There.com's Virtual World & Economy

I)ruid writes "Unlike the virtual economies that have sprung forth from EverQuest, other MMORPG's, and sites such as eBay, this virtual world's economy is actually supported by its creators. Is it possible to make a real life living in a virtual economy? Only time will tell..." We did a previous story on There (a terrible name for a game since you can't search on it).

Comments

As opposed to?

[Telastyn]

The "normal" economy is based on perception of wealth and value rather than accumulation of rare metals. Why should this be any less viable? [beyond the fact that it's perception will be weaker because it's "new"]

In an actual economy, however

[SolemnDragon]

...members can trade items among each other, sell items to each other, produce goods from material. Wealth is created when someone takes items of lesser relative worth- say, raw materials- and produces something of greater relative worth- say, art, or tools, or food... This makes no mention of whether actual creation or trading capabilities are going to exist. Are we going to be able to resell our 'virtual nikes' (produced in a virtual sweatshop, no doubt) on a virtual black market?

Are retailers going to be able to set up virutal shops? Are there going to be virtual cyberprostitute rings? And just as importantly... are there going to be virtual cops?

A virtual economy is a lot more than a virtual mall. It is not a marketplace, it's an environment within which a marketplace gets built.

Virtual taxes. Virtual income. Do you earn an income in it, or is this a one-way economy, like everquest, with people pouring money in left and right? Because frankly, i can think of better ways to spend my money than on the entrance fee to a virtual playground, where i then get to buy virtual stuff with real money. (Do virtual goods have a depreciation schedule?)

Another good question would be whether a 'virtual economy' which does not permit free enterprise is an economy at all- can i set up a virtual shop, selling, say, modifications like armor, and make real money? Does money come back out for anyone other than the marketers and the owners?

In other words- how does this differ from a 'sims you can pay for' model??? In a real online virtual economy, we'd be able to sell each other game mods that let us, say, change our environment (virtual landscapers) or up our quality of life (virtual just about everything else) and it would be the geeks who made the most money. This is not likely to be permitted... this looks more like a toy than anything else. We're not there yet, put down the mouse and go back to the Gibson novels... *sigh*

flawed. period.

[klocwerk]

I was in on the beta test for There. (yeah, who wasn't.) The entire premise of the 'game' is that you pay the company a monthy fee to play, and then you put real money into the company's bank account in exchange for a certain amount of "ThereBucks" which you can use to buy crap in their fake world.
The engine is crappy, the interface is worse, the premise is flawed and expensive, and the game is based around trying to look cool.
You can't edit anything in the world, you can't create anything, you can just buy stuff. it's like a virtual mall.

Then again, maybe I'm just bitter because i heard it was going to be like the Metaverse in Snowcrash.

EQ conspiracy theory.

[unicron]

This is mildly off-topic, but interesting none-the-less.

When it comes to making real life money through EQ, I think I've come across a scam that's gotta have one hell of a profit margin. I can't be the first guy to ever think of this, but I've yet to find any information about it online.

On playerauctions.com, you can buy in game money for RL money. I've had a friend do this and much to my surprise after he completed the transaction, he alt-tabbed back into the game and the guy was handing him the money.

At any given time their is about 3 million platinum pieces being sold, per server, in amounts ranging from 10k to 100k. To those that don't play, this is an astrinomical amount of money. Most of the end game uber guilds don't have this much in their treasury. It's a mind-blowing amount of money. Now as someone that has played EQ for 2 years, I can tell you their is no way that you could put together 3 mil in a day. The uber guilds MIGHT be able to liquidate all their droppable gear plus their collective amount of money and squeeze out 3 mil, but after that it would probably take them a month or 2 to scrape together that amount of cash again.

Their are macro programs that basically use a script to walk your avatar between a weapons/armor forge and the metal dealer where your guy makes something that sells back to the merchant for a few bucks more than the materials cost, showing a slight profit each time. This idea is out as well because it would take weeks to do this, and the same guy working a forge for 2 weeks straight MIGHT arouse suspicion.

My friends and I have given serious thought to how
someone is able to put together this much cash day in and day out. The ONLY explanation that makes ANY sense is that GM's are using their power to summon money but the boatloads, giving it to anonymous alt characters, and raking in the fat cash. The money on playerauctions.com is ALWAYS being bid on, and I estimate that they're pulling about 1k-1.5k real money EVERYDAY from this practice. That's 100% profit as well.

Sorry for the rant, but I wanted to see if anyone /. that plays EQ ever thought of this. I'd love to hear another explantion, but this is the only thing I can come up with. I also can't believe they haven't been caught yet..which almost gives credit to the theory that Sony is actually behind these auction...something to think about.

Re:EQ conspiracy theory.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not THAT much money. When I quit EQ, I stripped my characters and sold all the items for in-game platinum, then sold all the in-game platinum on playerauctions. I personally cleared 400k of in-game platinum just from my own stuff, and my two RL friends that played with me had even more than that.

After it was all said and done, I pocketed 1500 dollars from the year I spent playing EQ. Was it worth it? No, but better than a swift kick in the teeth I suppose.

Re:Fake Money ---- Real Money?

[ccnull]

Precious metals are fake money too -- they are only valuable because people say they're valuable (some industrial uses for gold and platinum notwithstanding). The diamond trade is an even better example; if you've ever tried to privately sell a diamond you'll realize the value is far less than what you paid for it -- even if it's in the same condition as when you bought it? Why? Because the cartels keep prices high by controlling the supply and the brokerage of the gems. My point here is only that the "gold standard" isn't any more valid than any other standard. Come to think of it, an "oil standard" would be an interesting proposition...

Also note that even if you try to buy an ounce of gold from a metals broker, rarely will you actually get the gold -- you'll get a certificate for the gold, much like buying corporate stock. If "the government collapses" do you really think you'll be able to go pick up your gold bars?

Just don't look to closely at the debate -- the whole system might fall apart. Nasdaq, anyone?