[IP] The Buying Game

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>
Date: October 17, 2005 8:12:02 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@warpspeed.com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] The Buying Game
Reply-To: dewayne@warpspeed.com


[Note:  This item comes from reader Monty Solomon.  This sort of  
movement of currency from virtual worlds to the real world is going  
on in a lot more of these virtual worlds then EverQuest.  This  
classic notion of the 'black market' is in the process of morphing to  
an entire new dimension.  Legitimate governments will have trouble  
extracting tolls for this new spin on commerce.  DLH]


> From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
> Date: October 16, 2005 10:11:59 PM PDT
> Subject: The Buying Game
>
>
>
> Consumed
> The Buying Game
>
> By ROB WALKER
> October 16, 2005
>
> Station Exchange
>
> Back in 2001, a professor named Edward Castronova began to study the
> way markets worked in a place called Norrath. Norrath does not exist
> in a physical sense but is the name of the "virtual world" where the
> online computer game EverQuest is set. EverQuest is filled with
> half-elves, castles, sword fights and such, and also involves a
> fairly complex internal economy, whose currency is platinum pieces
> used to buy weapons, food and other goods. Although the goods are
> digital, it's not quite right to say that they don't have real value;
> pretty much from the earliest days of Norrath, Castronova discovered,
> game players found ways to pay real-world dollars for fake-world
> things.
>
> These black-market, real-money transactions were frowned upon by the
> game maker but turned out to be unstoppable. After years of trying to
> thwart the practice, the owner of EverQuest II, Sony Online
> Entertainment, capitulated to the realities of the unreal marketplace
> this summer by creating a site called Station Exchange. Here, gamers
> can use real money in an auction format to buy or sell Norrath's
> weapons and scrolls and even fully tricked-out characters.
>
> ....
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/magazine/16consumed.html>

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