The massively multiplayer online game, EVE Online, has hired a PhD economist. Dr. Eyolfur Guomundsson writes:
In the real world, economic information is the cornerstone for our
daily business; everyone takes note when news on inflation, production
and interest rates are announced and traders try to predict beforehand
what the news will be. There is a constant game between the market and
authorities on predicting each other’s move and for that everyone needs
information. Though EVE is a virtual world, the basic needs are the
same. Players, designers and the company leaders at CCP will all
benefit from having a central figure to monitor inflation and trends
and provide a focused insight into what is happening within that
virtual world so that everyone can make better decisions.As the lead economist for EVE, my duties will include
publishing economic information to the EVE-Online community. My duties
will also be to coordinate research cooperation with academic
institutions as the academic world has expressed quite an interest in
doing research on this phenomenon (which shows how important MMOGs
might become in future research into economic and human behavior).
Thanks to Derek Guder for the link.
Looking forward to his first report!
>> Virtual Economy Hires Real Economist
I guess that rules out Krugman!
Next they’ll introduce a governmental system that taxes characters, redistributes booty, and outlaws certain behavior.
I can assure you that eve wouldn’t try to do that. The whole thing is marketed as a anarcho-capitalist, space frontier thing. The whole point of the game is to produce and make money in an environment without laws and the very real threat of getting robbed or conned by your chief security officer.
inflation is crazy. Money just keeps churning into the system.
For eve, I think this might be because there is an artificial “base” sales price for products. Creates an additional source of money supply. If they would just leave things to supply and demand, inflation might slow down.
my corporation and I could fine art supplies take advantage of sunglasses manufacturer price discrepancies between sectors
I come from asia, injoy 室內è¨è¨ˆ,work in a æ¬å®¶å…¬å¸
Thanks for the article
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