Duane Melius is a serial social entrepreneur from the UK who has worked in media, events, PR, marketing, research and teaching. This is his first article for Penn Olson. He hopes that you will enjoy it, and then follow him on Twitter.
Dreaming of real estate millions, but just can’t pull yourself away from your computer long enough to visit the real world?
Well, you don’t have to. Let me introduce you to Entropia, a massive multiplayer online gaming platform. Entropia bills itself as “The First Virtual Universe With A Real Cash Economy” and if that statement leaves you turning up your nose in disbelief then let me introduce you to Jon Jacobs.
Jon has recently made $635,000 USD from selling a “property” he owns in Entropia. Yes you read that right. The guy has made over half a million bucks for a pixellated property.
If you think that’s crazy, check out the back story. In 2005 he re-mortgaged his own real life home for $100,000 USD to buy a “virtual asteroid”, which he developed over 6 years into “Club Neverdie”, the hottest virtual destination in the Entropia Universe.
It all starts to make a lot more sense when you realise that before he sold out, he was netting $200,000 USD per year from Club Neverdie, which virtually ran itself.
Before this prime real estate was sold off in chunks, Club Neverdie featured more than a dozen bio-domes, a nightclub, stadium and a mall, where other players spent real cash on virtual goods and services. The largest portion of the sale netted $335,000, and there has been speculation that this is the largest virtual transaction ever.
Meanwhile, Jon Jacobs is still running his operations from a studio in the heart of Hollywood.
“Aspiring actor”, “web celebrity” and “new media mogul,” are some of the terms people use to describe him. Also, with new found fame and fortune come opportunities for him to mingle with Hollywood’s elite. In his own words; “Funny enough, my avatar opened all the doors for me in Hollywood that I couldn’t knock down as an independent filmmaker.”
Image courtesy of BBC
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