4 ms·

I wonder, are there economists out there setting up and studying game worlds? Seems like a great way to run your simulation, and avoid the costs of phone survey

by sigil 15y ago

I wonder, are there economists out there setting up and studying game worlds? Seems like a great way to run your simulation, and avoid the costs of phone surveys / data collection.

rcfox 15y ago
EVE Online has a chief economist. http://io9.com/5057849/real-economist-studies-virtual-economy-in-eve-online http://io9.com/5057849/real-economist-studies-virtual-econom...
ejames 15y ago
It tends to work the other way around - a game world is set up, then economists study it. It's difficult to set up a world just for study, because people will not actually join and play unless it's an enjoyable game, and at that point you're a game developer rather than an economist. The most interesting economic work I know is for Eve Online. The company that operates Eve has hired an in-house economist to study the game's economy and publish periodic reports, which are available online - a quick search will turn them up. The reports generally focus on the economic effects of adding new content to the game - "here's how players reacted to the last patch."
- sigil 15y ago
  > It's difficult to set up a world just for study, because people will not actually join and play unless it's an enjoyable game, and at that point you're a game developer rather than an economist. It would be cool to see the two team up! Depending on the experiment, maybe you'd only need level designs. I assume this has only gotten easier with things like Minecraft.
- MisterMerkin 15y ago
  CCP has two in-house economists. Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/07/monocles.ars http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/07/monocles.ars
lloeki 15y ago
Yes there are. AFAIK both WoW and Eve Online are regularly studied on various fields, including sociology and economics.
- pnathan 15y ago
  Blizzard has a PhD in econ working for them to manage the in-game economy, iirc from my time on the WoW forums.
sunir 15y ago
The first papers I read on the subject were based around LambdaMOO. I've seen economic treatments of Ultima Online, AlphaWorld, and Second Life as well. Here's an interesting book that discusses some of the spatial economics of game worlds: http://www.mappingcyberspace.com http://www.mappingcyberspace.com Unfortunately, due to bitrot and available time, I don't have an extensive bibliography to give you beyond this right now.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

by sigil 15y ago

I wonder, are there economists out there setting up and studying game worlds? Seems like a great way to run your simulation, and avoid the costs of phone surveys / data collection.

rcfox 15y ago

EVE Online has a chief economist. http://io9.com/5057849/real-economist-studies-virtual-economy-in-eve-online http://io9.com/5057849/real-economist-studies-virtual-econom...

ejames 15y ago

It tends to work the other way around - a game world is set up, then economists study it. It's difficult to set up a world just for study, because people will not actually join and play unless it's an enjoyable game, and at that point you're a game developer rather than an economist. The most interesting economic work I know is for Eve Online. The company that operates Eve has hired an in-house economist to study the game's economy and publish periodic reports, which are available online - a quick search will turn them up. The reports generally focus on the economic effects of adding new content to the game - "here's how players reacted to the last patch."

sigil 15y ago
> It's difficult to set up a world just for study, because people will not actually join and play unless it's an enjoyable game, and at that point you're a game developer rather than an economist. It would be cool to see the two team up! Depending on the experiment, maybe you'd only need level designs. I assume this has only gotten easier with things like Minecraft.
MisterMerkin 15y ago
CCP has two in-house economists. Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/07/monocles.ars http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/07/monocles.ars

lloeki 15y ago

Yes there are. AFAIK both WoW and Eve Online are regularly studied on various fields, including sociology and economics.

pnathan 15y ago
Blizzard has a PhD in econ working for them to manage the in-game economy, iirc from my time on the WoW forums.

sunir 15y ago

The first papers I read on the subject were based around LambdaMOO. I've seen economic treatments of Ultima Online, AlphaWorld, and Second Life as well. Here's an interesting book that discusses some of the spatial economics of game worlds: http://www.mappingcyberspace.com http://www.mappingcyberspace.com Unfortunately, due to bitrot and available time, I don't have an extensive bibliography to give you beyond this right now.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]