WTF: Seriously people... virtual gifts.

balthazarr · 22-12-2009, 02:38 PM

From: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/...1221-la2k.html

Quote:

Spare the tree: pixels the new gift for Christmas
JONATHAN FRANKLIN
December 22, 2009

Millions of presents will never make it under the tree this Christmas. Nor will they be wrapped. Or even touched.

Sales figures point to a record year for virtual bestsellers - sales of virtual products in the United States alone are expected to pass $US1 billion.

As the old-school economy clunks along, saddled by the financial crisis, the world of micropayments and using real money to buy virtual items for social gaming has created an unprecedented Christmas market in the virtual world.

Every day thousands of virtual Christmas trees are sent from an Amazon server, the pixels appearing worldwide in Pet Society - a virtual world populated by highly motivated interior decorators who seem to spend the better part of their time online, changing clothes, kissing their friends and upgrading the bedroom. Every month an estimated 21 million people - equal to Australia's population - are active in Pet Society.

In these circles there is nothing weird about inviting your virtual friends into your virtual living room to admire your virtual Christmas tree. This year, tens of thousands of people bought virtual trees.

Virtual gifts usually cost about 15 cents. At just over €2 ($3.22), the tree is virtually off-the-charts expensive.

The trees also travel. A virtual tree that lands on a Facebook or MySpace site might be sent to an iPhone - then there will be Yahoo and Google hits. Population growth on Earth implies disasters - in virtual life, population growth means clean profits. "Every day we sell 20 million items," said Sebastian de Halleux, co-founder of Playfish, the London gaming company that developed Pet Society. With other online hits, it logs more than a billion game sessions a month. ''We run games as services and a Pet Society player may spend $5 every week.''

People spend more money on sending virtual Christmas trees to friends than they would for a real tree at home. For the former, de Halleux gleefully noted, ''the production cost is zero".

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

:

I don't get it.

Then again, people seem happy to spend stupid amounts of money on BS like ringtones, wallpapers, etc. for their phones ("Only $6.60 per week, plus $6.60 sign up..."), or more BS like gamer pics/themes for the XBox 360...

I must be getting old. :togo:

uranium_death · 22-12-2009, 02:59 PM

I am giving you all a virtual 1 billion dollars out of the goodness of my virtual heart.

Merry Virtual Christmas.

FORD5 · 22-12-2009, 03:06 PM

...

balthazarr · 22-12-2009, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uranium_death

I am giving you all a virtual 1 billion dollars out of the goodness of my virtual heart.

Merry Virtual Christmas.

Only 1 billion?

Is that each, or do we have to share it?

BigAL_250 · 22-12-2009, 03:28 PM

Wow! Whoever thought up this one, big WIN!

So money does grow on trees then?

Coogs289 · 22-12-2009, 03:57 PM

w..t..f..

:

zdcol71 · 22-12-2009, 04:12 PM

In a modern world, I guess wer'e just one step closer to having no idea about the true meaning of Christmas. (I'm not religious btw. but I'm sure it means a little more than this attempt to screw another million bucks out of the event)

MAD · 22-12-2009, 04:27 PM

The internet: Access to all the world's idiots

FordACE · 22-12-2009, 04:35 PM

I don't want to go against the grain, but how is this any different to being a donating member of fordforums? It's just as virtual as some of this other stuff in that article. We all enjoy fordforums, so other people enjoy these other virtual spaces in a similiar manner.

MAD · 22-12-2009, 04:38 PM

You pay for a yearly membership fee. There is no option to buy virtual extractors.

**Polyal** · 22-12-2009, 04:45 PM

Im actually all for some way in which we all get our mail etc through an inbox that is linked to an address and house (not person). That way I dont have to hand write 50 odd bloody christmas letters, buy them, spend $25 bucks on stamps to have them possibly delayed because of a hissy fit.

Theres my rant, christmas cards, biggest waste of time, money and resources ever.

Geez Louise · 22-12-2009, 04:51 PM

I have virtually done all my Xmas Shopping. Got into my virtual Ferrari, bought stack loads for virtually everyone and now I am going to virtually sit on my butt as the boss virtually just said - shop on your own time or you can virtually work elsewhere!

I understand electronic Xmas cards etc...but virtual gifts? What if you dont like it? Can you get a virtual refund??

Half the fun of Xmas is going to shops, buying stuff you dont want to, for people you dont like and having a huge credit card bill you dont need!

Ahhh... the joys of Christmas.

jcxr · 22-12-2009, 05:00 PM

Bah Humbug.

**SSD-85** · 22-12-2009, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAD

You pay for a yearly membership fee. There is no option to buy virtual extractors.

