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EVE Online's Space Economy Currently Worth $18 Million
DavidGilbert99 writes: "According to Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, the lead economist of CCP Games, developer of EVE Online, the total amount of ISK (InterStellar Kredits) in the system at the moment is 600 trillion, which equates to about $18 million in real world money — and the economist believes we could learn a lot from how the economy works in the game. There was a massive battle within the game earlier this year, which CCP estimated destroyed between $300,000 and $330,000 worth of game materials. Guðmundsson said, 'In economics there is a big difference between consumption and loss. In EVE, the war is the consumption of the economy. Even though they are giving money away they are not losing value, they are gaining something instead. People were willing to spend that money [in the Battle of B-R5RB] to get this thrill of participating in this battle.'"
How much Bitcoin is out there?
People were willing to spend that money [in the Battle of B-R5RB] to get this thrill of participating in this battle.'"
Well the thrill of the "idea" of participating. The actual battle wasn't much to look at or be a part of.
Second Life has them beat, reporting a us$567 million economy back in 2009.
Love it or loathe it, virtual currency is already real and will eventually break into the mainstream. Whether it will be centrally regulated (ISK, Linden Dollars) or decentralized (BTC) remains to be seen. I suspect we shall always have both, as they each have their own advantages. Personally I hope we never lose tangible cash, but I suspect we'll see it at least start to fade within the next 100 years.
Bitcoin is just game money people! Didn't you hear the economist say? PayM on the other hand is better, like the IBTimes ad on the right says.
My name is Eve. I want to fuck you. Royally. And best of all is that you will want me to do it again, and again, and again.
Yes, you can learn a lot from EVE, but does that mean that we should? I'm not sure if massive, destructive battles are something to strive for.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
And I have a bridge AS WELL AS some swampland.
Don't get me wrong. I WON'T sell it for any of this so-called 'worth'.
Somewhere out there is a Russian slumlord offering people a place to stay, as long as they mine veldspar six hours a day.
It seems ridiculously small.
The last name is a patronymic, not a family name; this person is properly referred to by the given name Eyjólfur.
How much US dollars worth of world of warcraft gold is circulating across all of Blizzard's servers?
With full time dilation in effect, they're clicking once every half hour or so for their move right?
Ooh. Thrilling.
*Waggles a finger in the air*
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
You know, there are several games out there where things tick once per hour, or even slower. And yes, they ARE thrilling. It doesn't have to be instant highspeed action to be thrilling. If you have enough stuff to control in the mean time the hour to make decisions and plan and give orders isn't even that long.
...says the human is wrong
I played it for a few hours and it was anything but thrilling . Maybe if your idea of thrilling is shopping for life insurance..
According to the company that makes the software, "the software is really really cool, and is in fact one must be very sophisticated and intellectual to really appreciate the game. You ARE sophisticated and intellectual, aren't you? Why aren't you playing this game? If you think it is boring, that is because you aren't smart enough to truly appreciate something of this value."
Economists can generate numbers however they want, but the true 'value' of something is what someone would actually pay for it.
For example, if we 'value' someone's free time playing (ie the entertainment value) at $20/hour, then the purported 10,000 players in EVE are 'generating' at least $200,000 'value' per hour. To suggest that after 10 years of crafting, they've only created 90 'hours' worth of virtual durable goods (there's an oxymoron) would suggest that the EVE economy is staggeringly unproductive.
As a famous economist opined: "Put 10 economists in a room and you'll probably get 12 opinions".
-Styopa
Exactly
ISK is NOT created by mining or manufacturing. In fact manufacturing removes ISK from the game in the form of fees. Mining creates minerals, and manufacturing turns those into ships, etc., which players pay existing ISK to buy. But no new ISK is actually created by mining or manufacturing.
ISK is created by running combat missions, killing NPC ships for bounties (ratting) and some infinitesimal amount is created buying and selling NPC trade goods between NPC stations. To my knowledge there is no other way to generate new ISK in the game.
The available "tap" for CCP to insert money into the game is actually pretty limited. There are rumors that CCP injects ISK by buying items on the market and destroying them, but I have never believed that.
>> equates to about $18 million in real world money
Yessir, Eve Online is just a like a business - creating real value from spreadsheet jockeying since 2003!
So yes, money can go into EVE, as you can use real money to buy PLEX which you can then sell for ingame money (think it usually fluctuates between 400-600 million ISK per plex) but once that money is in the EVE economy, it doesn't come back out. The only way you can get money out is with RMT (Real Money Trading), which is against the rules in the game and involves selling ISK, ships, etc for real money. And even then the money coming out is not coming from inside the game economy, it is still an external source. Would bitcoin have been as successful as it has been so far if people were able to buy them for real dollars from an exchange but were then unable to cash them back out for real dollars? I would really hesitate to draw examples from an economy that is set up solely to provide an income for a company (and here comes everyone saying how our current monetary system is evil and only makes money for the government/banks/rich people).
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I spent my last mod point on some stupid post and then I find this gem? Dammit Slashdot!!!