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EverQuest and the UN

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the now-thats-just-plain-bizarre dept.

maddugan writes "NewScientiest.com has a piece on how EverQuest has spawned an economy with a per-captia income comparable to that of a small country. Mostly from profiteering on eBay. If it was indeed a country, it would rank 77th, just behind Russia." It'll be quite interesting to see what happens as MMORPGs gain popularity and absorb more and more man hours.

4 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. A Bit Misleading by Geeyzus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article is quite misleading.

    Basically, he calculated the approximate real-world worth of people's items, as sold on eBay, and this figure (GNP of Norrath 77th worldwide) would be correct if everyone sold everything they own on eBay, at these prices.

    Quote from the article : However, he notes that not all the assets are converted into real-world cash.

    Of course they aren't! If they were, the price for each item would be significantly lower, and the real GNP would be nowhere near what he is quoting. So in reality, if Norrath was a country, the GNP would not be as high as his estimate.

    Still an interesting thought though.

  2. Re:sad state of affairs by Cato+the+Elder · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, it probably does have more money than a few countries, like say, the one that sould the rights to .tv

    On the other hand, the article is about "per-captia" income. So what it really says is that people sink more money on average into Everquest than many people have to spend. It doesn't mean they have more money total--most countries have populations larger than Everquest.

    On the other hand, it is kind of sad that you can earn more from playing Everquest all day than the people in a lot of countries earn in a week. I wonder if "virtual sweatshops" could actually come into being--people come into work, log on to computers, and make virtual artifacts all day. Hey--probably beats farming.

  3. Per capita? by the+bluebrain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Call me anal retentive, but "per-captia income comparable to that of a small country"?

    Heck - I've got a per-capita income comparable to a small country: my income devided by one.
    Well, I guess it is "New Scientist", and not "New Economist", but still...
    Gross income? Net income? Anything ...

    --
    yes, we have no bananas
  4. This is the result of double counting... by StevenMaurer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you take the hobbies of rich people (and folks, most people posting on this site are generally rich by world standards), you can get a high "per-capita" economy for just about anything. Like:

    Economy of California

    Economy of luxury goods.

    Economy of oversized boats and cars

    Trouble is, it's all double counting. Those people's incomes are already counted as part of the US GDP. You don't get to count them again.