Parents have been telling kids for years that they need to grow up and stop playing those damn video games. If 21-year-old Joe Chedburn had listened to his parents, he’d be a lot less happy and a lot less rich.
Joe created an online nongraphical game called Torn, which sounds a bit like an MMO version of Grand Theft Auto‘s Liberty City — just without the pesky visuals. Torn boasts more than 40,000 active players, who delve into the game’s seamy underbelly to rob banks, attack other players, and experiment with drugs.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":647402,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"games,","session":"A"}']Players can also engage in more wholesome activities like gambling, working out, forming factions, and marrying your favorite lady gangsta. Basically, Torn offers all the interaction you might find in a fancy “graphical” game like World of Warcraft — but it’s free! [Via UK Telegraph]
So how do you become a millionaire creating a free game? It’s all about the bling, yo. For 3 pounds a month (almost $4.50), you can pay for points and status upgrades that will help you in the game. Enough people pay the extra fee that Joe pulls in almost $75,000 every month.
Just think — if he’d been born 15 years earlier, he’d probably have gone off to college to prepare for a lifetime of boring work like his parents wanted him to do. Technology: It’s a good thing.