Virtual Economies

Some things that the more economically minded might want to pursue are the articles written by Edward Castronova, an economist at California State Uni who, from his account, seems to have had quite an interesting time playing Everquest. So interesting, in fact, that he wrote an article about the Norrath economy, and one more about virtual economies in general.

If nothing else, Castronova provides some useful statistics (though they are kinda outdated by legal referencing standards and VERY outdated by MMORPG standards, given the gap of about ten years) and fun anecdotes. His statistics and papers have since become somewhat like required reading for other academics commenting on virtual laws/worlds/etc. Quite light reading, so enjoy!

Citations:

Castronova, E. (2001) Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of the Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier. CESifo Working Paper No. 618. Available at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828 (Accessed 12 April 2011)

Castronova, E. (2002) On Virtual Economies. CESifo Working Paper Series, Paper No. 752, Category 9: Industrial Organisations. Available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract_id=338500. (Accessed 12 April 2011)