I would like to see a rebuttal of this. How does your virtual property example of Ultima Online real estate differ from the services described by th0m?
I'll help you. They are intrinsically less valuable.
Ultima Online does not sanction or control the sale of these assets (AFAIK) so they could change the value of these assets with impunity. If real estate is scarce, they could "virtually" increase the total amount, which would have the same effect as a government printing more money. They could change any rule of the game and change the value of the property.
With the example of online minutes from a phone company, the phone company cannot redefine "minutes" or change the service without breach of contract. A "month" of HBO is a month. The worst HBO could do is decide to make the service free to everyone, in which case all you lose is a month's payment. A domain name is absolute. There can be only one resolution to the browser query of http://slashdot.org.
Other than being a bad value, the examples of "virtual property" are no different than examples of real or meatspace property. Many things of monetary value cannot be held in your hand: 1000 shares of MSFT, car title, mortgage, bank statement.
My favorite line: "ooh! ooh! virtual property paid for with *virtual money*! another monumental technological discovery" [snip]
What's the difference between virtual money, which is a mere representation of money, and real money, which is a mere representation itself? There is no difference. The value is attributed and not inherent. American one hundred dollar bills only have as much value as we think other perople think they have. I know that the grocery store will let me walk out with a cart full of food if I let them take a shiny one hundred dollar bill, but I don't carry one around. Instead I pay for it with virtual money I store on a plastic card in my wallet.
Re:virtual property (Score:2)
I would like to see a rebuttal of this. How does your virtual property example of Ultima Online real estate differ from the services described by th0m?
I'll help you. They are intrinsically less valuable.
Ultima Online does not sanction or control the sale of these assets (AFAIK) so they could change the value of these assets with impunity. If real estate is scarce, they could "virtually" increase the total amount, which would have the same effect as a government printing more money. They could change any rule of the game and change the value of the property.
With the example of online minutes from a phone company, the phone company cannot redefine "minutes" or change the service without breach of contract. A "month" of HBO is a month. The worst HBO could do is decide to make the service free to everyone, in which case all you lose is a month's payment. A domain name is absolute. There can be only one resolution to the browser query of http://slashdot.org.
Other than being a bad value, the examples of "virtual property" are no different than examples of real or meatspace property. Many things of monetary value cannot be held in your hand: 1000 shares of MSFT, car title, mortgage, bank statement.
My favorite line:
"ooh! ooh! virtual property paid for with *virtual money*! another monumental technological discovery"
[snip]
What's the difference between virtual money, which is a mere representation of money, and real money, which is a mere representation itself? There is no difference. The value is attributed and not inherent. American one hundred dollar bills only have as much value as we think other perople think they have. I know that the grocery store will let me walk out with a cart full of food if I let them take a shiny one hundred dollar bill, but I don't carry one around. Instead I pay for it with virtual money I store on a plastic card in my wallet.