Real estate in a Digital world
I was out for a smoke break with Steven Graham (only the world's #1 blog trainer... he's sort of a big deal) and he brought up an interesting point to me.
When is Real Estate going to extend to the internet?
Search terms now will bring up links for those nasty little pay-per-click ads, encouraging sellers to "purchase" their "real estate" on search engines.
But really. There are currently 63,370,436 monthly active users worldwide of Farmville, the addicting Facebook game flooding everyone's notifications; "Joe Blow just planted some crops, and wants your help fertilizing them!"
I have friends who obsess over these games - they're late for work because they had to feed their pigs, they missed their daughter's dance recital because they had mystery boxes to open.
..okay, no stories have been THAT extreme. But I'm sure they're out there.
I'm sidetracked. My point I was trying to make is with this many people obsessing over the game, how long until there are digital estate professionals - people specializing with people buying and selling their farm, or their frontier, or their Sims home?
In games like Farmville, World of Warcraft, and countless others, they've already crossed that threshhold of spending real money for pixels. For a fee, World of Warcraft lets you transfer your character, change your name, and now you can even purchase in-game pets (which have no purpose - they don't even enhance gameplay.) Outside sources will sell gold (only 24.47 for 10,000 gold!), powerlevel your character (all the gameplay, none of the 'work'), sell you hard to find items, and even sell accounts that already have high level characters on them.
There are even lawyers who specialize in digital deeds, a way to ensure your beloved Warcraft Characters, cherished Facebook profile with hours of Farm time, or any other precious pixels you may be in possession of will go to the people you want them to.
So what I want to know from you, my dear ActiveRainers.. what are your thoughts on this? Do you think Steven and I are crazy for letting our minds wander like this? Or do you think in 2, 5, maybe even 10 years from now, you'll see RainMaker blogs on the first page of Google that might look a little something like this?
2 Barn, 1 Cabin Currently Available!
$1,200
Barns: 1
Buildings: 4
Additional: 85 livestock, 65 trees in orchard
Lot Size: 2000x2000 pixels
Style: Farm, plowed & fertilized land
Some things to discuss:
. Well? Are Steven and I crazy?
. What legal issues would this cause?
. What do you think the commission would be on something like this?
. Do you think that digital sales would be an extension of your current license, or you'd have to get a whole new license?
. Anything else you can think of!
Comments(7)