A MUD is allowing its players to anonymously purchase coin of the realm with real cash, via their e-gold accounts. This is a radically different approach from Ultima Online and Everquest, which have banned the practice of players selling characters, gold and artifacts on eBay. Also notable is that the MUD is using e-gold, a kind of Hushmail version of PayPal, providing strong anonymity and instant settlement. Also cool: e-gold is backed by actual precious metal, in vaults around the world, which can be extracted by e-gold users in metal (?) or cash. Link (Thanks, John!)
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.












