Real and Virtual Worlds Closing In On Each Other

[selenite0]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on commodity price changes . . . in the World of Warcraft.

Okay, it's in the weekend/leisure section rather than the markets one, but it's a serious take on the issue. Apparently creating a "jewelmaker" character class is driving up the price of the raw materials they use. Just as economic theory would predict.

Comments

[taerin.livejournal.com]

I can absolutely vouch for that. Like half the rest of the population, I created a new character and made her a jewelcrafter.

Whereas before the expansion, copper ore and bars were cheap and plentiful, now they are significantly less so. I wish I'd thought of buying up a ton of it to resell at a massive profit in the first week or two. :-)

[aota.livejournal.com]

Looks like your article got published in todays Pyramid. Congrats.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

They'll come back down though, because the economy is inflationary. There's a potentially infinite money supply, and there are for more ways for money to enter the economy than to leave it.

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Here's a link to the full article: http://www.moneyweb.co.za/shares/international_news/594332.htm

Interesting comment by phanatic: One of the problems game designers face is "ways to get rid of gold" and one that very few games properly exploit (except for City of Heroes, which had other issues) is in-game customization: i.e. (pace Virginia Postrel0: Aesthetics.