The next step in gaming

[Kibbo]

Originally posted by: magomago


I've thought the exact same thing. I mean we already have rudimentary economies in any MMORPG. Go to a well established server in WOW that has been around a while and notice how the market is stable...then go to a server that is failrly new and watch how the prices are all over the place the there is no consistency...

even though i'm not an econ major, I do think about that a lot how economists can study different kinds of markets via MMORPGS....because they always say how their science is one of "observe" and its not like you can create your test conditions....but in a game you could...

imagine a WOW where stormwind can actually be burned down by the hoard, and everything allows freedom...all FREE but you just have to promise to play it often so economists can study the market forces in the game 😉

If you are interested in virtual markets, I suggest you plunk down 20$ and try out Eve online for a bit. The most immersive economy I've ever seen. And each new update leads to new problems in the economy, which are fixed (often heavy handidly) by the devs. I found the trading really interesting, untill I became bored with the gameplay.

I wish I had the money to keep paying the monthly fee, just so I could log on and see for myself what the effect of each new teak is. And I'd love to see some econometric data on various price interactions.

And economists are so desparate for experimental confirmation of their theories that some have even tried to use animals. By increasing the amount of work an animal has to do for some kind of food payment, they try to study the elasticity of labour. So far, parrot behaviour fits with neoclassical labour market models. I'm sure that using real humans would lead to better data.