Talk:Virtual economy

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VG To-do:

eccliscism, this is nothing new and an unusual term

Contents

[edit] Naming

I've never heard it called 'synthetic economy' but always virtual econonomy. Would it be a good idea to move the article to there, can you think of any cons in doing so? The benefit would be that it would be in accordance with its established name. --ShaunMacPherson 07:16, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I agree. --Mrwojo 16:31, 6 Jan 2005 (UTC)
Moved. I left the mention of "synethetic economy" in the article because Castronova does tend to use synthetic instead of virtual (as he says on his website, "synthetic ('crafted') being a more accurate term than virtual ('unreal')"). But this was in the context of virtual/synthetic world, and he almost exclusively uses "virtual economy" like everyone else. --Mrwojo 16:25, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Virtual Crime

In the Boston Globe article on the virtual crime page, it states that "Evangaline," the runner of the brothel, was a man, but the article states s/he was a 17-year old girl. Can anyone clarify?

It was a 17-year old boy playing as a girl. The links on the Virtual Crime page that go to Alphaville Herald would tell you more. --YoungFreud 6 July 2005 23:42 (UTC)

It does actually say "17-year old boy" and refers to the fact that he is male, though it could do with a clearer note that he was playing as a female character. violet/riga (t) 7 July 2005 09:05 (UTC)
A statment like that is immaterial to the point of the paragraph. It doesn't matter what gender this person is vs. the character used, the point of the entry is the brothel incident. The relative gender of the character and user are only important if we consider that to be of greater importance than the brothel itself. --Aaryna 17:13, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Real-money trading

Real-money trading and the "real" economy interaction section of the Virtual economy article are about the same subject, and the title "Real-money trading" is not descriptive enough. Jobarts-Talk 00:16, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree with the merge, as long as the title Virtual Economy is kept, the other one seems to be incorrect and confusing. --Hetar 22:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I think we can redirect the other article into this one after merging. Antonio Carlos Porto 12:39, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree as well. Since it's such a big article, should all the info from the Real-money trading article be dumped or just everything that isn't specifically mentioned in this one? Edit - Almost everything on the Real-money trading article was either already here or not cited, so I'm going to turn it into a redirect. -- DSGruss 17:25, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

This needs its own section. RMT an activity that can occur in a virtual economy. It is related to Virtual Item Sales (VAS). VAS is a buisnes model which describes the legal sale of virtual items/assets by the operator of the virtual world. This is sometimes called the primary market. RMT is often the illegal version of the same activity, the secondary market. Often the user sells virtual items where it is prohibited by the EULA (End User License Agreement) e.g. World of Warcraft. See RMT Strategiesfor a detailed look a RMT. --HapticHedonist 21:41, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cases of virtual property sales banned by operator tried in court

I'm currently working on the swedish article on MMORPGs and its section on virtual property, and I seem to have mislaid my old material on court cases about the enforcement of virtual property sales. Specifically, the only court case I can recall was that of BlackIce. The company sued - I believe - Mythic (and possibly other companies as well) but the case disintegrated as BlackIce was discovered to be a bit less than lawful themselves (this from my recollection of events; I'm asking because I can't find the actual documents). Part of the coverage of the events was done by one or two of the major MMO-gamer sites at the time (I believe PlayertoPlayer(?) or possibly GameSpy), who undertook what in retrospect could be seen as a precursor to GrokLaw - for instance, they published legal documents of the case as pdfs on their site. I'd appreciate any clues, remnants or documentation of those events, as I believe that was the first attempt to try, in court, the banning (in EULA) of out-of-game sales of in-game property. Thanks, // OlofE 10:05, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Economy stability

"In extreme cases, a hacker may be able to hack into the system and create a large amount of money. This could result in hyperinflation in the game as is the case with Guild Wars." No source for proof. This makes Guild Wars look like it is hacked, while every exploit gets fixed and accounts gets banned, and even the system has been once reverted. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.98.202.149 (talk) 09:00, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Taxing on Virtual Currency

I think there should be a section about the bill that congress is debating on whether they should be allowed to tax in game currency.

Any suggestions?

68.37.99.66 23:03, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] MapleStory

Can I just ask why MapleStory is NOT included. Players can sell and buy items using mesos. Players can EVEN set up their own shops in areas known as the "free market". Free markets can be found in various cities in MapleStory. Tell me three reasons why NOT to include MapleStory.MapleStory's economy is GIANT with more than 70 million players. If no one replies, I WILL change it. Tally Ho!Darano 01:10, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

The article (poor as it is) is not a list of virtual economies. Thus even notable virtual economies (if MapleStory's qualifies) shouldn't necessarily be mentioned. Merely adding it because you're a MapleStory fan would likely detract from the article, and just add one more thing to clean up. W (talk) 04:14, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] other perspectives... ? ripple pay and cambros --- - -

what about Ripple monetary system and virtual currencies at sites like Cambrian House (Cambros)? --Emesee (talk) 05:50, 6 March 2008 (UTC)