Northwest VC: Second Life

Steve Hall has a nice post regarding Second Life, a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). The post caught my eye because of the questions which followed regarding VCs interest in the space.

Many argue (and I think rightfully so) that investing in a gaming company is like investing in a movie company which is especially risky given the fickle nature of a markets reaction to specific titles. Despite this risk, there must be some interesting way to make a good investment in this quickly growing space.

Currently, one company I have been keeping an eye on is called Gaming Open Market. Basically the company allows people to buy and sell virtual currency online. Although they previously served a handful of MMORPG's, they have scaled back to only serve Second Life due to fraud. They have traded ~$200,000 traded since the beginning of the year.

I know, I know. $200,000 isn't much. I agree. It's just that they seem to be growing quite quickly (as evidenced by the numbers on their home page) and I wouldn't be surprised if they become the defacto means of buying/selling currency in the many mmorpg's to come over the coming years.