Entropia News: MasterCard Deal, RL Bank, More
A small raft of news emerged from the virtual world of Entropia Universe this week, including tie-ups with MasterCard and a real-life bank, and a new awards show being put on by virtual entrepreneurs Anshe Chung and Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs.
First up, MasterCard. Entropia has been trying to implement a real-life card for some time. A year ago, it gave its customers the ability to deposit real money to their game accounts via a bank card used at an ATM. Cash was withdrawn from your real-world account, converted on the fly into PED, Entropia’s virtual currency (which is fixed at 10 to the U.S. dollar), and deposited into your Entropia account. Entropia also has a reloadable debit card that you can deposit your PED to, which is then available as real-world cash at ATMs. Now, the company has struck a new deal with a financial institution that can give its cards MasterCard branding, Entropia says: “The new card will be cheaper to use for our customers, and have more functions including MasterCard branding which will allow the card to be used in retail outlets as well as traditional ATMs.” [Via RCEUniverse.]
I’m always a bit skeptical about what Entropia is up to, for some reason, but you have to hand it to them in this case: they reqally are pushing the boundaries of the financial links between the real and virtual worlds. You can get a World of Warcraft-branded Visa card now, but that’s just a loyalty program, it doesn’t turn your Warcraft gold into cold, hard cash.
Entropia also issued a press release, relating to its recent auction of banking licenses, in which it claims that one of the winners of those auctions is “representing a real life bank.” It’s hard to call this an important development without knowing the details of which bank and what representative won the auction, but it’s certainly worth noting. Another winner of a license is apparently a Russian Internet payment provider.
Finally, there comes news [also via RCEUniverse] that Jon “Neverdie” Jacobs (the former Entropia spokesperson who helped the company into the spotlight with a purchase of some expensive Entropia real estate), and the entrepreneurial avatar Anshe Chung (who made her pile in Second Life but now also operates in Entropia and elsewhere) are joining forces to mount the Virtual World Awards, which will be a presentation of the Virtual Worlds Academy that the two apparently founded in March. There’s even a press release marking the initiative. Sounds like fun, and a good way to recognize great projects, but I can’t help wishing the Academy was the initiative of a more broadly based industry group. Still, get your nominations in now.
Feeds
“Mark Wallace says: A year ago, it gave its customers the ability to deposit real money to their game accounts via a bank card used at an ATM. Cash was withdrawn from your real-world account, converted on the fly into PED, Entropia’s virtual currency (which is fixed at 10 to the U.S. dollar), and deposited into your Entropia account. Entropia also has a reloadable debit card that you can deposit your PED to, which is then available as real-world cash at ATMs.”
A little mix up on wording here I believe. Entropia has been a Real Cash Economy with the ability to deposit and withdraw using several mechanisims including Credit Cards, Internet Wallets, Etc) for years. One year ago they launched the ATM card that allowed you to withdraw your PED at AMT’s rather than having to wait for the traditional withdrawal method (boardering on Snail Mail). Now, the new card provider has added lower fees and MasterCard branding allowing you to not only access your PEDs at ATMs but anywhere Matercard is accepted. (my sounding like a commercial is purely accidental and unintentional)
Is it a metter of time before Linden implements the same type of system? Is there a demand for it?
As for the Acedemy, I’ll be interested in seeing what the categories are. Once I can log into their site that is…
Nate Randall
RCE Universe
Thanks MW, very interesting about the MC-Entropia endeavor.
NR>Is it a me(a)tter of time before Linden implements the same type of system? Is there a demand for it?
One suspects this will happen sooner, rather than later. There are a whole host of legal and public policy issues surrounding taxation, money laundering, logistics that I would imagine LL and other virtual world host providers are looking into. However, interesting that Entropia is moving forward with these money exchange and payment mechanisms, and that very mainstream companies like MC are in the mix.
MW> Virtual World Awards, which will be a presentation of the Virtual Worlds Academy that the two apparently founded in March. There’s even a press release marking the initiative. Sounds like fun, and a good way to recognize great projects, but I can’t help wishing the Academy was the initiative of a more broadly based industry group.
Interesting to see how the political machinations that impact RL industry groups and award bodies translate to the VW. Bet they are not so dissimilar.
JimmyJet Fossett - “There are a whole host of legal and public policy issues surrounding taxation, money laundering, logistics…”
No doubt, it is interesting that both Mind Ark and Mastercard have decided it most prudent to go ahead with the card despite any number of legislation that might be implemented to restrict easy access of virtual funds to real world dollars. My suspicion is that any possible legislation will apply to only specific countries (of course) and as such, they would not impact the entirety of card holders. I also believe LL will be paying close attention to how this card works out and possible implications if they teamed with a card company for one of their own.
Another thing to consider when wondering whether LL will go a similar route is the duration of the withdrawal process. For year, Entropia Universe withdrawals have been very slow and tedious (to the tune of 2-4 months oftentimes). In contrast, LL withdrawals happen within a week often, if not sooner. For the participants in Entropia, the speed of withdrawal has been of paramount importance, particularly in light of more investors and entreprenuers getting involved in the platform. Imo, that was a major driving force in MindArk’s original ATM card (last year), and now this Mastercard.
Bonnie Boglioli Randall
aka Svetlana
RCE Universe
Discover also has a clause in their contracts that allows them to use the NAF (national arbitration forum) in which is paid by discover and discover is paid for using them, therefore siding with Discover in 99.999 of the cases. Now the catch is the arbitration process is a violation of your constitutional rights to due process ( trial by jury ). The arbitration can not be allowed if you do not agree to the suit. Both parties must have an EQUAL amount to lose, where they start with a winning hand.