At last, a safe place for
penguins and their coinage

Exchanging real money in virtual worlds often runs into problems, since buying or selling items often operate outside the MMO's terms of service, causing in-game economies to suffer, according to Next-Gen.

But a new company called Live Gamer seeks to legitimize the practice of trading real money for virtual property. Based in New York, it claims to be a "fully transparent, secure, publisher-sanctioned marketplace" for virtual goods — currently a $1.8 billion industry, according to The New York Times.

One of Live Gamer's co-founders is Mitch Davis, a former CEO of Microsoft-owned in-game ad firm Massive.

In its veiled efforts to supplant real life, the virtual industry may do well with a site-agnostic currency standard, as well as other — more formal — regulations. (Virtual theft, for example, has become a problem.)

A firm called Peanut Labs believes virtual currency may one day replace web research.