Jun 20, 2008 5:12 pm US/Eastern
Consumer Report: Virtual Worlds Give Teens Jobs
Online Games Like 'Entropia Universe' Have Virtual Economies
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Second Life, one of many online games like Entropia Universe, allows players to work virtual jobs for real money.
secondlife.com
For most teens, a typical summer job involves flipping burgers or scooping ice cream. But with teen employment now down 60 percent, even those jobs are tough to come by.
As CBS 2's Consumer Reporter Kirstin Cole explains, more and more are turning to the Internet to make money.
For 18-year-old Mike Everest, landing a job in the virtual world has been a more lucrative venture than in the real one. He's pulled in hard cash just by playing a computer game called "Entropia Universe," which is populated by about 730,000 players.
"In the past five years, I've made about $35,000," Everest said.
People, or avatars as they're called in virtual worlds like "Entropia" and "Second Life," do everything that humans do, from working to shopping. These virtual activities create a need for digital goods and services.
This creates a market for players like Everest, who actually creates and sells virtual products.
"I'm putting plates on my armor," Everest said. "I sell them to other players for a markup."
"Entropia's" John Bates says there are an unlimited number of job options in cyberspace.
"You might want to go into mining, or you might want to become a hunter, or you may want to manufacture armor, or you might even want to build furniture," Bates said.
But in order to do business, you typically need to purchase virtual currency. For example, it costs one dollar for "peds," the virtual currency in "Entropia." When you sell something, the buyer transfers virtual currency into your account, and that money can be converted back into real dollars.
"When I say we have $1.5 - 2.5 million per day changing hands at 'Entropia Universe,' that's actually US dollars," Bates said. "So it's quite a bit of commerce."
Often, these sites will directly deposit your earnings into a checking account, or onto a credit card that you designate.
MORE INFO:Click here to visit the Entropia Universe.
Click here to visit Second Life.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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