Psst! Buddy! Wanna Buy a Space Station?

Jon Jacobs just spent $100,000 to purchase a virtual space resort in the online game Project Entropia. Smart move, dumb move, or sharp PR move?

On October 24, Jon Jacobs spent the equivalent of $100,000 in an auction for a virtual space resort in the online game Project Entropia, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The auction began October 21, 2005, with a starting price of one Project Entropia Dollar (PED)—the game’s unit of currency—with a buyout price of 1,000,000 PED.

Here’s the trick: Mindark, the company which created and operates Project Entropia, lets players move currency back and forth between the game’s economy and real money. Players can invest real money in their characters and their activities, buy goods and services, construct and sell items, but they can also convert their Entropia money into real currency. In theory, players can earn real money for playing an online game. Project Entropia reportedly boasts roughly 250,000 registered accounts.

Mindark keeps the game’s currency pegged to the U.S. dollar—one PED is $0.10 U.S.—so the space station’s auction buyout price of 1,000,000 PED translates to $100,000 in "real" money.

What does a $100,000 investment in online real estate (virtual real estate?) get you? Jacobs will control the station’s naming rights, will be able to rent out 1,000 apartments to other players, be able to deed out 100 booths and stalls in the station’s shopping mall, tax all hunting and mining taking place in the station, manage land as he sees fit, host (and charge admission to) special events on the station, control marketing and advertising on the station’s billboard system, and let the station act as a "spawning" point for new characters entering the Project Entropia game: theoretically, Jacobs could market his spaceport in the real world as a preferred way to enter the game. Assuming the Project Entropia game stays online for a few more years and sustains its membership, speculation indicates Jacobs could earn back his money within a couple years at current game prices.

Speculation has also been rampant that "Neverdie" might be in cahoots with Mindark to generate publicity, that the player might be a Mindark employee, or (even better) the "Neverdie" might be entirely virtual with no real world counterpart. Although connections between Mindark and Jon Jacobs can’t be ruled out, some slight surfing shows the man seems to exist in the real world as something of an independent film notable, having written, produced, directed, and starred in a number of movies, including the 2003 dance flick Hey DJ!, which also featured his wife Tina Wiseman (who died earlier this year) and both their Project Entropia avatars.

The new owner will take delivery of his as-yet-unnamed spaceport December 21, 2005.