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Game Studies - On Virtual Economies

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Edward Castronova is Associate Professor of Economics at California State University, Fullerton, USA. Author's homepage by Edward Castronova Currently, several million people have accounts in massively multiplayer online games. The population of virtual worlds has grown rapidly since 1996; significantly, each world also seems to grow its own economy, with production, assets and trade with Earth economies. This paper explores two questions about these developments. First, will these economies grow in importance? Second, if they do grow, how will that affect real-world economies and governments? To shed light on the first question, the paper presents a simple choice model of the demand for game time. The model reveals a certain puzzle about puzzles and games: in the demand for these kinds of interactive entertainment goods, people reveal that they are willing to pay money to be constrained. Still, the nature of games as a produced good suggests that technological advances, and heavy comp

Game Studies - On Virtual Economies the international journal of computer game research volume 3, issue 2 december 2003 home about archive Edward Castronova is Associate Professor of Economics at California State University, Fullerton, USA. Author's homepage On Virtual Economies by Edward Castronova Abstract: Currently, several million people have accounts in massively multiplayer online games. The population of virtual worlds has grown rapidly since 1996; significantly, each world also seems to grow its own economy, with production, assets and trade with Earth economies. This paper explores t

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