Computer Games That Make You Spend More Money

A Virtual Club Sold For $635,000

Why would anyone spend money on virtual goods? One guy actually paid $100,000 in real cold hard cash for a virtual asteroid. It turns out it was a spectacular investment on his part though. Jon Jacobs took his newly acquired piece of land and changed it into a Pleasure Island of sorts for the rest of the Entropia Universe (the MMO where all of this takes place) to enjoy.

Entropia is different from other MMOs in the fact that instead of putting in real money for fake goods to make fake money, one can actually make a real living off of goods bought by other users of the game. Jacobs was able to make almost $200,000 per year at his "Club Neverdie" by charging entry fees and building a virtual mall where people can shop and socialize, even go hunting.

With Club NeverDie thriving, it was a surprise to many when Jacobs decided to sell it off in pieces. Though there were many buyers, the single largest purchase came from John Foma Kalun, who bought the main section of the asteroid for a whopping $335,000. (This beat the previous $300,000 record set by the sale of the Crystal Palace Station.) When all was said and done, Jacobs was able to sell the whole property for a staggering $635,000, a $535,000 profit not including the income he made over the course of his five years of ownership.
A Heart-Broken Man Sold His Engagement Ring And Bought Master Chief Armor

Heartbreak is sad and horrible, but sometimes awesome things can come from it. Take this story for example.

Eric Smith was your typical man in love. He was so in love in fact that he went out and bought his girlfriend the ring of her dreams. When he popped the question though, he got a response that he never could have imagined. Instead of saying yes, she told him that she couldn't marry him because she was in love with another guy. Not only that, but she had been hooking up with him on the regular, in Eric's car, and the CD in the player that he had been listening to for the past month was a mix made by the other guy. Harsh.

While most stories would end with poor Eric breaking down and spiraling into a deep depression only to find himself six months later with a Grizzly Adams beard, this one has a happy twist. Eric, being the level-headed guy that most of us wish we could be, decided not to spend time dwelling on the past. Instead, he promptly sold the $2000 custom ring on eBay and spent the money on the only thing that could possibly make a true gamer happy: a full custom suit of Spartan armor from Halo.

This gorgeous piece of equipment is 40 pounds of dark green fiberglass modeled after Master Chief. It also comes fully equipped with the signature golden visor and light-up LEDs.
A Woman Embezzled $166,000 From Her Job For 'Mafia Wars'

In a case of life imitating art, Bettysue Higgins of Maine pled guilty to the charges of embezzling over $166,000 from her employers to help fund her addiction to the online Facebook games Mafia Warsand YoVille. Over the course of a year Higgins wrote herself 78 fake checks from her job to buy virtual coins in-game. Of course, she also wrote 142 other checks for, you know, walking around money.
A Boy Emptied His Mom's Bank Account Playing 'FIFA'

These days, it's not uncommon to see the most anticipated games of the year marked down to 50% off just a few weeks after release. With the value of games depreciating, developers have come to rely on downloadable bonus content and microtransactions to keep the lights on.

With additional content becoming more prevalent, it can sometimes be a little too easy to drop boatloads of cash in-game without even realizing it - a truth that one unfortunate Irish family learned the hard way. Just weeks before Christmas, an unnamed mother went to withdraw money for the holidays, only to discover that her bank account had been totally drained.

It turns out that the woman had let her son purchaseFIFA 18 using her debit card, and her card number had remained linked to the boy's account. Every time he purchased in-game credits, her bank account was charged real money.

The woman described her frustration regarding the incident:

This was my first Christmas working full time and then to go to your bank account and find it empty with the whole month's pay and overtime in the buildup to Christmas just gone is horrendous.

While the story is pretty heart-wrenching, as of December 2017, Sony has refused to refund the money, since the credits were already used by the child.