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.'"

Comments

Thrill over the idea at least

[vux984]

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.

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[vux984]

Any battle where supercaps explode is a thrill. death2allsupercaps

See "explode" conjures images of force violent and sudden -- when it happens in agnonizing slo-motion time dilation with high latency and framerates in the single digits the "explosion"...like the participation itself are more abstract ideas than visceral.

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[daitengu]

Any battle where supercaps explode is a thrill. death2allsupercaps

See "explode" conjures images of force violent and sudden -- when it happens in agnonizing slo-motion time dilation with high latency and framerates in the single digits the "explosion"...like the participation itself are more abstract ideas than visceral.

I shall correct myself then.

Any battle where supercaps are removed from the game is a thrill. death2allsupercaps

(Time dilation is WAAAAAAAY better than what existed (didn't exist?) previously, by the way.)

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[war4peace]

(Time dilation is WAAAAAAAY better than what existed (didn't exist?) previously, by the way.)

Just as much as wiping your ass with your hand is waaaaaay better than not wiping it at all.
Incurable optimists would say it's an improvement, realists would say it's still shitty (even literally, in my example above).

Disclaimer: I play EVE Online.

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[Boronx]

Yeah, except there's no window.

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[Thanshin]

Abstract ideas can be thrilling too.

Re:Thrill over the idea at least

[Mashiki]

Well it comes down to one of two things right? Either you get TD, or you don't get TD. And without it, you're in crash central with everyone who isn't crashing out getting a chance to pop you off and lewt your stuff hard. I personally prefer it now that TD works, and more or less works perfectly. Though I haven't played in almost 2 years, I was in a active corp before that for 3 years. I do miss it at times.

I'm wondering what new stuff they've got down the pipe though. I did like the Prophecy fanfest vid.

Re:Second Life anyone?

[aliquis]

The bread market is likely even bigger.

Currency or good?

Re:Second Life anyone?

[duke_cheetah2003]

Not really a fair comparison. EVE is a 'real world' money sink. Money goes in and never comes out (for the players.) Second Life is completely different, money is exchangeable for real world currencies, much like any other real currency. If you buy USD$20 worth of Linden Dollars, you can turn around and sell those Linden Dollars right back for USD$20. EVE's ISK stays in game and in fact its highly against CCP's rules for any exchange of ingame goods/currency for real world money.

It's EVE

[Anonymous Coward]

Somewhere out there is a Russian slumlord offering people a place to stay, as long as they mine veldspar six hours a day.

Re:18 *M*illions dollars ? that's it ?

[DingerX]

I got from it that he was just referring to liquidity, not to the total value of assets.

Re:Second Life anyone?

[duke_cheetah2003]

CCP has gone to great lengths to set up a system where players are welcomed to 'pay in' CASH to get in game money (the PLEX system basically.) Where they frown on and will throw you out of the game for is YOU circumventing their PLEX system to trade RL cash for ingame anything. As I said, it's a money sink, RL money only goes in, never comes out.

Stupidest stat ever

[argStyopa]

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".

Creating business value w/ spreadsheets since 2003

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> 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!