EQ vs RL economies

[Verdandi]

From the May 2003 issue of Discover magazine, the article "Reality Bytes":

...the per capita gross national product of the land of Norrath...was $2,266, which is on a par with the per capita GNP of Russia.

and in the caption on the first page:

Norrath, a virtual world that exists entirely on 40 computers in San Diego, has a thriving foreign trade market worth more than $5 million annually. The exchange rate of Norrathian platinum pieces for dollars makes it stronger than either the Japanese yen or the Italian lira.

The article is mainly about someone who wants to make information databases online look and feel more like the real world structures they represent. I just thought those little tidbits about EQ in their discussion of online worlds in general were pretty interesting. Those sites that sell EQ plat for RL money should see about getting platinum added to the world currencies. Can't you just see them printing the plat exchange rate in the Wall Street Journal?

Edit: Edited a bit to accomodate the fact that the bad word filter didn't like me mentioning the name of an individual who runs one of the plat for money sites. My bad, no free advertising for him

[EnfinitiStarr8]

hehe, that is funny.
I can believe that EQ Plat goes for more then some second and third world countries money goes for. In a way that is very sad but also I have to think it is just so odd and funny.

[Delfontes]

Only on paper, or do you have the article linked?

hehe

I'd like to read more of it, interesting

[KyrosKrane]

I haven't seen the Discover article mentioned, but here's the academic paper that sparked the whole economic comparison business. I believe it was released in very early 2002.

http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewpdf.cgi?article=1008&context=giwp

A summary and commentary on the paper can be found here:

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-823260.html

Also of note is a lawsuit filed by a company against the makers of Dark Age of Camelot, basically challenging DAoC's right to shut down eBay auctions of in-game items for real life cash. Anyone know what happened with this lawsuit? I remember hearing something about the company going bankrupt or some such, but I can't find the details about the case now.

http://news.com.com/2100-1040-832347.html

[Verdandi]

Here is the online version of the article: Reality Bytes. I didn't check it word for word but it appears to be the same. EQ and gaming are not the focus of it, just examples used in some of the background information.

[Delfontes]

Thanks guys

Always like a good read.

[Woodeckt]

Gotta love it. I know of a few souls who paid real cash for in game plat and I have been tempted from time to time but I can say I have earned the stash I have in my bank and am proud of it Tradeskilling does pay if you are cautious but take some risks.

[Lilosh]

Forgive me father, for I have sinned.

I once sold 20k , in plat, for real cash. This was not recently.

I was hella-broke at the time, had bills, and most of you know I have more plat then I need.

I won't justify it, but I am not sorry I did it. That $90 helped me out of a rough spot. If I do not find employment shortly, some of that 180k I have in the bank may find it's way into other peoples hands. But it's a very last resort.

Again, while I wont argue for it's morality (Since it is against the EULA), Nor will I consider it a horrid thing I have done.

I hope none of you think less of me. *grin* If that's even possible.

-Lilosh

[Dunthor Warsmith]

The thing I find flawed in most of these systems is what they consider your EQ "income". They consider every item acquired as "sellable" and therefore "income", which if you're ignoring upgrading is true. I didn't read this article, but some of the other Norrathian economies I've looked at have mostly based their analysis off of current player's "pp equivalent" vs /played. That includes self-estimates of No Drop gear, and everything on them.

Realistically, the income would be lower. No Drop gear is not sellable. All loot is not "sellable", some has to go back to the character for gear and upgrades to stay "modern" (ie people who profitted on early centi weapon sales couldn't have done that if they were still wearing pre-RoK gear and spells). There are also ingame expenses (generally of minor degree, but still something) of food/drink, KEI/ports/rezzes, reagents, and the like. While the lvl 65 farming RM isn't going to need many of those, the people farming the higher level spots would.

Norrath has an interesting economy, in relation to the real economy. But I've yet to see an analysis of a "person's pp income" that is realistic - they all count No Drop gear and have zero expenses, and they include the person's current gear in the mix, without which they would not be able to earn new plat.
And the rate of plat coming into the world is controlled by Sony Online Entertainment, a private company. While EQ's economy at this point is a tiny player (although still a player) in the world economy, if it ever became significant the burden on SOE would be enormous as changes to drop rates or new expansions could have wide spread economic impact. Also, I doubt the US government would be willing to let a single corporation wield that much economic power if it could be stopped, but that feels like the "cop out" response. Nonetheless, the articles with "virtual economies take over the world" endings seem rather far fetched to me.

Sorry for the rather non-specific rant. These articles might be entirely different from those I have read previously, but I couldn't resist. The general category of article I once found interesting, but their flaws and exaggerations proved to be so consistant from article to article I eventually couldn't stand reading more of them.