Many people are earning money through living a virtual life in online fantasy worlds. Multiplayer online fantasy role playing adventures such as Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest allow players to adopt the online persona of a fantasy character and interact with others world wide. Many, many players are making money selling the things they acquire as part of their adventures - gold, weapons, armour and even ‘property’ in this virtual world. These items are for sale at ebay.co.uk and there are individual trading categories for each of the many role playing games at ebay.com.

One of the oldest multi player role playing game online is Ultima Online (www.uo.com) which started in 1997 and is fairly typical. The UO virtual world allows you to adopt any one of a number of personas, such as weaver, blacksmith, adventurer. Once you become familiar with the game you may want to become a merchant wandering about looking for gold and other goods to sell. There is a demand for these goods because players can save a lot of time by purchasing these items rather than hunting for them or making them themselves.

Firstly, visit the Ultima Online website at www.uo.com and familiarise yourself with the site. You should also register with PayPal at www.paypal.com so that you can receive payments online. Finally, register with the online auction site www.ebay.co.uk. Remember, when listing your items for sale ensure you have chosen to sell world wide so that your items are exposed to the greatest number of players possible. At eBay.co.uk its worth running a search for “ultima online” to get a flavour of what you will be doing, later on.

At the time of writing the fees structure on UO is that one month subscriptions is $12.99, a 3 Month Prepaid Discount Package is $34.99 and a 6 Month Prepaid Discount Package is $59.99. There are a variety of payments methods and paying with a credit card through PayPal (www.papal.com) is possibly the easiest. There are also a number of web sites offering assistance to new players.

This is a slow burner business especially if you are getting to grips with ebay at the same time. Expect to start off very much part time and be pleased if you achieve the national hourly minimum wage for your trouble. But remember that with application this game has the potential to offer good returns when played full time. People are making good money and you have the opportunity to do so too.

Also, remember that there are other games of this type. Check on eBay.com to see if there are any markets for traded items from these games.

Ultima Online: Age of Shadows - Official Strategy Guide by Prima Temp Authors, Nancy Moore

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