The Shrine

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/12/17 ... 92.html</a>

MMORPG economy based on real money - ingame island sells for $26K cash</div>

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.project-entropia.com/">www.p ... ia.com/</a>

Link to game itself.</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Project Entropia is, for all intents and purposes, a scam.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '>I dont doubt it.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt ; text-align: left; '>Heh, saving for a mount in WoW is somewhat annoying, although I'm a blacksmith and can now make an armor that sells for about 10g at the auction house.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Addendum: a successful scam.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>I do believe P.T.Barnum had a rather obscure quote for unique situations such as these. Now, if only I could think of the quote....</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Reminds me of Magic: The Gathering.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>I hope it catches on here. We have plenty of rich people that need to part ways with their money.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>What's the scam?</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Unlike the real world, for example, this island you might online might be gone tomorrow due to a bug or the game shutting down. This leads to rather interesting lawsuit possibilities.

This is why virtually no MMORPG companies has ever offered to sell in game items beyond stuff like the zergling pet in WoW and a host of useless trinkets you can get in EQ because if you start selling stuff you also have to take responsibilty when the stuff you sell goes bad.</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Unlike the real world, for example, this island you might online might be gone tomorrow due to a bug or the game shutting down. This leads to rather interesting lawsuit possibilities.

This is why virtually no MMORPG companies has ever offered to sell in game items beyond stuff like the zergling pet in WoW and a host of useless trinkets you can get in EQ because if you start selling stuff you also have to take responsibilty when the stuff you sell goes bad.</div>

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, it definitely seems like a stupid investment...I don't see why that makes it a "scam" necessarily though.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '>A sucker is born every minute?</div>

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>You have to spend cash on pretty much everything and hope you can somehow turn a profit on it in-game. Moreover, I've heard it can be difficult actually getting money back out of it. *shrug*</div>

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Well, whoever made this game has to get money somehow. It'd stand to reason a good deal of the money you put in the game eventually goes to the gamemaker.</div>

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html">P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"</a>

Bingo! (As an history footnote, he actually didn't say it. Good story on it here.)</div>