The Future of Credit Cards -- MMOsite News Center

We‘re a nation obsessed with credit cards. Seriously. Credit card companies and retailers all offer some form of loyalty program to commit to and encourage us to spend more of our hard earned dollars. Airlines pioneered these loyalty programs, convincing us to stick to a single carrier, and then rewarding with upgrades and travel. A company will do whatever it can to keep the churn down and spending high. Top brains at these organizations will obsess over how to keep you spending more and "join" their brand or bolt on to one you‘re already in. Like Nascar? Visa has a credit card for you, complete with a reward points program that can earn you clothing and chance to ride in a pace car, or so I‘m told, I don‘t have the Nascar Visa card. But one group has been ignored, at least for now, the juiciest demographic of all, online gamers & "in world makers"...

A quick tour of the different MMORPG‘s reveals millions of players spending hours and hours each day, leveling their characters, as well as earning and spending some type of virtual currency (World of Warcraft currently has over 6 million players). While World of Warcraft doesn‘t allow their players to build gold with real dollars, there is of course an "underground" market that buys and sells WoW gold. Linden Lab‘s Second Life has a virtual currency, called Linden Dollars which unlike World of Warcraft "residents" can buy, sell and earn a living from Lindens - there‘s a growing population of residents who make their living in the real world entirely from the revenue they procure in Second Life.

As the time of this writing, there are 166,922 residents, spending over 135,984.00 in 24 hours and ＄6.5 million USD in transactions took place is about 20 days. In 2006, there‘s a good chance ＄100 million USD dollars worth of transactions will flow through the virtual world of Second Life. Linden recently rolled out their own exchange, Lindex, meaning - they‘re almost a bank now.

It‘s not a matter of if, just when - credit card companies, Pay Pal, Amazon, eBay and the individual "gaming" companies eventually bridge the real and virtual currencies with loyalty programs and private label credit cards.

------from� MakeZine