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>In-game trading virtual goods is a niche novelty activity, and trading them for real money even more so. There are some very successful entrepreneurs who made

>In-game trading virtual goods is a niche novelty activity, and trading them for real money even more so. There are some very successful entrepreneurs who made their fortunes off of in-game trading that would disagree.

EliRivers 14y ago
Do they have multi-billion dollar globe-spanning industries and vast amounts of lobbying power? A handful of people making lots of money does not make it any less a niche or novelty.
- mistercow 14y ago
  A handful of people making money does make it not a novelty activity. It's still a niche, but it's not a novelty. You aren't going to see an organized crime ecosystem on the level of the consequences of alcohol and drug prohibition, but I think it's reasonable to think that making it illegal will drive it underground rather than getting rid of it, especially when the market will continue to thrive outside of South Korea.
  - batista 14y ago
    >A handful of people making money does make it not a novelty activity. It's still a niche, but it's not a novelty. How so? A handful of people make money out of ANY novelty. A handful of people making money of it, is actually, the very characteristic of a novelty. A handful of people made money off of hula-hups, the rubik cube, and yo-yos...
    - smashing 14y ago
      How many people made money off defensive HN comments?
    - mistercow 14y ago
      I would say that what makes it a novelty is that people are making significant money off of the act itself. Take your example of hula hoops. People make money off of selling hula hoops, and there are a very few people who make money off of the exhibition of their hula-hooping prowess. But nobody is really making a business model out of hula-hooping itself. You could swap rubik's cubes and yo-yos in to the previous sentence, and it would still hold true. Hula hoops are a novelty, but selling hula hoops is not. But there are people out there making gobs of money off of the trade of virtual items and then manipulation of virtual economies, and not by enabling it (although that is also profitable) or by doing it as a parlor trick for others' amusement, but by the same means as any other economy is exploited. In particular, what makes this not a novelty is that the attraction that these people have to it is not that it is a video game, or that the idea is new and interesting, but that it is simply an unexploited opportunity.

EliRivers 14y ago

Do they have multi-billion dollar globe-spanning industries and vast amounts of lobbying power? A handful of people making lots of money does not make it any less a niche or novelty.

mistercow 14y ago
A handful of people making money does make it not a novelty activity. It's still a niche, but it's not a novelty. You aren't going to see an organized crime ecosystem on the level of the consequences of alcohol and drug prohibition, but I think it's reasonable to think that making it illegal will drive it underground rather than getting rid of it, especially when the market will continue to thrive outside of South Korea.
- batista 14y ago
  >A handful of people making money does make it not a novelty activity. It's still a niche, but it's not a novelty. How so? A handful of people make money out of ANY novelty. A handful of people making money of it, is actually, the very characteristic of a novelty. A handful of people made money off of hula-hups, the rubik cube, and yo-yos...
  - smashing 14y ago
    How many people made money off defensive HN comments?
  - mistercow 14y ago
    I would say that what makes it a novelty is that people are making significant money off of the act itself. Take your example of hula hoops. People make money off of selling hula hoops, and there are a very few people who make money off of the exhibition of their hula-hooping prowess. But nobody is really making a business model out of hula-hooping itself. You could swap rubik's cubes and yo-yos in to the previous sentence, and it would still hold true. Hula hoops are a novelty, but selling hula hoops is not. But there are people out there making gobs of money off of the trade of virtual items and then manipulation of virtual economies, and not by enabling it (although that is also profitable) or by doing it as a parlor trick for others' amusement, but by the same means as any other economy is exploited. In particular, what makes this not a novelty is that the attraction that these people have to it is not that it is a video game, or that the idea is new and interesting, but that it is simply an unexploited opportunity.