The Economics of Everquest

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The Economics of Everquest

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:51:49 AM EDT

Maybe you or someone you know is hopelessly addicted to Evercrack. An economist who drowned his misery by escaping into this online multiplayer game discovered that because the items and currency have real value (bought and sold on eBay), people who play Everquest have higher, REAL per capita incomes than many third world countries, just from playing a stupid game.

Things got even more interesting when Castronova learned about the "player auctions." EverQuest players would sometimes tire of the game, and decide to sell off their characters orvirtual possessions at an on-line auction site such as eBay. When Castronova checked the auction sites, he saw that a Belt of the Great Turtle or a Robe of Primordial Waters might fetch forty dollars; powerful characters would go for several hundred or more. And sometimes people would sell off 500,000-fold bags of platinum pieces for as much as $1,000.

As Castronova stared at the auction listings, he recognized with a shock what he was looking at. It was a form of currency trading. Each item had a value in virtual "platinum pieces"; when it was sold on eBay, someone was paying cold hard American cash for it. That meant the platinum piece was worth something in real currency. EverQuest's economy actually had real-world value.

He began calculating frantically. He gathered data on 616 auctions, observing how much each item sold for in U.S. dollars. When he averaged the results, he was stunned to discover that the EverQuest platinum piece was worth about one cent U.S. — higher than the Japanese yen or the Italian lira. With that information, he could figure out how fast the EverQuest economy was growing. Since players were killing monsters or skinning bunnies every day, they were, in effect, creating wealth. Crunching more numbers, Castronova found that the average player was generating 319 platinum pieces each hour he or she was in the game — the equivalent of $3.42 (U.S.) per hour. "That's higher than the minimum wage in most countries," he marvelled.

Then he performed one final analysis: The Gross National Product of EverQuest, measured by how much wealth all the players together created in a single year inside the game. It turned out to be $2,266 U.S. per capita. By World Bank rankings, that made EverQuest richer than India, Bulgaria, or China, and nearly as wealthy as Russia.

It was the seventy-seventh richest country in the world. And it didn't even exist.

www.walrusmagazine.com/article.pl?sid=04/05/06/1929205&tid=1

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:55:02 AM EDT

[#1]

anybody else thinking of setting up 8 or so computers in a room and just playing everquest to sell items on ebay?

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:56:53 AM EDT

[#2]

Quoted:
anybody else thinking of setting up 8 or so computers in a room and just playing everquest to sell items on ebay?

I read an article about this. It was suggested that you could actually do that in some countries where the wage rates are low, pay people $ 1/hour to play everquest then sell off their magic hats or whatever on e-bay.

There is some guy doing this for money already.

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:57:52 AM EDT

[#3]

Just when life can't get any more absurd...

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:58:34 AM EDT

[#4]

nerds....

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:01:11 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
Just when life can't get any more absurd...

Hey we're the dumbies wasting time on a gunboard when we should be out combing the elf woods for magic spatulas to sell on e-bay.

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:10:08 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Quoted:
anybody else thinking of setting up 8 or so computers in a room and just playing everquest to sell items on ebay?

I read an article about this. It was suggested that you could actually do that in some countries where the wage rates are low, pay people $ 1/hour to play everquest then sell off their magic hats or whatever on e-bay.

There is some guy doing this for money already.

Heck, I think I could do it with 8 computers arranged in a circle around me...what's the minimu system requirements for it???

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:39:12 AM EDT

[#7]

Minimum requirements won't cut it. You need machines with almost no video or net lag to be anywhere near efficient.

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:50:33 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Just when life can't get any more absurd...
Hey we're the dumbies wasting time on a gunboard when we should be out combing the elf woods for magic spatulas to sell on e-bay.

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:51:00 AM EDT

[#9]

how do you find items/characters for sale on ebay?

Posted: 5/12/2004 9:51:10 AM EDT

[#10]

Never even heard of it.

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:11:48 AM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Never even heard of it.

I've never seen it, but my understanding is that it's basically an online version of Dungeons and Dragons, where your little character accumulates wealth, magic items and get better able to fight and take damage as you play, apparently the items can be transferred between characters in the game and I would think you could even sell characters so someone could start out with a tough character, rather than having to build one up.

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:16:44 AM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Never even heard of it.
I've never seen it, but my understanding is that it's basically an online version of Dungeons and Dragons, where your little character accumulates wealth, magic items and get better able to fight and take damage as you play, apparently the items can be transferred between characters in the game and I would think you could even sell characters so someone could start out with a tough character, rather than having to build one up.

OK, doesn't sound like my "cup of tea".

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:17:31 AM EDT

[#13]

I quit Everquest in January after playing it since December of 2000. Many people are sucked in and play it for 12-18 hours a day. I played it more to play with a friend who is now my girlfriend. She didn't have time to play anymore, but I continued playing it for a few months after she stopped. Then I too quit and we sold our accounts. Mine sold for $400, which I of course used to buy a Walther P99 9mm pistol!

