Virtual Economy Bleeds Over into Real Life
Spent the weekend at my brother's house. He's a very keen MMOG* player and I got quite interested in his hobby. EVE, which my brother plays, is a small game with only 70,000 players. World of Warcraft which is probably the largest game has about 1.5 million players!
The really interesting thing is that the currency used in his game, ISK, is starting to be traded in real life. People with a lot of ISK are auctioning it on Ebay for instance. The thing is that money makes the online world go around, and earning it is a bit of a drag, especially at the beginning. So if you have real money, why not get a headstart by buying some ISK? Seems like standard capitalism. But ISK is only useable in a virtual computer game world. Apparently all this currency speculation is causing inflation in the game economy. The going rate for 100 million ISK seems to be about US$20. Playing the game costs �12 per month which is also about US$20. As I write this there are 282 ebay items listed under EVE Online ISK. Chris tells me that it is so profitable that there are places in China where people constantly play EVE in ISk factories creating virtual cash to auction online
I notice that things like character accounts, space-ships (essential for the game), and other equipment are also for sale. My brother's speciality is trading - the game has it's own Ebay equivalent and through careful speculation it is possible to be very successful in virtual terms.
EVE has it's own player magazine, and contributors are paid in ISK! See this article for instance: Clickable Culture - Virtual Cash Buys 'EVE' Magazine-Ads, Pays Writers
Julian Dibbelhas investigated this type of thing and reckons one could make a tidy income trading imaginary goods from online games (Ultima Online in this case). His blog entries are a follow up to a Wired MagazineThe Unreal Estate Boom from 2003 - so this is not a new phenomena by any means. Dibbell points out that some serious money is from these virtual worlds - larger than the GNPs of some fairly substantial countries (Bulgaria for instance).
Another blog discusses the phenomena and speculates that Ebay might become the "duct tape" between the real and virtual economies. In a comment added to this blog entry there is a note that it may be possible to have EVE Online Ebay, just as you have Ebay for whatever country you are in. This adds a whole new dimension to online communities don't you think? I mean, Paypal, might be pretty cool, but what happens when amazon starts accepting ISK as legal tender?
Online gaming has gotten very personal these days. Voice over IP allows person to person, and conference calls to be built into the game. Players meet up in real life. Apparently one friend murdered another in real life when he was betrayed in a game! I'm sure that Philip K. Dick would have loved this blurring of the distinctions between real and virtual! I was writing about the cellphone and community in my other blog only a few days ago. Suddenly I feel very very out of date! I'm thinking of another friend who I hardly see these days because he spends his non-work waking hours playing a MMOG. Is that kind of community really more satisfying than a real one?
* Massively Multiplayer Online Game
The really interesting thing is that the currency used in his game, ISK, is starting to be traded in real life. People with a lot of ISK are auctioning it on Ebay for instance. The thing is that money makes the online world go around, and earning it is a bit of a drag, especially at the beginning. So if you have real money, why not get a headstart by buying some ISK? Seems like standard capitalism. But ISK is only useable in a virtual computer game world. Apparently all this currency speculation is causing inflation in the game economy. The going rate for 100 million ISK seems to be about US$20. Playing the game costs �12 per month which is also about US$20. As I write this there are 282 ebay items listed under EVE Online ISK. Chris tells me that it is so profitable that there are places in China where people constantly play EVE in ISk factories creating virtual cash to auction online
I notice that things like character accounts, space-ships (essential for the game), and other equipment are also for sale. My brother's speciality is trading - the game has it's own Ebay equivalent and through careful speculation it is possible to be very successful in virtual terms.
EVE has it's own player magazine, and contributors are paid in ISK! See this article for instance: Clickable Culture - Virtual Cash Buys 'EVE' Magazine-Ads, Pays Writers
Julian Dibbelhas investigated this type of thing and reckons one could make a tidy income trading imaginary goods from online games (Ultima Online in this case). His blog entries are a follow up to a Wired MagazineThe Unreal Estate Boom from 2003 - so this is not a new phenomena by any means. Dibbell points out that some serious money is from these virtual worlds - larger than the GNPs of some fairly substantial countries (Bulgaria for instance).
Another blog discusses the phenomena and speculates that Ebay might become the "duct tape" between the real and virtual economies. In a comment added to this blog entry there is a note that it may be possible to have EVE Online Ebay, just as you have Ebay for whatever country you are in. This adds a whole new dimension to online communities don't you think? I mean, Paypal, might be pretty cool, but what happens when amazon starts accepting ISK as legal tender?
Online gaming has gotten very personal these days. Voice over IP allows person to person, and conference calls to be built into the game. Players meet up in real life. Apparently one friend murdered another in real life when he was betrayed in a game! I'm sure that Philip K. Dick would have loved this blurring of the distinctions between real and virtual! I was writing about the cellphone and community in my other blog only a few days ago. Suddenly I feel very very out of date! I'm thinking of another friend who I hardly see these days because he spends his non-work waking hours playing a MMOG. Is that kind of community really more satisfying than a real one?
* Massively Multiplayer Online Game
posted by Jayarava @ 7:26 pm
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