Among the many time worn sayings attributed to the enigmatic group of wise men known as "They" (as in 'They say"), is the gem of wisdom that "nothing is free."
Indeed and in actual fact, sometimes nothing is so far from free that few of us could actually afford it in this lifetime.
I know a lot of you are scratching your heads and wondering which of us is having the communication breakdown.
"I've certainly been able to afford nothing all my life," some of you may be thinking.
Well, that may be true, but sometimes in the world of technology, something that isn't really there can actually cost a whole lot of hard cold cash.
I'm not sure why the cash is supposed to be hard and cold. Presumably you have to keep it in the freezer or something. Business was never my forte.
But, take for example the recent sale of a resort asteroid in the online game world of Entropia Universe.
The game is a massively multiplayer virtual universe (meaning thousands of geeks all online in the same world together) created by a Swedish software company where, among other things, players may buy an in-game currency (PED - Project Entropia Dollars) with real money that can be redeemed back into real world funds at a fixed exchange rate.
That means virtual items acquired or created within Entropia Universe have a real cash value, and savvy gamers can earn a nice living by essentially trading in real estate, services and items that are really just ones and zeros floating around in a computer server somewhere.
You can bet Jon Jacobs' friends and family thought the guy was out of his mind when in 2005 he slapped down a cool (probably just out of the freezer) and at the time record-breaking $100,000 for a hunk of (non-existent except in a computer) space rock in Entropia.
He made back his initial investment by selling mining rights (for minerals that don't exist except in. you get it, right?) as well as some bits of real estate.
Eventually, he developed an extravagant resort on the asteroid called Club Neverdie, after his in-game character's name, and recently sold his interest in the whole enterprise for, are you sitting down? $635,000.
So, let's recap.
This guy sold a virtual asteroid in a computer game I've never heard of, equipped with a full-on resort and casino, admittedly, for a lot more than my own real home is worth.
It's crazy, but that's what's happening in the online world today as more and more people log on and spend their free time as characters or avatars in a virtual game world.
People's pixilated selves are just as into consumerism as the real McCoy, so of course companies have developed new business models to take advantage of gamers' desires for a variety of hats, clothing and virtual things to buy.
So it seems the new growing and very real trend is, indeed, for people to lay down their hard-earned money for what, in reality, really amounts to nothing.
If that is truly the case, then I have for sale a made-up sense of self-importance as well as an imaginary friend who's really good at um chores around the house yeah, that's it.
I'm not picky either. I'll take lukewarm or even room-temperature cash for them.
