What Kind Of Virtual Economy Is It When Millions Of Dollars Just Disappear?
from the ask-Cartman dept
For years, we've been hearing reports about the growth of in-game virtual economies, often claiming things like it's equal to the economy of Namibia. Of course, many of those claims break down when you look closely at them, as the numbers are actually much smaller than claimed, or the transactions are questionably counted. There are also other problems with trying to count in-game economies -- partly because they're very much at the whim of the makers of various games. So, for example, when World of Warcraft makers Blizzard simply remove 11 million gold pieces from circulation, after shutting down accounts that made gold through fraud and cheats, how is that counted in the grand economic scheme? Just like questions revolving around whether or not real world laws apply within games, it's not so easy to just say that the economies of these games can be equated with real world economies as well.
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Not quite...
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http://www.heritage.org/Research/AsiaandthePacific/wm1046.cfm
And of course these fake gold pieces are confiscated and destroyed at the whim of the Federal Reserve, as quickly as they can identify them.
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Fed Reserve
..It's not Federal and there is definitely no reserve.
By the way, what is the current currency of the United States based on..oh that's right its virtual..
think about it
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I'm a dork.
I'm not sure that the gold situation is even comparable to the real world... for example: If a player run out and kills a computer controlled enemy-- he or she will probably find some amount of gold or other type of currency (silver, copper, etc) which, before that computer enemy was killed, did not exist in the game economy.
Along the same lines, if a player sells an item to a vandor (computer run buyer/seller) then the currency he or she recivies was just created from thin virtual air...
It would be like going to a pawn shop and selling your CD player or Super NES-- and the pawn shop paying you in legal tender that it created that day. Times 7 million (or however many people play WoW)
Maybe I missed the point of the entire article... the closet thing to a "real" economy in WoW, as far I can tell, is the Auction House-- which behaves eerily like real life.
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Re: I'm a dork.
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What about second life?
There are not "wandering monsters" each with a pot of gold and sellable items. However, each player does receive a regular income of L$10 - which may/may not be money from thin air.
I have not done a serious analysis, but there are a number of places that exchange L$ for real currency including USD and GBP.
Also, in regards to WoW - they have a subscription model do they not? So some of the wandering monster money/vendor money could be funded from the subscription amount - as "agents" if you like of Blizzard.
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Gambling?
Basically, every month you put down your wager. It depends on your performance and risk taking how many gold pieces you get (or chips). Gold pieces get manifested out of air just like casino chips.
In the end it depends on how many gold pieces (chips) you have to cash-out with. And the house always wins.
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Type of Game
Second life is positioning itself to be a "real" economy.
Whereas WoW is not. WoW can remove whatever they want because you are not supposed to be converting it into real dollars.
Whereas if second life does something like this, it would effect both the integrity of the system and the real total value of the players.
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No different than NYSE
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I've never commented before
Of course it's not easy to say these economies relate to real ones, it's a video game, so the idea of this article is trivial, but the basis on which you express your opinion somehow proves you to be wrong; the same thing would happen to a "virtual economy" that would happen to a real economy when currency was found to be counterfeit. The currency is destroyed and any inflation caused by a surplus of currency is adjusted. I can't believe I wasted time writing this but I mean, c'mon
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You need to know the history of our money system before you claim to know how it's functionally different from any other scam on the internet or beyond: http://www.themoneymasters.com/
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tax?
e.g. i 'earn' (however) l$x.. and later i spend some of it (all within the game)... presumably i gain some sort of advantage from my purchase, even if just entertainment (a service).
yet the tax people haven't had a 'cut' (call it protection money) so how is this viewed?
a few attempts at creating barter economies locally have been set up.. along the lines of babysit for me and i'll wash your windows etc. no cash changes hands, no bodies income is affected. but services that should be paid for and thus taxed have been excahnaged.
if memory serves someone offered to wash the tax offices windows as payment..
i'll view this sort of thing as a 'real economy' when the tax people are present.
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community currency
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The reason its not taxed
As with gambling if you make enough its supposed to be taxed.
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It is all balance
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Re: It is all balance
That gives me an idea though. Someone in WoW needs to create a bank. Deposit money, get an interest rate yield. And with that deposited money, loan out a percentage of it, with an interest rate.
I didnt think that through too much though. The mega wealth-creation effect there comes a bit from the loaned money being redeposited at the bank or a short period of time, allowing further lending, but it'd still make some money, if the loan payments could be enforced..
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Ah, now I see...
I live somewhat in a hole, so this Entropia Universe thing is relatively new to me... however, I do play Wow, and it seems to me that the two aren't comparable. (In this matter)
In WoW, if you decide to cancel your subscription, it doesn't matter if you have 2 copper or 720 gold, all that happens is that you can no longer play. The Entropia Universe, judging only from what I can glean from the comments above, if you make lots of in-game money, and decide to stop playing (Or whatever you do in a virtual world) you actually make REAL money depending on how much in game money you've horded.
So, the two aren't even really comparable when it comes to taxes, and yes, if you "earn" enough cash in EU, you SHOULD be taxed... after you cash out... because before that it's not exactly "liquid". Or maybe you can choose on being taxed in game or when you quit... Of course, what do I know?
The real question*, to me, is: Who wants to live a normal life on the computer? Why not.. uh.. just go outside-- or to work? (As opposed to me, who probably wouldn't last long running around with a sword, slaying things.)
*I lied, this is not a real question. Please don't answer this: It's just a joke, and not a very funny one at that.
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sites
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sites
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Money Supply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply
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Re: Money Supply
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Wow Money Real Money
Imagine this: a one-month subscription cost (I don't know what it is, so let's say $15) could be equivalent to $15K or $15M in WoW money.
That means that if a player buys/kills/finds enough money in the world (meaning, they play a lot), they rack up enough money after a few weeks or months to allow for "one month free". They would take their $15K to the in-game stores and trade it, instead of weapons or needed items, for game-time.
That kind of "reward system" would keep WoW gamers playing, it wouldn't cost the company all TOO much in "lost revinue" (if the cost of "free" game-time was steep enough), and it would help the WoW economy so these mysterious "million-dollar disappearings" don't need to happen.
Or, they could just create a central bank inside of WoW, with the chance for gamers to group together and try to rob the place; full with "getting caught means you go straight to jail". :-p
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Counterfeit
The gold is obtained by cheating and illegal copying. Removing it is just like seizing assets from drug runners and counterfeiters.
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