The Value of Rare Pixels

In the previously mentioned game Geomon, gamers try to capture monsters in order to battle each other. The game is similar to Pokemon, but influenced by the environment where the gamers are physically located based on their phone GPS, such as being next to a river or a desert.

In Geomon, there are certain monsters that can only be found in very limited or special situations. Because some of these monsters are extremely rare, people are willing to spend real money in order to obtain them.

One such example is the Mozzy, a blazing fox made of fire.

The Mozzy can only be caught on hot days and close to an office run by the Mozilla Organization - creators of the Mozilla Firefox browser. This means, for a game that has players throughout the world, it is extremely difficult, sometimes impossible for the average person to capture a Mozzy. In the forums, people sometimes say, “This summer my parents are taking me to San Francisco. I’...