The Introduction to Virtual Economy

VE101: The Introduction to Virtual Economics on Prezi

What is virtual economy?

Edward Castronova first used the phrase virtual economy in 2006 to refer to artificial economies inside online games, especially when the artificially scarce goods and currencies of those economies are traded for real money.
The phrase was subsequently adopted among game scholars and in the game industry.
Lately, Dr. Vili Lehdonvirta & Dr. Mirko Ernkvist's work, Knowlege Map of the Virtual Economy, defines virtual economy as the artificial economies inside online games, including the artificially scarce goods, currencies, and other intangible commodities, such as human effort and trading for real money.

Why is virtual economy so important?

Let's see some statistic results first.

• The total capacity of the global online game market in 2012 is 21.2 billion dollars.(Lehdonvirta)

• The number of paying online game players is about 121 million.(Lehdonvirta)

• The winning team of the 2012 Blizzard World Championship was awarded for $100,000.(liquipedia)

• A virtual castle of Kenn Brown recently sold for $2053 on eBay.

Kenn Brown
Castle: $2,053 (eBay resale price)

We study it because it really matters, not only the dollar amount, but also the population immersed in this market is so giant.

What do we want to say about virtual economy in this study?

Although the value of this market is so huge, the attitude toward this market is not serious. In this study, we are going to talk about people's view of their virtual properties as well as the existing issues and crimes in this field.

How to use our website on Prezi

References:

Ernkvist, D. V. (2012). Knowlege Map of the Virtual Economy. Washington DC: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.liquipedia. (2012). 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Retrieved from http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/2012_Battle.net_World_ChampionshipCastronova, E. (2006a) Virtual Worlds: A First- Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier. In: K. Salen and E. Zimmerman (eds), The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology, pp. 814–863. The MIT Press: Cambridge, MA.