Hers sold for $350. We probably made well over 1,000,000 platinum throughout the course of us playing. I'd say by today's standards, that's about $9,000 worth of virtual money in 3 years. It used to be worth a great deal more (inflation has been hurting the economy in it over the years). I'm not quite sure if I will ever play another game like that again (at least not on a regular basis).

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:20:38 AM EDT

[#14]

Too bad hookers don't accept bags of cyber gold as payment, because these guys are NEVER getting laid.

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:21:44 AM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
To bad hookers don't accept bags of cyber gold as payment, because these guys are NEVER getting laid.

Dam funny!

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:24:45 AM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Too bad hookers don't accept bags of cyber gold as payment, because these guys are NEVER getting laid.

Posted: 5/12/2004 10:31:41 AM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
Too bad hookers don't accept bags of cyber gold as payment, because these guys are NEVER getting laid.

Posted: 5/12/2004 11:16:08 AM EDT

[#18]

Last I heard Ebay cracked down on these type of auctions and nuke them onsight .

My mother inlaw bought us Evercrack for chirstmass.I left it wrapped up . Two weeks ago the little lady opened it up , and gave it a try . Thank god we only have 56k she could keep up with anything so she quit.

Posted: 5/12/2004 11:22:58 AM EDT

[#19]

Quoted:
Too bad hookers don't accept bags of cyber gold as payment, because these guys are NEVER getting laid.

eheheheheheheh

Posted: 5/12/2004 12:45:03 PM EDT

[#20]

I actualy quit playing the game about 5 monthsago, now im as addicted to this forum as i was Everquest...

i still have my account in good standing and have been looking into selling it. Ebay does not allow everquest sales anymore, but www.playerauctions.com does. Its actualy a fun game , i guess the best i could compair it to is Americas Army, you group up with people, sometimes in the hundreds and go fight computer played characters or fight on another in the player vrs player servers. Made alot of friends BUT it was addicting. I had a full tiem job, girlfriend and a house to deal with and finally decided the game had to go. If anyone wants to buy my account its for sale

Posted: 5/12/2004 12:57:00 PM EDT

[#21]

I got hooked into EQ back in 99 when it first came out. All three of my roommates played it as well. One didn't graduate because of it! I had a pretty strong character but I remmeber I was out killing monsters out in the middle of no where and got killed and couldn't find my stuff. I didn't feel like investing more time into buying new equipment so I quit.

Posted: 5/12/2004 3:15:52 PM EDT

[#22]

that shit has been going on for years. people were selling items and accounts on eBay a long time ago for Diablo II. Some even sold instructions on how to find a Windforce. Fucking nerds.

Posted: 5/12/2004 3:33:41 PM EDT

[#23]

found this site www.mysupersales.com/

EQ sucks BF1942 rocks!

Posted: 5/12/2004 3:50:35 PM EDT

[#24]

I played it for a while, High Elf Wizard, got to level 31 or so. I haven't played it in a long time. Though I haven't had the heart to kill off the character.

Takes way to much time. You can't just play for 10 minutes. It freakin takes forever.

Maybe I'll fire it up tonite, and see if it still works!

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:01:57 PM EDT

[#25]

Nerds or not I met a guy at a party once who showed us his Ebay auction that just closed on some "mega character". $1200+ for some high up Everquest character is pretty cool.

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:04:14 PM EDT

[#26]

Isn't doing that cheating... it's like being to lazy to learn self defense and work out so you buy a gun.

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:22:28 PM EDT

[#27]

I played Everquest from Beta on for about 1.5 years. One of my good friends actually put the first Everquest auction on Ebay. It was 1000 platinum and it sold for a little over $700. Nearly $1 per platinum piece. Personally, I netted about $20-25,000 off of Everquest - aside from selling "personal" wealth, this was acheived by purchasing other game characters and stripping them, much like stripping a car for more than the whole would be worth.

The friend I mentioned above netting WELL over $100,000. Two other friends combined for another $100,000. No kidding. The early days of Everquest auctions on Ebay were crazy money.

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:27:43 PM EDT

[#28]

Though the amount of coding it would take is prohibitive, I'd very much like to see the Evercrack world crossed with any of a number of worlds from various combat simulations. Falcon 4.0 (updated), America's Army, Unreal Tournament 2003, Ghost Recon, etc...

Just to see the elves, wizards, and other fantasy fairies die under a withering blast of gunfire, bombs, rockets, missiles, CBUs, napalm, the odd pass of an AC-130/U gunship, and the occasional B-61 tactical nuclear bomb delivered by an F16C!

I think this will never happen, but it'd be sort of fun if it did.

Sooner or later, the maniacs that make games are going to start settling on a basic structure for their gaming environments that lends itself to linking up dissimilar games in just such a manner, introducing new and interesting variables into each game.

