Anshe Chung
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anshe Chung is an avatar in the online world Second Life and was originally created by Ailin Graef. Together with her husband Guntram Graef, who goes by the name "Guni Greenstein" in Second Life, she has built an online business that engages in development, brokerage and arbitrage of virtual land, items and currencies. Since February 2006 the company has been legally registered in Hubei, China, under the name "ANSHECHUNG Studios, Ltd.".
Anshe Chung began by making large amounts of purely virtual money on MMORPGs such as Asheron's Call, Star Wars Galaxies and Shadowbane that she didn't convert into real money. However, this changed when she entered Second Life, a virtual world MMORPG in which the in-game currency, "Linden Dollars", can be 'officially' exchanged for real money. Players of Second Life can also buy areas of game land, for either in-game or real money. Anshe Chung earned an initial stake by selling custom avatar animations when these were a new feature of Second Life, and using this money she successfully became involved in the emerging market for land. Anshe Chung now owns several full servers worth of land, most of which are sold to other users.
Anshe also exercises control over what may be placed in her 'Dreamland' areas, ensuring that zoning rules are obeyed; most other land in Second Life is unzoned, where multiple different types of business or housing are located in adjacent areas. Philip Rosedale, the CEO of Linden Lab - the company that produces Second Life - has referred to Anshe as "the government" when referring to the role she plays on her zoned continent "Dreamland".
Anshe Chung has been featured as the first avatar ever on the cover of BusinessWeek [1] and named by MTV as one of the most influential players of all time [2]
According to an early 2006 report in eGames [3] her 400+ server empire in Second Life and rapidly growing content creation business made her a virtual world millionaire - and most likely the first one.
