Charging for file space on a server somewhere -- which is,
after all, what virtual real estate (VRE) actually *is* --
so that customers can visit or "reside" in a simulation
makes about as much sense as bringing kids to the beach,
and then placing them inside an empty sandbox, and then
telling them that for each $1 they cough up, they will get
one bucket of sand to play with.
A virtual reality world must be considered a kind of free
port in which revenue will be accrued not from "property taxes"
per se, but from duties on commerce generated within the
simulation. The closest analogy I can come up with -- and
it is a poor one, but it will have to do for the moment --
is that there is no charge for viewing a television
program, but that participation *in* the program, such as
"choosing" the direction of the plot or creating new characters
for the series, would require either labor or money.
I don't want to address the issue of advertising because
the difference between advertising and entertainment content
is rapidly losing its distinction anyway.
There is a charge for cable TV channels, of course, but that's an
access issue. Different department.
[Grinding gear noise]
On the subject of transportation, the only reason to force
people to simulate a mode of transportation, instead of allowing
them to "beam" wherever they wish, is to simulate a mode
of transportation. Q.E.D.
historian@mcimail.com
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