, Scott Jennings quipped “Ponzi scheme? Probably”). When it was announced that they had partnered with financial institutions to get bankcards made, eyebrows were raised. (For those who don’t know, you can get an Entropia […] Source: Raph's Koster Website Categories: Bloggers […]
the end of the world is upon us…
Hehe… that is sort of messed up. Does that mean people will need debt counseling in real life and in game? Geez! They will have to make pawn shops so people can pawn their uber loot to pay their bills, lol. Then when someone’s loan goes into default there is going to be an NPC repo man coming to take your stuff!
I simply have never seen anything out of PE to ever convince me that it isn’t a complete scam. I just hope they don’t wind up making law for the industry the way BSI did.
[…] Jan. 10th, 2007 @ 12:17 am Virtual bank licenses??http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RaphsWebsite/~3/73154923/https://www.raphkoster.com/2007/01/09/virtual-bank-licenses/I have to admit, this boggles my mind. Plenty of people seem to have doubts about Entropia Universe already (just today, Scott Jennings quipped “Ponzi scheme? Probably”). When it was announced that they had partnered with financial institutions to get bankcards made, eyebrows were raised. (For those who don’t know, you can get an Entropia bankcard and use it to withdraw real money from your RPG account — basically, cashing out your currency). […]
New things (well, Entropia has been around for FOUR years now…) are always perceived as scams, apperently. Those interested can see the MindArk finacial statements on its web site, http://www.mindark.com.
[…] License to Launder? Entropia Universe opens up bids for banking and Second Life may add ATMs Virtual world banking is hot with the announcement by Mindark for their Entropia Universe that they are auctioning off 5 bank licenses and third parties are moving to place real ATMs in Linden Lab’s Second Life, according to Slashdot, Raph Koster, and Tony Walsh. Whatever one’s views of Mindark and Entropia Universe, they have been pioneers in making “virtual worlds” “real” with their Game-to-Real-to-Game (G2R2G) initiatives. Last year, they announced ATM cards for Entropia Universe and now they are launching licensed in-game banking. There are numerous game design, business, legal, and technical issues that these efforts raise. Two that may put the games and the industry at the most risk is money laundering and fraud. By facilitating the easy conversion between virtual currencies and real currencies, these games are inviting the attention of criminals (and law enforcement). After all, why print counterfeit money, when you can simply update a database? The lack of control, easy accessibility, and international nature of these online games will make them interesting targets for criminal enterprises. Of course, an even better system would allow access via a cell phone and SMS so that a conventional computer and broadband connection would not be required. – How long until a criminal or criminal group orchestrates large scale fraud in a game that causes its collapse? (we have already had serious fraud, see earlier incident involving a VP at Shanda in China) – How long until a criminal group builds, licenses, or takes over an online game? Posted by SecurePlay in Game Commerce, Game Culture, Policy, Law, and Politics, Real Money Transactions ( RMT ), Virtual Asset Purchase Games, Virtual Currencies & Microtransactions, Virtual Theft & Property Rights at 10:52 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) […]
See, that is exactly why I doubt PE. Instead of linking to good reviews of the play experience, I get links to a financial prospectus. The last time somebody talked to me about a game that would improve my financial position, I was riding a Chicago city bus, and the gentleman in question had a wad of money in one hand, and three cards in the other. I didn’t buy it then, and I’m not buying it now.