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.""
Think you could cut me a check?
But it doesn't affect my economic situation at all. Should I use more lotion?
Has there been any outsourcing to Everquest yet?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I have recently picked up the game of Texas Holdem. I figured out that it was costing me around $8.00 to play online.
So I can make $3.00/hour in one online game to fund an $8.00/hour in another online game.
Heroineware anyone?
hmmmm. If I could only reverse the two then I would be in the money. Sounds like a plan
If if was a fifth then we would all be drunk--Words to live by
Dr. Retarded Check out what they have done now.
Then I realized if I averaged out my time and what I got for my character, it was only like 50 cents an hour Yeah, but you're PLAYING A GAME. If anyone wants to pay me 50 cents an hour for playing games, email me. I'll give it to my girlfriend so she can go shopping, which in turn will give me more game time.
Of course,m the problem here is you have to play the game to make money. One guy tried a scheme in Star Wars galaxies to automate this. Here's how well he did.
I'm hatching a plan to steal Unreal Tournament 2004 vehicles from the other team and then sell them back on Ebay. You want that tank back, blue? It'll cost you!
I'll give $5000 for a BFG that doesn't need to charge and has unlimited ammo!
...we hear the Fed. Chairman Greeenspan talking about the upward pressure on inflation because of the EQIPEC (EQ Item Producing and Exporting Countries) are restricting demand and therefore driving up the value of the Platnium. Then pressing on he states that we should start 'mining' the American lunch hour reserves and use this otherwise down time to produce more domestic EQ Items.
Of course it was unintentional, but you just justified why it is sometimes very beneficial for the society that "those politicians" place restrictions on your personal freedoms. Addiction is one of the major reasons for this, another present here is exploitation by others.