Starting a game with 10 USD, after 2 years is a millionaire

In just 32 months, Chinese-American teacher Ailin Graef has turned 9.95 USD into a virtual talent business worth millions of dollars in real money with the game Second Life , where everyone knows her more by the name Anshe Chung.

In contrast to the tiny living quarters, the Anshe character in the game owns a piece of land up to 36 square kilometers. That area is not real, but just a simulated 3D space made up of 550 connected computers. However, many people are willing to spend 100 to 1,000 USD just to rent a small piece in that territory.

With the initial money, Anshe bought a modest piece of land in Second Life, upgraded it, took care of it and split it up for new players to rent or buy it.

Ailin (small picture) and character Anshe on her millionaire side.Photo: The Age .

The explosion in the game population (from 70,000 characters last year to 1.6 million at this time) caused real estate prices to skyrocket. Thanks to that, Anshe's turnaround policy became more and more effective and the money in her account kept growing.

In May 2006, the name Anshe and her in-game face were on the cover of the prestigious BusinessWeek magazine in the United States. Not only is the most famous avatar of Second Life in the world, Anshe is also the richest man with the nickname "The first millionaire of the virtual world ".

In addition to real estate, Anshe now holds both "cash," "stocks," commercial centers and virtual supermarkets.

Second Life currency unit is Linden Dollars (named after the game provider). These Linden coins can be easily converted to real money. The exchange rate as of November 25 was $ 1 to buy 274.5 Linden.

Born in China, Ailin Graef moved to Germany to live with her husband, Guntram Graef, since the mid-1990s with a major job of teaching foreign languages. She can speak fluently in Chinese, German and English.

In March 2004, she paid Linden a fee of $ 9.95 to become a player in the company's 3D MMORPG world. This is also the only amount that Anshe has to spend since then.

Earlier this year, Graef's "brand" began to "expand" to China. Anshe opened an office in Wuhan City, hiring 21 workers day and night to create objects and services to satisfy the needs of the Second Life gaming community.