From the "wuh-huh" department...

I'm at a loss to understand the implications of this. Apparently, a game called "the simple life" has begun allowing the sale of online property and the prices are getting pretty high

Now, I've played Everquest, Shadowbane, Dark Age of Camelot and currently City of Heroes. I've never bought anything on EBay for my online characters and probably never will but I understand some of the motivation. Those games are based on leveling systems and sometimes you can shell out 15, 50 or 100 dollars to get an edge and level faster. As a result you can see new things quicker and experience more of the story. In fact, the online economy of Everquest is roughly equivalent to the 17th largest economy in the world.

But this story takes things to a whole new level. Maybe it's because I haven't played the "game" but I can't see how something that open ended could yield such high prices. People typically pay 20-60 dollars for a game. An MMORPG might tack on a $10-15 per month charge for the benefit of playing with other people but when you start talking about 100s of dollars in lump sums you're not talking about just playing a game anymore. There must be something else there. As an economist, I tend to believe that the market behaves (at least quasi) rationally. So I'm assuming there must be something behind this. I just don't understand what it could be.

I guess there's always things in life we don't understand... Maybe I'll go visit their website later and see what there is to see.