IT’S NOT REALLY ABOUT STATUS Much hay was made back in the day of the value of virtual goods and status, leading to large projects like PS3 Home and Second Life

IT’S NOT REALLY ABOUT STATUS Much hay was made back in the day of the value of virtual goods and status, leading to large projects like PS3 Home and Second Life, as well as cosmetic items in many virtual worlds. There was a time, indeed, when many developers were thinking that status items were all they would sell. They missed the point on this by a large margin. Status is a minority interest in games, and sales of status items tend to be small compared to sale of utility items (in cases where both are available). Most players do not spend that much time on their avatar, do not really care that much about how their virtual house is arranged and when they realise that the rest of the world does not give them social proof, stop buying status items altogether. This can be confusing to understand because in games like pet simulators it seems as though much is spent on cosmetic items. However it’s important to note that a cosmetic item can also be a utility item (for example: to increase my pet’s happiness I must buy flowers etc). A status item is one that has no utility other than allowing the player to be a little creative or show off. But Hats?