NEW
YORK (AP) - In one of the largest sales yet of property in an online game, a
Miami resident has bought a virtual space station for $100,000 and wants to
turn it into a cross between Jurassic Park and a disco.
Jon Jacobs, a director of
independent films, plans to call the space resort, in the science-fiction
themed game Project Entropia, "Club Neverdie." Like other land areas in the
game that has been visited by 300,000 players, the resort grounds will spawn
dinosaur-like monsters, which visitors can kill.
Jacobs will take a cut of
the virtual resources that the carcasses yield, like hides.
Jacobs, 39, plans to hire
famous disc jockeys to entertain visitors once a week or so at the resort but
still reckons on netting $20,000 a month from the hunting tax and other income.
"I want to operate this
thing at the level of a major nightclub in a major city," Jacobs said.
Jacobs bought the property
late last month from MindArk PE AB, Project Entropia's Swedish developer. The
game, which has no subscription fee, has its own currency but it's convertible
at a fixed rate to dollars.
About a quarter of the
purchase money came from Jacobs' in-game earnings.
Over three years playing
Project Entropia, Jacobs accumulated items that later became worth thousands of
dollars, like first-aid kits and powerful weapons.
He sold those items last
year to buy an island in Project Entropia, but was outbid - it sold for
$26,500, the previous record sale in that world.
He refinanced his house
shortly after and considered investing some of the cash in the hot Miami
real-estate market, but he realized that if he bought a rental property, it
really wouldn't generate any income beyond what he'd pay for the mortgage and
repairs.
So he invested the proceeds
in the game.
IGE, a leading broker of
game property, said it has handled deals worth more than $100,000, but would
not provide details because of client confidentiality.