When I came across the title of this article : Man sells VIRTUAL REAL estate in an ONLINE game of Entropia for $635,000 - my initial reaction was that of shock and disbelief.
This VIRTUAL, ONLINE property is FINANCIALLY more expensive than a REAL, PHYSICAL property in San Jose, California that has a median value of $450,000.
Who would buy a VIRTUAL product with that kind of REAL money? - That too in this economy. That got me thinking. What is REAL and What is VIRTUAL ? Has there been a precedence for this kind of sale in the past ? Or Is this a nuance of the ONLINE world? Would I ever get to that level of MENTAL state to buy something VIRTUAL with so much MONEY?
The more, I got to think about the definitions of the capitalized words above- it was actually NOT that shocking.
Using The Reality Framework, we determine that the capitalized words in the first sentence all belong to separate Fields/domains.
1) Real Estate - a term usually indicating space from the Physical Field
2) $635,000 - Currency indicating Financial Field
3) Online game - a term from the Virtual Field
We are seeing a collision of Online game, a virtual world for the first time with the other two fields. However, it is no different from the following examples from the past.
- Movie: A Virtual product (the movie itself is virtual though the distribution as a DVD may make it a Physical product) that has value only because we spend time watching it and satisfy our mental emotions.
Here is a list of all time box office collections ranked by revenue.
For instance, Jaws made $ 260 Million more than a quarter century ago in 1975.
- Paintings: Another Physical product that has value only because we like to enjoy them to satisfy our mental emotions.
Here is a list of the most Expensive Paintings
- Book: Another Physical product that has value only because we like to get immersed in it. Harry Potter is a wonderful example of how financial money can be generated out of a Book.
In other words, if we spend more and more time online and start enjoying products and services produced in the virtual domain, businesses would start advertising more in those places and thus we may soon be getting used to a $260 Million virtual real estate just like we are desensitized to a $260 Million Box office revenue of a movie.
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