Darren Herman

Ralph Koster is a virtual world guru. For those of you who do not know him, he is game designer based in San Diego and has worked on such games/persistant worlds such as Ultima Online. In a recent installment of VentureBeat, he talked about virtual worlds with a “caveat emptor” tone – buyer beware.

While I wont summarize the article as it can be found here, I will paraphrase something that Ralph nails on the head:

Microtransactions for digital assets and virtual goods is a rising, potentially multibillion dollar industry. To succeed, entrepreneurs who are building networked systems based on user content (be they citizens of Second Life or the makers of virtual worlds themselves) must realize that anything displayable is copyable; the value lies instead in service and in server-side functionality. Content is like songs around a campfire: destined to be enjoyed for free. Those who build businesses around hosting campfires would be wise to focus on making the campfire experience great, rather than charging listeners by the song.Â

I agree with Ralph 100%. Anything in the digital realm is copyable. If you can make it, it can be copied. Same thing applies to business models, ideas, and so forth. We are all worried about how to protect our ideas – but why dont we focus on creating a fantastic environment to share them?