Patent ID: 8414399

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system, for transferring a value associated with a representation of a user in a first virtual world environment instance to a second virtual world environment instance, comprising: receiving, in a transport computing device of the data processing system, a request to transport a first representation of the user from the first virtual world environment instance, provided on a source computing system of the data processing system, to the second virtual world environment instance provided on a target computing system; quantizing, by the transport computing device, in response to receiving the request, one or more data objects representing equipment or items within the first virtual world environment associated with a first representation of the user in the first virtual world environment instance, and one or more non-equipment or non-item type characteristics defining traits or abilities of a first character represented by the first representation of the user in the first virtual world environment instances, into a single quantized value; transporting, by the transport computing device, the quantized value to the second virtual world environment instance on the second computing system; and converting, by the transport computing system, the quantized value into a second representation of the user in the second virtual world environment instance, the second representation of the user being different from the first representation of the user in the first virtual world environment, wherein the first representation of the user in the first virtual world environment instance ceases to exist in the first virtual world environment instance in response to completion of the transporting of the at least one quantized value into the second virtual world environment instance, and wherein converting the quantized value into the second representation comprises spending, in accordance with a user selection, at least a first portion of the quantized value, less than the total quantized value, to purchase at least one non-equipment type or non-item type characteristic defining a trait or ability of a second character represented by the second representation.