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.
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.
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.
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.