7 Interesting Quotes From a Virtual Currency Expert

If you’re looking for a great Q&A format (where anyone can ask the Q’s), there are few better places than a Reddit AMA. Everyone from Weird Al’s backup dancer to President Obama has turned out to provide answers.

Earlier this week, Edward Castronova took to the hot seat. An expert on “video game economies, virtual currency, and bitcoin” (according to his AMA title), Castronova has spent more than a decade studying the world of money in games. He’s literally written the book on the subject.

We’ve picked seven of Castronova’s AMA answers that we felt were essential reading. You can find the full AMA here.

[quote]I would say that EVE Online has the best economy. By far. It’s an older game, but the economy in it is real in so many ways. Trading markets are so realistic, and the tools they give you to analyze trends are just amazing. If you’re an econ geek, or a business nerd, you must play EVE.[/quote]

[quote]Game economies get big even though nothing is tangible, that’s true. But think about it. The color red on a car isn’t tangible, but you pay for it. A URL isn’t tangible, but you pay for it. Many intangible things are part of the economy.[/quote]

[quote]I don’t generally think that trading real dollars for game dollars is good for games. Typically, this trading is done to benefit somebody, the game owner or a third party. They generally are not in the game to make the game better. From a gamer’s perspective, I would want to see a very thick wall between game economies and the real economy. As an economist, I also think that’s a better move for the industry in the long run.[/quote]

[quote]There are a number of games that do F2P well. I like the idea of a trial period for free, then pay if you want to move up in levels. I hate pay-to-win.[/quote]

[quote]I like the idea of playing markets in games. It’s a good place to learn economics. More academic economists should mess around in the Auction Houses![/quote]

[quote]Game companies use “drains” to suck money out of the system when there’s too much. They lose control when the drains are smaller than the faucets. Usually that’s because of the faucets being too big, that is, it’s too easy for players to mine up the gold they want. [/quote]

[quote]Asheron’s Call really messed up their currency. They had several currencies that each became worthless as people mined the **** out of it. At different points, the only store of value were iron keys, then scarabs, then notes. It went on and on.[/quote]

Jim Squires

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Jim Squires is the Editor-in-Chief of Gamezebo. Everything you see passes his eyes first, so we like to think of him as "the gatekeeper of cool stuff." He likes good games, great writing, and just can't say no to a hamburger. Also, he is not a bear.