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Redwood, Calif.-Based Electronic Arts Sells Serious Play in Virtual World.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, May, 1999 by Cha, Ariana Eunjung
Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
May 4 -- In the cyberspace game Ultima Online -- played by more than 125,000 globally -- people are born, have jobs, get married and die much like in real life.
Recently, their fantasy existence has encountered two real-world problems familiar to everyone in the Bay Area: congestion and soaring housing costs.
Now players are spending actual U.S. currency -- up to thousands of dollars at hundreds of different eBay Inc. online auctions, for example -- to take ownership of imaginary resources that are becoming increasingly scarce.
Since it was released in the fall of 1997 by Redwood City-based Electronic Arts, the number of players has been increasing by the thousands each month, a rate much faster...
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