virtual money
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Proverbial Wallets make your metaphysical money a little more tangible
Counting dollars and cents on the checkout counter really makes you feel the weight of every expenditure. Swiping a credit card or waving an NFC device over a sensor? Not so much. Enter the Proverbial Wallets from the Information Ecology group at the MIT Media Lab, three separate devices that use three haptic techniques to curtail your spending. First is the Bumblebee, which buzzes and vibrates whenever money comes into or goes out from your account. Next is Mother Bear, which becomes harder to open as you get closer to your spending goal. Finally is Peacock, which swells proudly as your bank balance does the same. Sadly none of these are actually available yet, but we have a feeling if they were they might put a bit of a hurting on our very real and very strict budgets.
Korea rules that virtual currencies can be exchanged for real money
The odd thing about us gamers is that we seem to think of the various doodads in our games as being real -- even more to the point, as being ours. We think and act as if we're owed some compensation if we're deprived of them. Which is silly, really -- after all, that Monster Signa isn't a real staff, that Deputy Chain Coat isn't a real coat, and all that gold isn't real money. Except that now, in South Korea, it is. A ruling by the nation's supreme court has stated that virtual currency is the equivalent of real-world money. Even more sweeping are the details of the case that led to the ruling, in which two men were on trial for exchanging a large amount of Lineage II Adeena for cold, hard currency. For those of you who might not be drawing the link, the core there is that selling in-game currency for real money is essentially just an exchange of currency and perfectly legal in South Korea. This could have sweeping implications for RMT operations the world over, not to mention free-to-play games and... well, online games in general. The official story is available online from both the Korea Times and JoongAng Daily.
