Virtual Sales Showing a Profitable Reality

David Turner--husband, firefighter and father of three children--spent the better part of a year addicted to life in an online world.

For up to eight hours a day, he played the Internet game Ultima Online, accumulating half a million dollars in virtual gold, three large virtual dragon ships and an all-powerful, sword-wielding virtual version of David Turner, whom he named Sir Turbohawk.

When Turner finally came to his senses a few weeks ago and decided to get back to real life, he couldn’t imagine that all that work amounted to just a bunch of worthless, invisible bits of data stored on some computer.

He was right.

Turner, a 30-year-old resident of Hutto, Texas, put his virtual life up for sale on the online auction site EBay.com, and quickly sold Sir Turbohawk and all his precious magical equipment for $521.

“I was wondering if the guy was actually going to pay me,” said Turner, who is still a bit stunned that anyone would pay for a character in an online game. “He sent the check to me the next morning.”

The selling of the virtual world has begun to take off. The sales have marked the growing significance not only of virtual reality but the industry of virtual life, which has been largely forged by computer game companies such as Origin Systems Inc. of Austin, Texas, the creators of Ultima Online.

There was a time when only futurists and science fiction writers could imagine the construction of a virtual reality that could challenge even a tiny piece of real reality.

But the sale of Sir Turbohawk and other online game characters has begun to show that data bits--with enough work--have value too. While real life is priceless, virtual life is worth at least a few hundred dollars, maybe a few thousand if it has enough virtual goodies.

“It would have taken me a year to get that stuff,” said Joe Ciccione, the 32-year-old fleet manager for a New Jersey trucking company who bought Sir Turbohawk. “I can go places I’ve never been before and fight things I could never have fought before. My wife thinks I’m crazy, but I work hard and I deserve it.”

On Thursday, EBay had at least two dozen Ultima accounts being offered for more than $200. One account, with castles, ore smelters for making armor and millions in virtual gold, had a bid of $1,500.

The auction descriptions read like something out of real estate classified advertisements: “This shard comes with THREE HOUSES (large blacksmith being one) AND A PLACED CASTLE and A KEEP DEED!! But that isn’t the best part. It also comes with 500,000 GOLD and many many items including magic weapons and armor (including INVULNERABLE!) of all kinds, some almost impossible to get today! You can mine and smith your brains out on this shard and make another fortune!”

“This is like a dream,” said Richard Kimball, the leader of a group of more than 100 Ultima players who are all thinking of leaving the game together. “We’re sitting on $50,000. I can finally let my character go without thinking that I totally wasted my time.”

Ultima Online is one of the few virtual worlds that have come into existence in the last few years. On the surface it is a typical sword-and-sorcery computer game, in which players murder monsters, accumulate magical items and build the strength, intelligence and dexterity of their characters by slaying and accumulating.

What makes Ultima different is that it was designed to be played over the Internet with thousands of other real players. It is about as close to the science fiction version of virtual reality as technology allows.

For about $50 for the program, plus $10 a month, players can immerse themselves in a world where bakers can gather flour and water to make cakes, carpenters can cut trees and then make chairs, and blacksmiths can mine ore and make armor.

Developing a character’s attributes to acceptable levels can take months. Getting a nice castle or wizard’s tower with a view can take years.

It has taken a year and a half for some characters to reach a point of power and wealth at which they become sought-after items worth real money. The sales also come at a time when many older players have become disillusioned with the game and are ready to move on to other things.

“There wasn’t much for me to do anymore,” Turner said, explaining part of his reasons for leaving Ultima.

Another critical factor was the development of the EBay auction site, which has given sellers and buyers a convenient way of coming together.

Ultima is not the first virtual world, nor is it the first to see the sale of characters. Characters also have been sold in Meridian 59, one of the oldest online role-playing games.

But Ultima Online has been one of the most successful role-playing games, with 125,000 active accounts from around the world. It exerts an unusual influence on virtual life because it is so widely played.

The growth in virtual worlds over the last four years has fueled a budding industry in virtual life, which includes such companies as 3DO Co. of Redwood City, Calif., the maker of Meridian 59; and Newburyport, Mass.-based Activeworlds.com Inc. CompuServe and America Online also have online role-playing games and chat sites for users.

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. is preparing to launch an online multi-player role-playing game, EverQuest, this week, and Microsoft Corp. will release its offering, Ascheron’s Call, in the next few months.

“It’s still a niche thing, but obviously it’s growing when the big players are getting into it,” said Jeremy Schwartz, a senior analyst for Forrester Research Inc., a Cambridge, Mass.-based technology research firm. “If they make it, it will validate the whole idea for the smaller players.”

Role-playing games are among the most engrossing--some would say addicting--online activities because players have so much power to construct their own unique characters. In many ways, the characters and their possessions are like poems or sculptures--artworks that players have spent months or even years crafting.

Kimball, whose Ultima characters are now being bid at $420, said that he had to go through marriage counseling because he spent so much time playing the game.

“I spent a lot of time and a lot of emotion too on that game,” said the 28-year-old information systems management student at Washington State University. “I tell you, the first castle we bought, the feeling was awesome. It was the same as finishing my degree . . . actually, [the degree] wasn’t that big a deal.”

Turner said that even though he enjoyed the game, it became too absorbing. He had done everything in the game but still hung on.

Now, Turner is planning to take a cruise with his wife in the next few weeks--financed in part with the sale of his characters.

“It’s like a relief that I finally got away from the game,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave, but I had to get my life together.”