Today the developers of Project Entropia plan to introduce a real-world A.T.M. card that will allow players to instantly withdraw hard cash automatically converted from their virtual game treasury.

Entropia is a space MMORPG with around 250,000 players that was one of the first and is still one of the few to introduce real money into the game. P.E.D.'s (Project Entropia Dollars) can be bought with US Dollars, or can be earned by doing quests and killing stuff.

So now everytime you don't have cash on hand but want to spend some dough on something, you can just withdraw the money when you're at an A.T.M. The developer, MindArk, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, estimates that Entropia players generated $165 million (or 1.65 billion P.E.D.'s) in total economic activity in 2005.

"The A.T.M. card is a huge step forward because it's all about making the experience more immersive, and now that we know we have easy access to our money, it's going to give people even more confidence in the system," Mr. Jacobs (the guy who bought the $100,000 space station last year) said. "People are spending $10,000 for land that's not even prime property. Now people are hunting in my resort, and I can take money out and go buy a real dinner. That's fantastic." he added.