Patent ID: 7677975

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a processor; and a computer readable medium in communication with the processor; in which the computer readable medium stores rules providing one or more Venture Capital (VC) fund requirements that must be fulfilled by an entity desiring to register a venture capital fund; in which the computer readable medium stores instructions which, when executed by the processor, direct the processor to run a massive multi player online game that is operable to simultaneously support a plurality of players via a plurality of video game devices, in which each of the players controls at least one player character, in which play of the game continues regardless of whether players are logged in to the game; receive, from at least one of the player characters, a request to register a venture capital fund; determine that the player character requesting to register a venture capital fund fulfills the VC fund requirements defined by the stored rules; determine that a number of VC fund licenses that are available has not reached a predetermined limit; receive an application for a project to be funded by the VC fund; determine if the project that is to be funded by the VC fund qualifies for funding from the VC fund; and register the project and an ownership percentage of the VC fund in the project.