I was thinking about making this post a sort of meta-reflection on the human condition in virtual space, but in the end I wanted to kick my own ass for even thinking such pseudo-intellectualist nonsense. So instead, this important piece of news:
Linden Lab has just stepped in to ban virtual banking inside their Second Life simulation.
This just blows my mind. And here’s why:
In case this is the first time you’ve heard of Second Life…. nah, nevermind. You’ve heard of it. The salient thing to know is this: they have a virtual economy of sorts that is based on real currency converted to in-world currency. It can also be converted from play money to real money and hence have sprung up everything from virtual real estate barons to very rich clothing designers and architects whose only products are simulcra of the real-world versions.
There are of course probably two scams running for every “resident” in SL at any given time. Anytime there’s the possibility of real money, you’re going to find someone willing to put an outrageous amount of time into inventing a con to profit from it.
Take gold-farming in World of Warcraft. Someone actually had the idea to PAY people addicted to that GDP-slowing digital crack to do the most horrendously boring parts of the game over and over again for a percentage of the money earned by selling the loot (on Ebay or shadier real-world sites) to normal people who don’t want to spend six months of their lives chained to a computer doing what amounts to a job in their rec time to get a sword for their character in the game. This activity, by the way, is frowned upon by Blizzard and violates their terms of service.
The Lindens on the other hand have encouraged digital economy so when someone inside their virtual world gets the idea to turn to a life of crime, this gold-farming racket is kid stuff. So you WoW pussies are running a sweatshop. Big deal. We’re talking actual crime. Like Enron-style. Big stuff.
What I get such a kick out of is that Second Life crime behaves according to the same rules of the world that so many people praise Second Life for, i.e. the shocking digital recreation of everyday life. So there are Second Life restaurants staffed by real waiters (you’re a waiter in a GAME?!! For FUN?!!) and there are architects and clothing designers who behave just their real-life counterparts and so when criminals get a scam in their heads, it’s just like in real-life too. They actually mirrored the Savings & Loan scams of the 80s! Banks are collapsing! Virtual and REAL personal fortunes are being wiped out by these collapses.
Obviously the Lindens are falling all over themselves to get a lid on this before, like, the SEC can find some way to hold them responsible, but I still get a kick out of this and take my hat off to them for letting it get to this point. Uncanny imitation of real life.
So: who wants to help me set up a stock market in-world? I have this idea about “junk” bonds…
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2 Responses:
January 9th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
That’s pretty hilarious. Yet clearly the simulacra failed at the point where no one wanted to be a virtual FDIC bureaucrat!
This starts to raise all sorts of interesting questions: will there be Second Life unions? Second Life labor rallies? Second Life venture capital and futures? It honestly makes my head tingle.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Charle’s Stross’s little cypberpunk virtual crime novel, /Halting State/ (http://www.amazon.com/Halting-State-Charles-Stross/dp/0441014984), dramatizes events such as these, but is set in 2018. Granted, that’s not terribly far off, but I had no idea stuff like this had already started happening!