Gaming as a living
Skalman is a professional online-gamer. He makes a living from business in the viritual game Entropia Universe and is a "mega-celeberty"amongst gamers worldwide.
His name is Rickard Sthulhofer, 37 years old and lives in Gothenburg. But in the game Entropia Universe he´s taken the name Skalman. His character is one of the most skilled hunters ingame and are treated like a rockstar in the viritual world.
When Skalman for example decide to buy a house the prices in that whole area immidiatly rises, says Marco Behrmann from the company behind the game.
It´s free to participate in EU but if you wanna get somewhere you better have peds in your pocket. Ped is the viritual currency and you can exchange those for real life money. If you´re good at doing business ingame you can make a fortune IRL. That´s what Rickard Stuhlhofer has done.
-Eight years ago I had this dream, to make a living from onlinegames. Today it has come true, he says.
If he needs money he just sell something from his posessions. Through the years their value have increased alot.
-If I sell a gun I can get 10 000$ for it. Then I´ll go by for awhile.
Exactly how much his posessions are worth he wont say. But if he sold out he´d be rich.
-Yes I´d would manage pretty fine, he says.
The celeberty-status aquired from the game have taken Rickard Stuhlhofer out in the world. Now he make around eight travels a year, amongst them USA, Germany and UK.-Often I´m invited or else the gaming company bring me along to conventions, to meet players, he says.
His real life is more & more assembling the rockstars life he has in Entropia Universe. Players from all around the globe want to meet up with him live. So what do he write in the autographbooks?
-I write Skalman. That´s how i got famous.
Sry for some bad english but i think this is pretty close to the original text...and yes I´m bored