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November 14, 2005
Economics of online gaming...and beyond
Anda's Game narrativizes the growing culture of online gaming. A few years ago, an economist named Edward Castronova made a name for himself studying the economy of EverQuest (one such game). He discovered that that the "country" of EverQuest was the seventy-seventh richest in the world (based on per capita income), richer than India or China and on par with Russia.
Gamers regularly sell game items (and characters) for real money on eBay! and similar sites. The idea, dramatized in Doctorow's short story, that Anda could make money playing her game is not unrealistic.
Here are a couple sites that discuss this issue further:
Walrus Magazine
Interview with Castronova
Of course, Doctorow takes this a little further, building in some related online issues such as personal health and the globalization of the economy. What Doctorow describes may never happen in this direct a fashion, but his world is an accurate metaphor of our own. While we may never have online sweatshops, we obviously have many real, third world factories. Our economy and lifestyle on hinged on that of factory workers working for pennies a day in unsafe conditions. A pair of pants, sewn together for a nickel (or less), sells for $75 in the mall.
In Anda's Game, this virtual inequity creates war and threatens the very culture and fabric of the game. What does it do in the real world?
Part of the point is to recognize that it is an error to speak of the virtual as separate from the material. Both worlds are part of the same world, impacting one another.
Posted by Alex Reid at November 14, 2005 10:19 AM
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