Virtual Cash Breeds Real Greed 

Kenneth Michael Merrill is perhaps the first of a new kind of currency speculator. He's using a recent discovery of his, the Gaming Open Market, to profit by trading money that can't be used in the real world.

The Gaming Open Market, or GOM, is a recently launched website that serves as a currency exchange of sorts. But it's not enabling the buying and selling of different countries' money. Instead, it lets players of a group of online games -- including Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Second Life, The Sims Online, There and others -- traffic in the currencies of those virtual worlds, trading game money for U.S. dollars or, soon, even allowing players to trade across games.

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never settle.

"What I love the most, and the idea that gives me chills, is that I am buying nothing, and then selling nothing, for a profit," said Merrill. "We may not have flying cars, but I think virtual currency exchanges (are) a sign we live in the future."

For years, players of games like EverQuest and Ultima Online have been trading in those worlds' goods and currencies in forums like eBay. But those traders had little protection; if the seller never showed up to deliver, the buyer could well be out of luck. Furthermore, traders had to wait for auctions to end before conducting their business.

With that in mind, the GOM is hoping to replace eBay as the market of choice -- for virtual currencies at least -- and is essentially acting as a one-stop shop that provides the added benefit of holding currency securely for buyers and sellers.

"The only place you look these days is eBay," GOM founder Jamie Hale said, but "it's hard to get an overview of the market or figure out who is selling how much for what price."

Hale determined it was in his best interest to "try to consolidate things and move the foreign exchange market (in a way) that is conducive to trade."

GOM allows players to post blocks of game currencies they want to sell, along with an asking price. For example, a block of 250 of Second Life's Lindenbucks currently sells for $1.06, but that price fluctuates based on demand. To date, nearly $10,000 has been traded on GOM.

For a commission -- which totals about 4 percent, from both sides -- GOM then puts together sellers and buyers. All currencies for sale must be deposited with GOM, and accounts are settled mostly through PayPal payments.

Hale and his associates have accounts in each of the games whose currencies trade on GOM and will personally deliver the funds to the buyer in the virtual world, he said.

For now, GOM only enables dollar-to-game-currency trades. But Hale said he hopes that once traffic in the various currencies picks up, the exchange will allow players to make trades directly between, say, Lindenbucks and Simoleans -- the currency of The Sims Online -- using variable exchange rates.

One advantage that GOM offers people like Merrill is that they don't even have to play the games to make trades. And that enables him to play out a fantasy of being a currency speculator.

"I imagine myself the virtual Kirk Kerkorian or Warren Buffett," he said. "My day is very casual, but I like the feeling of wearing a suit and sitting at my desk issuing commands (like) 'Buy!' 'Sell!' It feels pretty cutting-edge -- and powerful.

"I feel like I am above the players of these games. They are toiling and investing hours and hours into creating wealth and building empires and here I am, no virtual avatar running around and no virtual real estate, just skimming money off the top."

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