True, you do pay for a service that would actually be useful, as opposed to bunch of pretty looking pixels which seems to entertain the masses these days

: and the best part is they pay real money for it.

zdcol71 · 22-12-2009, 08:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Polyal

Im actually all for some way in which we all get our mail etc through an inbox that is linked to an address and house (not person). That way I dont have to hand write 50 odd bloody christmas letters, buy them, spend $25 bucks on stamps to have them possibly delayed because of a hissy fit.

Theres my rant, christmas cards, biggest waste of time, money and resources ever.

Polyal??? is that foreign for Ebeneezer Scrooge, you have responded perfectly to my previous post

uranium_death · 22-12-2009, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FordACE

I don't want to go against the grain, but how is this any different to being a donating member of fordforums? It's just as virtual as some of this other stuff in that article. We all enjoy fordforums, so other people enjoy these other virtual spaces in a similiar manner.

Read the purpose behind becoming a member. It does go towards things that ensure that people can continue to enjoy the forums, along with other benefits. By becoming a member, you aren't merely lining one person's pockets for their own absolute benefit, and the people that are members are not idiots...

The gifts they send...how are they any different to the free stuff anyway?

Fordman87 · 22-12-2009, 11:44 PM

This makes me sad, i cant believe people would be this lazy!

**Polyal** · 23-12-2009, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zdcol71

Polyal??? is that foreign for Ebeneezer Scrooge, you have responded perfectly to my previous post

Ive got a funny feeling christmas cards are not exactly the "essence" of christmas. You get guilted into sending them once someone else does and then it doesn't stop.

If you actually think about how much waste there is with xmas cards then it makes sense not to do them. You throw them out in a weeks time anyway.

FordACE · 23-12-2009, 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uranium_death

Read the purpose behind becoming a member. It does go towards things that ensure that people can continue to enjoy the forums, along with other benefits. By becoming a member, you aren't merely lining one person's pockets for their own absolute benefit, and the people that are members are not idiots...

I understand the purpose of being a member. As I said in my post, I would be going against the grain by posting what I did. But you do realise that we as a group frown upon other peoples actions, and those same people probably sit there frowning upon our actions. We enjoy fordforums as a virtual place, just the same as these other people do.

Paying for games (pixels aligned in a particular manner) is no different to these virtual places. In a capitalist society, if you can find a market that will make you some coin, why not do it? The people paying are not stupid, otherwise that makes all the people that watch sports, play video games, enjoy going to swimming pools idiots as well.

Thus in conclusion, we are all stupid, cause if we weren't we'd all be billionaires.

Cobra · 23-12-2009, 08:50 PM

A bloke I know, his missus took his credit card to and spent $200 on some crap for her yoville on facebook! Needless to say, he was pretty peeved, since she doesn't work and just sits at home all day using real money to buy virtual credits (or however those stupid facebook games work).

Yaw · 23-12-2009, 11:27 PM

Here, Chill out, have a Virtual Coke buddy.

Falc'man · 24-12-2009, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uranium_death

I am giving you all a virtual 1 billion dollars out of the goodness of my virtual heart.

Merry Virtual Christmas.

Cheapskate.
What the heck, I'll take it.

FordACE · 24-12-2009, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cobra

A bloke I know, his missus took his credit card to and spent $200 on some crap for her yoville on facebook! Needless to say, he was pretty peeved, since she doesn't work and just sits at home all day using real money to buy virtual credits (or however those stupid facebook games work).

Now that's a true idiot. who lets his wife/gf take his credit card. haha.

Cobra · 24-12-2009, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FordACE

Now that's a true idiot. who lets his wife/gf take his credit card. haha.

She was supposed to use it to pay bills but purchased yoville credits instead! Needless tosay, he'll be paying the bills next time.

Iggypoppin' · 24-12-2009, 08:52 PM

Yoville credits? What the hell?? This is why I hate facebook, myspace etc. Such a waste of time and effort. It does nothing for anyone and in this case costs money. I prefer to live my life in the real world, rather than telling cyberspace what I ate for breakfast.

GK · 26-12-2009, 09:11 PM

I guess with Christmas cards, you actually are sending and receiving something, and they can of course be recycled. If they're from someone that knows you well and they've said something meaningful, then I see them as a nice thing.

Of course, if they've just got "Merry Christmas" in them or something quite short, I don't really see the point in sending them.

Here's an idea for next year.

Buy your friend a $5-20 pressie that they actually don't get. For example, $5 will get someone in Africa or similar locale a dose of vitamins for a few weeks. Your friend gets a card saying what the gift is, but the person in the developing nation actually gets the gift! It's sort of virtual reality meets reality. The best bit is, that it actually makes the world a better place.

Two catalogues that are good are the World Vision "Smiles" catalogue, and the Tear Australia "Arguably the World's Most Useful Gift" catalogue.

Here's a few links
http://trans.worldvision.com.au/Smil...px?source=1233

http://www.usefulgifts.org/

GK