Yes, that’s right. RedlightCenter has flooded its virtual commonwealth with 2,210,000 rays, a ray being a single unit of standardized currency designated for avatar use within the RedLightCenter.com realm. Which not only means RedLight is trying to keep in step with its primary, more straight-laced competition at SecondLife.com (where their currency, the Linden, has been circulating for some time), but that inhabitants of RedLight can engage in both virtual and realcommerce.

Consider that we've already witnessed serious demand for the Linden among Second Life users; legion are tales of "Linden collectors" (read: virtual market traders) who support themselves in real time by collecting and unloading boatloads of Linden on eBay to the highest bidder, or through user-to-user transactions conducted via live-chat/email—for bona fide greenbacks in return. So expect the Ray, which is estimated to carry a real time value of about fifteen American cents, to follow suit.

Real commerce, as in the sale of real goods like DVDs, works of art, books, already occurs quite regularly on virtual world sites. But with the emergence of the avatar "upgrade" culture (gotta keep the old avatar freshly dipped), a specific demand for virtual currency begins to express itself. When your avatar needs those virtual Nikes, when it
just can't live without that thousand-Ray boobjob or that 50-Linden haircut, what do you do? You do what any consumer does. You open your wallet and sport for the object of your, or its, desire. But as soon as the vendor informs you and your avatar that he only accepts the coin of the realm, well then, there you have it, lingua franca: a demand for virtual currency based on the desirability of virtual goods that can only be purchased with virtual tender.

Now, is it healthy for WriterDickLargesse7point5 to spend his days collecting virtual currency and selling it to virtual-world users who are looking to upgrade their avatars? Perhaps not. But that's what he does. And he makes a pretty decent living trading this construct for that. You have friends who earn their keep through surprisingly similar channels -- real-time channels, like the NASDAQ and Dow Jones. If they play their cards right, they get to work in front of home computers just the same as the virtual currency traders, and in their underwear, too, those bums.

It will be interesting to watch as the line between "real" reality and "virtual" reality continues to blur, as you start to slide from persona to persona: you, your my space self, your IKEA profile, your Extreme Pizza I.D. (that hungry bastard), and your avatar. It's just a matter of time before some hacker figures out, with some graphically animated logarithm, how to mug you in the dim RedLight of your Second Life, taking you for what you're worth in Rays, Lindens, and dollars all.

Til then, I’ll make sure my avatar doesn’t leave his Rays in the champagne room. Finders keepers, you know.