It is extremely intriguing to follow his (Edward being first name) footsteps and analysis he conducts, such as 'comparative advantages', 'a2a market (as opposed to b2b (business-to-business), p2p (person-to-person)), the currency rate between pp and $, GNP and inflation, and even poverty and inequalities, I felt compelling as I read through his analysis. I, however, do not agree with every part of his opinion.
As I read down Castronova's article, Section C (page 13 and on) discusses how all the avatars have 'equal opportunities' and that 'scarcity is fun'. While I agree on this section in the basic level of statement, I do not agree; indeed, these days VWs are just like real life; nobody starts at same line, and although at the moment of creation they are equal, once they step into the VW world the differences will be there.
How? If your character is not your first, you are already a heads-up due to all the knowledge you have acquired through your first characters. If you know a friend who has been playing this game for a while? that's even more plus, since he/she will be able to help you out when you face problems that other newbies would not be able to handle it.
Another part that enables inequality from the get-go is the fact that you can purchase pp (Everquest), gold (World of Warcraft) or whatever the money VW uses, with actual cash. any player with more money is bound to have more chances to be successful.
In his sections of inflation (or deflation in this case of Norrath), while it is true that introduction to new items and thus it drive prices down, I do not agree with the fact that each items has equal value. I do not have any knowledge in Everquest so I cannot make quick assumptions, but in my personal experiences, I was able to name lots of items by their importance and by which class needs them most; In my opinion, if he were done this research in Azeroth, he would be able to calculate in deeper details.
Having said all that, I was impressed with his familiarity within the game and his analysis; I have not seen this kind of research before, and I was amazed, but I see more improvement could be done, such as his calculation of nominal wage and its application, inflation/deflation and others. Overall, however, I deem this as very good research paper.
My question is, have any of you thought this economically when you are living in VW? I personally tried to manipulate certain items' cost in order to earn a fortune, but failed; have any of you done it before? :)
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