Chad's News

Second Life, a popular MMORPG, allows one to exchange virtual money (Linden dollars) for real money at a varying rate. Now a player claims to be the first person to reach an online net worth that could be cashed in for $1 million. Anshe Chung managed to do this via virtual real-estate transactions over a 2½-year period. This raises some interesting tax questions, which Chad’s News has covered previously.

Link: http://money.cnn.com/blogs/…
(via Neatorama)

Press Release: http://www.anshechung.com/…

This article explains how the new Wii and PS3 motion-sensing game controllers work. The hardware can pick up spring deflections measured in tens of hydrogen atoms.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/…
(via Slashdot)

Sony released its much-anticipated PS3 game console on Friday. They only manufactured a limited number and did not even come close to satisfying the demand. Experts predict the PS3 will be difficult to obtain until next March. With this in mind, gamers starting lining up 11 days early. Enterprising criminals robbed entire lines. Some wackos desperate for attention bought one and smashed it with a sledgehammer. And, of course, the consoles are going on eBay for absurd prices. What I found most interesting, however, is that Sony is selling the consoles for a significant loss.

Link: http://today.reuters.com/…

The Reuters news agency is opening a virtual news bureau in the online world of Second Life. The bureau will provide real-world news.

http://www.infoworld.com/…

http://today.reuters.com/…

Hackers are using their skills to steal login information for online role-playing games. They subsequently sell the players’ items/gold for real money.

http://today.reuters.com/…
(thanks to Josh)

In an update to this post, the professional video gaming association, Major League Gaming, has signed a Halo 2 team for $1 million and a top gaming individual for $250,000. Obviously, getting a computer degree was a bad move on my part—I should’ve been playing games all those years.

http://news.teamxbox.com/…
(via Digg)

I didn’t even know there was a professional video gaming circuit, but now they’re going to be televised. First poker, then video games—what could possibly be next?

http://msnbc.msn.com/…

This sounds like fun, and the price (15 euros ≈ $18.25) is quite reasonable. Hope it takes off in the US, although I wonder how they’ll handle injuries and liability issues—one good lawsuit and out of business they go.

http://www.wired.com/…

People in China are paid to play MMORPGs 24/7 (in shifts). The resulting characters, items, and virtual money are then sold for real money.

http://www.nytimes.com/…