Vox Clamantis

Synthetic Worlds

Mr Castronova's thesis is that these synthetic worlds are increasingly inter-twined with the real world. In particular, real-world trade of in-game items—swords, gold, potions, or even whole characters—is flourishing in online marketplaces such as eBay. This means in-game items and currency have real value. In 2002, Mr Castronova famously calculated the GNP per capita of the fictional game-world of "EverQuest" as $2,000, comparable to that of Bulgaria, and far higher than that of India or China. Furthermore, by "working" in the game to generate virtual wealth and then selling the results for real money, it is possible to generate about $3.50 per hour. Companies in China pay thousands of people, known as "farmers", to play MMORPGs all day, and then profit from selling the in-game goods they generate to other players for real money.

Land and other in-game property has been sold for huge sums: one "Project Entropia" player paid $26,500 for an island in the game's virtual world last year, and has already made his money back by selling hunting and mining rights to other players. Trade in virtual items is now worth more than $100m each year. In some Asian countries, where MMORPGs are particularly popular, in-game thefts and cheats have led to real-world arrests and legal action. In one case in South Korea, the police intervened when a hoard of in-game money was stolen and sold, netting the thieves $1.3m. In-game money is, in short, no less real than the dollars and pounds stored in conventional bank accounts. [emphasis added.]

From a book review of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, by Edward Castranova, in The Economist. 

Finding good cybersex

I find that using words like suck, bite, breast, thumb-sucker, nipple and anything pornographic, implying porn, or porn-related boost my readership considerably, even if those readers are disappointed when they actually get to my site and quickly leave. In the hope of swelling my readership, I'll give you what you want - just this once.

From Wired:

"I'm on a perpetual hunt for a sex game targeting women," says Brenda Brathwaite, a game industry veteran and featured speaker at this week's Women's Game Conference in Austin, Texas.

She's not the only one.

There are a number of games that include sex, or some hint of sex, such as Leisure Suit Larry and The Sims, but they are not geared exclusively towards women, though many women like these games. There are also sex simulation "games" such as Virtually Jenna, but these are, not surprisingly, more popular with men (your goal is to bring Jenna to climax.)

Regina Lynn's (I'm assuming that's her porn name) article looks at the demand for virtual worlds that offer opportunities for chance encounters and eventually, cybersex. She points our attention to these two women-friendly worlds:

Spend The Night will offer a graphically rich space where you can meet people, go on virtual dates and have cybersex. It might be the precursor to avatar-based online dating -- or at least, online screening of potential dates.

Naughty America (a working title) is so coy it doesn't have a website yet. It's a complete role-playing game in which you can choose whether to enter a "sex mode."

Both games recognize that they need to offer a variety of tools players can use to meet each other, develop relationships and interact sexually. And both are bending over backward to appeal to women.

These worlds will be a far cry from the crude sex in games like Grand Theft Auto, where women are treated like Snoop's b*tches and h*es. Instead, they promise empowerment, and as a nice bonus, a good deal of fun. It's easy to imagine a time in the near future when all online dating will take place in virtual worlds. People will meet in cafes, have coffee and perhaps dinner together, and will be able to get a sense of their potential mate without ever leaving the house. It'll be match.com on steroids. We'll no longer have to make eye contact with people in bars, or otherwise deal with awkward social situations unless we want to.

Virtual Worlds III

I posted a quick note about Eduard Castranova in my last post on this topic and I just want to follow up by linking to an interview he gave the Guardian. I will just post a few highlights:

When asked how he started studying synthetic worlds, rather than more traditional economic issues, Castranova replied:

My career was screwed. I decided to write a paper on the economy of a video game I was immersed in. I'd played these games most of my life.

As for the importance of synthetic worlds he writes:

My professional interest is in what we can learn from this synthetic world. We've never had the opportunity to experiment ambitiously on a social level. We've never had the opportunity to say, "I'm Karl Marx and I have this idea called communism. Wouldn't it be neat if I could set up five societies that have exactly the same population, exactly the same natural resources and at year zero and try it out?"

... Exactly. We could do communism, we could do fascism, we could do America. You can experiment with any number of social designs. This is one of the futures I see for synthetic worlds in the university. I think in 15 years' time when someone in social science writes a PhD thesis, they'll be required to put their ideas to the test this way. Business schools are already moving in that direction. There are tremendous business applications. Universities should get very involved.

This last point is very interesting. There are countless possiblities. Organizations like FEMA will soon be able to conduct evacuation drills and examine the impact of closing some roads but not others. Or what would happen to society if same-sex marriages were allowed? Would there be moral decay and the collapse of civilization? We could just create a world and find out. It's pretty exciting stuff.

Virtual Worlds II

I promised to post more on the economics of gaming and online worlds and I will soon. For the reader(s) interested in the subject, I recommend the work of Indiana University (Bloomington) economist, Edward Castronova, who is a pioneer in the field (among others, of course.) He has a forthcoming book, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, which is slated for delivery Nov. 1, 2005. Until then you can check out his blog [he's one of many co-authors], Terra Nova and one of his more accessible articles.

Virtual Worlds

The Washington Post had an article on monetary transactions in online video games in Saturday's paper. The author, Mike Musgrave, will be answering questions online and it should be interesting. You can check here later in the day.

The article is fascinating and worth a read. Real money has been a part of online worlds for quite some time now, but this article examines another aspect. It points to a common practice of exchanging money for time. One player can auction off rights to a particular game, thereby allowing another player to continue from where he/she (but mostly he) left off. It's easy to envision a player getting bored with a game and wanting to move on to something else. Or perhaps the game is sucking too much time from other, possibly more valuable, activities. Since no one likes to see good effort wasted, and most players have invested considerable time and effort, the auction allows a player to make a highly beneficial trade.

This has at least two benefits. First, the player leaving is obviously better off, since he'll at least get something for his extended efforts. Second, people who have more time than money are able to buy their way into a game and get the pleasure of succeeding without having to invest their own time. This makes both players better off.

If we are able to agree that this behavior is acceptable, why do I have to wait for four hours in the DMV when someone could easily take my ticket and wait for me? That person could then call me and I could show up just before my number gets called. This also benefits both parties: I don't have to wait hour after hour, sacrificing precious vacation time when I should be at work; my trading partner benefits because he/she can make more (presumably) doing this than anything else. Sadly the DMV doesn't see things my way and I'll soon be spending a very long, sad morning at the DMV. They won't even let me drink coffee. I'll have more to say about all this in some upcoming posts.

[Update] I forgot to mention that the article on video games has an excellent photo gallery to accompany the article. Near as I can tell, this is one of the first galleries to feature narration by the author. An excellent use of Macromedia Flash.