An Exploration of Entrepreneurship in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games: Second Life and Entropia Universe

Virtual worlds represent a new market with a distinct economy and many individuals are trying to exploit this very new technology in the search of profitable opportunities. The current paper proposes to study entrepreneurship in the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) Second Life® and Entropia Universe® in which monetary trades are possible. A survey was proposed to the community of players of both games, and from a sample of 244 players, nineteen entrepreneurs were contacted for a second survey. The traits of the entrepreneurs were compared to those of the players and entrepreneurship was observed in Second Life® and Entropia Universe®.  In fact, all the necessary conditions are present for entrepreneurship: a new technology giving new sources of revenues, an entrepreneur willing to invest money in order to increase his wealth, and a market with an economy well understood. The different entrepreneurs have developed successful ventures in several markets, and they had well defined the strategy they wanted to adopt. They have examined the different markets in which they have entered although they did not use all the tools known in the marketing fields. Further, some steps in the process of creation of the venture may not be important and some may be done relatively swiftly, thus the venture creation in MMORPG may be relatively easy. In conclusion, the venture creation may be relatively undemanding in virtual worlds, and this opens new possibilities for the future.