Virtual-World Economics
As previously mentioned, MMO games such as WoW are persistent worlds with thousands of interacting players. These games all have a form of play money that players use to buy and sell in-game equipment, items, and other virtual property. These virtual economies operate by the same complex rules as any real economy.
Most MMOs that are sizable have exchange rates between virtual gold and hard currency. The website GameUSD.com tracks exchange rates over time (http://gameusd.com/world-of-warcraft-gold.htm). Figure 3 shows exchange rates in the first half of 2005 for WoW gold to U.S. dollars.
Figure 3 Exchange rates between WoW virtual gold and U.S. dollars. This chart reproduced by permission from WOW Gold Price Research at ...
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