First Alex Gianturco conquered the universe. Then he launched a website to make some money from it.

The Washington, D.C., corporate lawyer left his day job three years ago after building a parallel life as a galactic overlord in the popular space-combat game "EVE Online." Today, his online character, The Mittani, is the most powerful among more than 500,000 players in the game's sprawling virtual galaxy.

He...