From USC
They create goods and services, engage in commerce -- and by the way, they're out to enjoy themselves with an online pastime. So would it be a surprising to know that researchers say they're learning important economic information from the activities of video game players, particularly those who participate in virtual communities. They focused on Sony Online Entertainment's "Ever Quest II," an online world from which they got unprecedented access to more than 300 million transaction records, all scrubbed of any individual or identifying data. They looked at E-Bay and other sites to figure the "exchange rate," or value of virtual money the gamers acquired for use online in EverQuest II. Bottom line, at least in this one, large-scale community in which there are many, many players: This virtual spot looks like a part of the real developing world not an actual industrial or leading economy; its GDP is $130-$164 annually, akin to Liberia, Congo or Burundi. More key to researchers is the prospect of studying economic phenomena in the virtual world such as a collapse or wild swings in inflation; behaviors in the virtual world so far mirror those in the actual one. But reactions may be more extreme, researchers say.
Is everquest as big as World of Warcraft? Remember reading somewhere that WOW was making even more cash and that the secondary economy - mining of gold and selling it online for cash was even bigger.
Posted by: Mike | 08/20/2009 at 07:26 AM