Excalibur, slightly used, minor rock scratches, for sale to highest bidder...

This is a really strange story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm

So, apparently, it's common to trade virtual weapons as part of various Internet games that are out there. For real money. I think it's fascinating although I guess it really isn't that different from buying ... no, I take it back, it's different from buying most stuff. You're not actually buying anything! Just time, I guess - the time it would take to acquire the weapon on your own. I guess it's best compared to buying music online - you're paying for the transmittal of bytes which then you use for entertainment. It just takes a few minutes to wrap my mind around it, I guess. A quick search on Ebay shows that I'm apparently in the minority - people are buying virtual goods all over the place.

It gets really interesting when an online gamer borrows a virtual sword from another gamer and then sells it to someone else! The sword owner apparently came after the 'theif' with a very real knife and killed him while he was sleeping. He's been sentenced to life in prison. There's also a splinter conversation going on about how to deal wtih laws around theft of virtual goods... Am I blowing your mind yet....?

And by the way, this isn't nickle-and-dime stuff. The sword in question was sold for over $400. There are people making real money doing this. I guess, theoretically, you could 'set up shop' in an online game and turn this into a real business, somehow...