Virtual worlds also have economic impact
The economy is everywhere. Its laws are applicable even in societies that don’t exist, which are inhabited by people that are not real. It is what has happened in several online games like World of Warcraft, Hattrick or Second Life that have suffered diverse economic problems with monetary losses that impact the real world sometimes.
World of Warcraft is an online role-playing game where the player participates in a fantastic universe similar to The Lord of the Rings. It has more than 10 million registered users, according to the programming company (Blizzar). About half of them are in Asia. In fact, the problem came from Asia: in this game, the most valuable currency is the gold, very difficult of getting, and for that reason, some people and companies decided to make business, mainly in China. They got “gold” during 24 hours a day, then they sold it to the other users who didn’t want to get it by themselves. The transaction was carried out to exchange “gold” for real money in auctions websites like Ebay (for example, if you want to buy 5000 gold coins, then you need about 150 Euros). This way, a scarce thing began to be plentiful, the gold was devaluated and the inflation was caused by this. In this game, the cost of “living” was radically increased. For this reason, the company closed the accounts of 114000 people who were making money by this method.
Something very similar happened in another video game: “Final Fantasy XI”. The owner closed more than 4000 accounts of players who exchanged virtual assets for real money. This situation also caused inflation. The action of the programmers was definitive. They reduced the money flow by eliminating several millions in order to decrease prices: the European Central Bank dream.
Some virtual worlds have a surprising similarity with reality. Second Life has cases of real estate speculation and financial crisis. This game uses the linden dollars as currency to buy properties and virtual objects. It is possible to exchange them for real money in a market implemented by Linden Lab (a programmer). In this market, a dollar is equal to about 250 lindens. The business opportunities are always present: there is a story about a Chinese woman (her nickname is Anshe Chung) who appeared on Business Week cover. She won $250000 when she sold “lands” where she built hotels and apartments.
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