Comments on: The rise of Ted Castronova and the study of Virtual Economies

By: humdog

humdog — Thu, 20 May 2004 19:28:27 +0000

the point made by the walrus is a good point though: games generate real wealth for players.

“…Then he performed one final analysis: The Gross National Product of EverQuest, measured by how much wealth all the players together created in a single year inside the game. It turned out to be $2,266 U.S. per capita. By World Bank rankings, that made EverQuest richer than India, Bulgaria, or China, and nearly as wealthy as Russia…”

“…Twenty percent of players agreed with the cheeky (if alarming) statement “I live in Norrath but I travel outside of it regularly”; on average, each of these “residents” possessed virtual goods worth about $3,000 U.S. “When you consider that the average real-life income in America is only, like, thirty-seven thousand,” Castronova tells me, “you realize these people have a non-trivial amount of wealth locked up inside the games…”

‘…For now, there is no clear precedent on how to deal with virtual property. Owning a virtual castle is not like owning other virtual things, such as stock in a company, because the value is not in an external, tangible object such as a corporation, but in the work and money invested in acquiring it.

With stakes like that, said Jack Balkin, a Yale law professor and a host of the legal conference, players will probably fight back with lawsuits, or by going right to politicians, demanding legislation to prevent worlds from closing down…’

this is important stuff.

could we keep our eyes on the ball, please, guys?

By: Urizenus

Urizenus — Thu, 20 May 2004 13:54:23 +0000

Bug Tester, what do you care how far they drove to take JC’s picture? The point is they hired someone to do it. They didn’t come take my picture. Or yours either, I might add.

Dyerbrook, you’ve crossed the line between cryptic and unintelligible. You’re on the other side now.

By: Dyerbrook

Dyerbrook — Thu, 20 May 2004 12:40:44 +0000

*reads article, then takes out rag and wipes splatter off inner side of computer screen*. Um, Uri, you done with that, er self-run Sim yet?

By: JC Soprano

JC Soprano — Thu, 20 May 2004 11:51:32 +0000

No, the photographer was from LA. Her and her bf drove up here, which is about an 8 hour drive. I know, I talked to them and The Walrus. What’s it matter anyway? I just thought it was funny.

JC Soprano
http://www.thesimmafia.com
Fughedaboudit!

By: TBT

TBT — Thu, 20 May 2004 11:37:32 +0000

Do you really think someone actully drove 800 miles for a picture of you? LMAO Jeez NO! magazines and newspapers have reporters/photographers all over and if not they often hire freelance people to cover somewhere that they normally don’t do.. The person was probably someone local to you or not so far away, but 800 miles, I seriously doubt it, LOL….

By: Storm Armone

Storm Armone — Thu, 20 May 2004 10:01:44 +0000

lmao .. So much bs , ahh well

By: JC Soprano

JC Soprano — Wed, 19 May 2004 21:30:58 +0000

I said we had upwords to 100 members in the interview. It’s funny a photographer drove up 800 miles to take my picture for the article and it’s not even a paragraph really lolol Too funny, good times.

JC Soprano
http://www.thesimmafia.com
I wonder who will talk crap first??