Summary of "The Business of Life"

Nowadays, the internet is everything. It provides information and for some it provides an escape and a way of making a living. In the article “The Business of Life,” by Peter Svensson he discusses the aspects of these virtual worlds and the people who make money by playing the game in their everyday life.
People around the world are playing these MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games). The users in these online spaces are forming communities and especially economies that interact with the real world. Entrepreneurs such as Kasi Nafus, whose clothing store online brings in enough income to comfortably support her life style, are taking advantage of this “secondary market” and making money. Nafus does not have to deal with the pains of a real clothing store. There is no fabric to work with, or a factory to make the clothes, instead she is able to use an image-editing program to make virtual copies of the clothes and sell them through data files sent to the buyers accounts. Second Life, the game Nafus creates for, has its own currency that is convertible to US dollars at a fluctuating rate, just like today’s economy.
Although there are a lot of differences between the online jobs and the real life jobs one thing is consistent, outsourcing. Most of the jobs that are created online are outsourced to other countries. Clothing stores are not the only type of online income available. Most of the MMORPGs are fighting games in which players need items to help make them stronger. These games offer an opportunity for “gold farmers,” people who get paid to play the game to get the items and then give them over to a mother company for sale. An example of this is Ilin Aurel, from Romania. He gets paid $200 a month to help find items which other people can buy off Gamerloot.net. This site gives access to “people who don’t mind spending real money to their in-game characters.”
In all respect these online economies are growing quickly. It is estimated that at least $100 million dollars will be traded between real money and the virtual worlds. With the number of users continually growing, the real world trade surrounding these online economies has no option but to grow and expand as well.