The influx of players has led to a massive trading system and, inadvertently, inflation.
Shelly Tan and Joe Fox, The Washington Post
Virtual economies (and virtual goods) fascinate me.
I remember back in the the days when I was playing World of Warcraft and the tremendous amount time spent grinding herbs or ore and then crafting potions or smelting bars to sell in the auction house. It certainly wasn’t the best part of the game, but there was definitely a certain amount of joy that I experienced from successfully turning time spent gathering and crafting into in-game gold.
I am especially fascinated when these virtual economies start to interact with the real economy. I remember being a little disappointed when Diablo III’s real world money transactions were shut down.
I thought insight from the article was very interesting as well:
“Gudmundsson, the former in-house economist for MMO ‘EVE Online,’ explained that there are three parts necessary for any economy, digital or otherwise, to function:
- Trade or the ability to exchange items.
- Scarcity — ‘not everything should be available to everybody at the same time,” otherwise there is no reason to trade.
- Utility or incentive, which for video games is usually the fun or gameplay itself.”
As a little bit of an end note, Julian Dibbell’s Play Money is a fun and interesting read on this topic if you are looking for your next book and are interested in this type of stuff.