Queen for a day : Whats the cost?!

Introduction…

When does the imaginary become real? When I was a child I remember playing outside pretending my swing set was a castle and I was the queen. As I grew up I obviously realized that life isn’t very similar to my childhood games, and I was in fact quite far from being a queen, just a college student. But what if for a few hours a day I could be a queen? Virtual worlds are making it easier then ever to make dreams become reality…or at least partial reality. In a virtual world you can join a guild, become something other than human, and attend weddings and funerals. Although those are just a fragment of things you can do (and some you can do offline in real-life) there is one aspect to this game that is bringing people to the real-life bank.

How many people are playing these games ???

More than 100-million people are playing online games (worldwide)

For instance one game World of Warcraft (WOW) generates 6 million players worldwide. The game is primarily most popular in China although it originated in the United States.

In China one out of every four people on the internet use it to play online games that means a whopping 24 million people in that country alone.

In China 100,000 people work full-time as gamers, meaning there main source of income comes from playing online games.

How can you make money playing a game???

Buying and selling virtual real-estate on games like UltimaOnline

Games like World of Warcraft take a long time to achieve the highest level (60). Some people who do not have the time or patience to devote to this game hire people to achieve their desired goals. In this game people also sell their accounts, or avatars that have attained a certain level or status.

Digging for gold (gold farming) is also one way people make money on these games. People in China are paid very little for their labor (online labor) and work twelve hour shifts, but those who do it feel that it is adequate pay (averaging 25 cents an hour) for playing games all day. Many times these arrangements include room & board as well.

“On eBay, for example, 100 grams of World of Warcraft gold is available for $9.99 or two über characters from EverQuest for $35.50. It costs $269 to be transported to Level 60 in Warcraft, and it typically takes 15 days to get the account back at the higher level.” - – David Barboza

Small companies also make money by advertising in these virtual communities.


“The Internet is now filled with classified advertisements from small companies - many of them here in China - auctioning for real money their powerful figures, called avatars. These ventures join individual gamers who started marketing such virtual weapons and wares a few years ago to help support their hobby.” – David Barboza


Some online games like Second Life and EverQuest encourage these new economies…they believe that they will continue and thrive as the online virtual life and real life merge (in a financial sense) Selling virtual goods is a whole new concept, in a whole new economy.

What are some problems that arise with this?

The companies ban these practices: Some people invest a lot of real money into these virtual games. If the companies ban this practice their money is literally lost.

Hackers- Can exploit the selling and buying of goods.

These games are simply that …a game. These are often so time consuming they can cause literal addiction leading to real life problems. When money is into the mix the problems can become more serious in nature.

Some games such as World of Warcraft believe these “new economies” take away from the egalitarian concept of these worlds. They also believe the game should be about adventure and exploration not about money.

Conclusions...

It is really a personal decision whether to participate in these virtual worlds or virtual economies. Although I once wanted to be queen of a castle…this poor college student doesn’t have the time or the money.


Sources

Dibbell, J.(2003). The unreal estate boom. Wired.

Levy, S. ( 2006) World of warcraft: Is it a game? Newsweek

Barboza, D. ( 2005). Ogre to slay? Outsource it to Chinese. The New York Times.