Virtual Goods

TF2 crap?

any online software...like i dont know...there is a company called steam that sells virtual goods...you know...things that have no real physical properties, but are "virtual"

can i buy a virtual potato from somewhere?

The bitcoin.

Tibia gold around 8 years ago

EVE ISK

An interesting case is probably the game Spiral Knights.

It's a F2P, branded as MMORPG but it's more a CORPG like Guild Wars (open cities but battlefields are limited to small groups). It also offers to the player the possibility to buy some crystal energy (CE) necessary to play, but since it's tradable it acts like a second currency. So basically you can buy virtual currency with which you can play and/or trade for other virtual goods.
But here's the kicker: The game is on steam, and the CE can be traded via steam trade, so it's possible to simply play the game, buy CE from other players, and then buy steam games with it.

So it's a rare case where virtual goods cost, but aslo can generate money, and unlike Diablo III or TF2 the second part isn't an official market, but still legal.

I don't know much about it, or even remember what it's called, but recall that there's some sort of sim world setting out there with virtual shopping malls and such, where you can walk around and shop for things. Maybe an extension of Alpha Worlds or something (dunno if that name is still current --that's what the one I remember used to be called years ago). People and businesses can actually rent spaces to set up stores, etc. Goods are shipped to your real-world address, just like making an Amazon purchase, unless of course it's some sort of virtual-based product.

Guild Wars 2 has the Gem currency that you can either buy with real money or with in game gold to buy stuff on the Gem Store. Mainly cosmetic things, but you can buy temporary boosters as well.

thanks so far :) i googled a little bit and found out that more or less every item you can purchase with real money belongs to virtual goods :) are there any games you play, where you´re able to buy items and stuff for real money?

Steam gifts are virtual goods. Depending on how you want to twist it.

TF2 HATS!!

While I'm mostly a LoL player I would use DotA2 as a better example.

Obviously I'm not an expert(that would be you I guess) but for me the modern/current definition of a virtual good within a game would be better adjusted to include the ability to trade/sell it either ingame or in exchange for real money since that would mean that there is a economy built around said goods. It gives more depth to the concept of virtual good by letting you assign a "real"(either money or difficulty/time spent to obtain said item) value to it. LoL fails in that regard since you can buy riot points or skins, but you cannot gift or sold them(not for now, riot is testing a few options in that regard), so once you acquire them the "interaction" stops and there is no "economy".

For example, even if it's not officially supported(and in fact, it's prohibited) you can buy/sell gold and items in WoW by paying real money, that makes said virtual good something completely different from the skins in LoL, those would be more similar to post launch customization DLC(or games in a steam account).

Dunno if you plan to make a differentiation between those two kinds of virtual goods but in my opinion they deserve two separate categories.

Anyway and answering to your question, Entropia Universe is a MMO that has a defined exchange between the in game money and real money, so you can sell rare loot for X amount of ingame money, go to the virtual bank and withdraw real money to your real bank account. Works the other way too, some people have made heavy investments like buying a whole island or space station for hundreds of thousands of dollars and then charging people who want to enter/visit(obviously said locations are necessary for certain high end parts of the game and therefore for making money).

steam/amazon wallet, e-book, any type of mutiplayer in-game currency (diablo 3/WOW/MMO gold selling). Premium Subscriptions/passes, music

• tradable; tf2/dota items (steam inv items), d2/d3, runescape, wow, gw2, etc mmo currency in general
• not tradable; riot points, microsoft points, or sth
• non gaming virtual currency like btc, ltc
• others like fg
• steam games are virtual goods :)

cheers!

Try checking out games like secondlife or entropia universe