MMORPG Economies Explored in Depth

Obscure Economist writes "The Social Science Research Network (SSRN, http://www.ssrn.com) has just posted a free download of "On Virtual Economies," a new broad-focused study of the market for MMORPGs. Think of it as a less descriptive, but more predictive, follow-up to my paper on the EverQuest economy of last spring. The link, for those interested: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id =338500. Comments and criticism appreciated. Edward Castronova, Associate Professor of Economics, Cal State Fullerton"

Comments

Hawaii

[GaLupo]

MMRPG's at my school are a way of life for some ppl. Helped my roomate last year go to Hawaii by sellign soem everquest accounts.

How Scientists justify wasting time

[Drawkcab]

No, I didn't waste 1000 hours this year playing EverCrack, it was important research!

Re:How Scientists justify wasting time

[unicron]

Whenever I type /played it comes back with "don't worry about it".

Economic crisis

[0ddity]

National economies are suffering now that online economies are manipulated through dubious means using real world monies. The value of the EverQuest currency currently exceeds the value of the US dollar. Other markets are experiencing similiar downfalls. One solution proposed by Microsoft Corporation is to alter the virual economies with DRM technology to facilitate fair usage of currency. RIAA sources say that they are also working on a solution but offered no details.

Maybe in ten years we'll be seeing this on CNN...

[Doctor Sbaitso]

NASDAQ up 21.42 points
Dow down by 8.21
EverQuest SE up 1.50

slave

[yerricde]

(except perhaps the old Lira, which was so worthless as to require several million to buy a mellon)

"Lira" was the currency of Italy until it switched to the Euro. "Melon" is either a fruit or a large female human breast. "Mellon" is either the M in CMU or the Sindarin word for 'friend' (pl. "mellyn") and is the password to the Doors of Durin (topical: the Doors of Durin are in a fantasy world that just hasn't been MMORPGized yet). I assume that you aren't referring to "buy a friend" because as far as I know, slavery is illegal in Italy and the rest of the European Union. Or "buy a friend" as in a campaign contribution on the part of a political action committee?

OK, that was a bad joke.

Re:My impression

[swillden]

No one can dupe 1.5 million dollars out of thin air in the real world.

Sure they can. It does tend to piss off the Secret Service, though, and they can get downright testy about it.