Slashdot Mirror
Economics of Online Gaming
PGillingwater writes "The Walrus has a nice article up about the economics of on-line gaming communities. Starting with the original 2001 paper which shows that Everquest has a GNP greater than India, Bulgaria and China, and going on to the billionaires of Ultima Online and the Mafia takeover of The Sims.
"He began calculating frantically. He gathered data on 616 auctions, observing how much each item sold for in U.S. dollars. When he averaged the results, he was stunned to discover that the EverQuest platinum piece was worth about one cent U.S. -- higher than the Japanese yen or the Italian lira. With that information, he could figure out how fast the EverQuest economy was growing. Since players were killing monsters or skinning bunnies every day, they were, in effect, creating wealth. Crunching more numbers, Castronova found that the average player was generating 319 platinum pieces each hour he or she was in the game -- the equivalent of $3.42 (U.S.) per hour. "That's higher than the minimum wage in most countries," he marvelled.""
I absolutely hate people telling me what defines my set of friends. I have social anxiety, and I find it very hard to hang out with more than 4 other people in a social environment without feeling like I need to slip into the shadows. Online gaming has allowed me to do something that I like with much more than 4 people at a time, and carry on intelligent conversations. The friendships that I have created in some of these games have lasted longer than many of my work friendships, and I feel that I know many of these people much better than those that I would call "friends" at my work places. We keep in touch via email outside of the game, and also meet up with each other if we happen to be in the area traveling. Who are you, or ANYONE for that matter, to judge what constitutes legitimate friendship? Perhaps online clans offer more companionship and friendship and acceptance to your friend than you do, and therefore he felt a stronger bonding with them. Instead of pointing your finger at your friend for how much time he's spending/spent online, perhaps you can be happy that he's having a good time and maybe getting a void filled in his life.