I do, however, agree with you that few if any players actually profit from the game. Most actually pay to play and never see a dime from the sale of online currency or items, myself included. And it makes perfect sense that, if everyone tried to make a real-world profit, the overwhelming supply would render virtual resources almost worthless.

I still stand by my ascertion, however, that there is plenty of overlap between virtual and real-world economies to warrant consideration. Especially when it comes to games like Second Life, which are built to accommodate such exchanges, it’s worth questioning whether the currency can actually be considered virtual. After all, when we can tack a real-world value on something, can we really call it play money?

Also realize that the price charged is directly realted to the monthly game fee. If people were paying $100 per month to play, they would be willing to pay more for the game currency on Ebay, and if they were selling it they would expect to make more on it. Entropia Universe is no different. Although you can pay the game for free, the things you can do there are extremely limited and slow to progress if you opt not to pay into the game. I’m not saying you can’t play for free and make some money if you really work at it, but it is very difficult to do so. The people successfully doing this are few and far between. The majority of the players pay into the game because it’s too hard to get anywhere otherwise.