It would be very interesting to see this idea implemented with a suite of games that each focus on a different aspect of the same wartime theater. A naval simulation, a submarine simulation (well, maybe not...it could be quite boring), a ground war simulation, and an air war simulation, all playing at the same time in the same theater, with total interaction between the varying forces.

Actually, this was what had been planned for the Electronics Battlefields series of games, of which Falcon 4.0 was the first (and only) release of the series. A great idea, and probably well ahead of its time, but it wasn't to be, though Falcon 4.0 lives on, and strongly, thanks to a dedicated network of die-hard fans and coders. Falcon in its latest revisions is very much up to date, and it got started in 1998.

CJ

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:39:47 PM EDT

[#29]

I quit about a year ago. The investment in time is simply too great. To get much of anything accomplished, you have to play several (more than 5) hours a day. Anything less is pissing in the wind.

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:43:08 PM EDT

[#30]

I need to learn how to hack video games and just create a character with all sorts of shit. Then sell if for some major $$$$$.

Posted: 5/12/2004 5:54:55 PM EDT

[#31]

I know one guy who got addicted and his wife divorced him. I wonder if he had to auction his character to pay for the divorce.

Posted: 5/12/2004 6:03:09 PM EDT

[#32]

Quoted:
I know one guy who got addicted and his wife divorced him. I wonder if he had to auction his character to pay for the divorce.

One of my friends cut his diablo disc in 1/2 to avoid his new wife leaving

Posted: 5/12/2004 6:07:14 PM EDT

[#33]

Star Wars Galaxies Jedi knight characters are selling for over $1000.00 on a regular basis. I saw one go for over 5K about a month ago.

Insane.

Posted: 5/12/2004 6:15:18 PM EDT

[#34]

I've never really liked Everquest and such types because of the magic powers...
I wish someone made a REAL MMORPG based on the FallOut universe... I'd love to run around shooting mutant ghouls with a 250+ year old AK47, or play as a mutant (read: makes the terminator look like a little girl) and hump around a Ma Deuce or Minigun

Jesus, with enough different in-game items (and this would mean AT LEAST several thousand items, plus their computer-generated quality levels and minor variations) this kind of game would be SO much fun!

*sigh* too little time for such games, and no new sequels for my all time favorite- Fallout.

Posted: 5/12/2004 6:19:59 PM EDT

[#35]

Quoted:
I've never really liked Everquest and such types because of the magic powers...
I wish someone made a REAL MMORPG based on the FallOut universe... I'd love to run around shooting mutant ghouls with a 250+ year old AK47, or play as a mutant (read: makes the terminator look like a little girl) and hump around a Ma Deuce or Minigun
Jesus, with enough different in-game items (and this would mean AT LEAST several thousand items, plus their computer-generated quality levels and minor variations) this kind of game would be SO much fun!

*sigh* too little time for such games, and no new sequels for my all time favorite- Fallout.

I hear you ... there are far too few post apocolypse games.

Posted: 5/12/2004 6:26:51 PM EDT

[#36]

Quoted:
Star Wars Galaxies Jedi knight characters are selling for over $1000.00 on a regular basis. I saw one go for over 5K about a month ago.

Insane.

MADNESS!!! What are these people thinking? If they play that much can't they just build their own characters up. They are obviously hopelessly addicted to the game if they are paying that much money, whihc means they must log in mad hours, which I would think would mean they could get their characters up on their own... man. This is by far the epitomy of laziness when people who play a game are too lazy to even log in the time to make their own characters. I think I've heard it all.

Posted: 5/12/2004 7:01:35 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Star Wars Galaxies Jedi knight characters are selling for over $1000.00 on a regular basis. I saw one go for over 5K about a month ago.

Insane.

MADNESS!!! What are these people thinking? If they play that much can't they just build their own characters up. They are obviously hopelessly addicted to the game if they are paying that much money, whihc means they must log in mad hours, which I would think would mean they could get their characters up on their own... man. This is by far the epitomy of laziness when people who play a game are too lazy to even log in the time to make their own characters. I think I've heard it all.

It's because some people can play games and some people are too busy making money to learn. Professional gamers can powerlevel a character to max out within a week or so, these guys take these kind of jobs from people who can't afford to spend 6 months doing it at their own newbie'ish pace, added to the fact that they're probably not even going to be playing much.
THIS is who buys characters for $5000.

Posted: 5/12/2004 7:25:15 PM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:
I played Everquest from Beta on for about 1.5 years. One of my good friends actually put the first Everquest auction on Ebay. It was 1000 platinum and it sold for a little over $700. Nearly $1 per platinum piece. Personally, I netted about $20-25,000 off of Everquest - aside from selling "personal" wealth, this was acheived by purchasing other game characters and stripping them, much like stripping a car for more than the whole would be worth.

The friend I mentioned above netting WELL over $100,000. Two other friends combined for another $100,000. No kidding. The early days of Everquest auctions on Ebay were crazy money.

no shit I made atleast a couple k back in the early days of EQ selling chacters. I quit becouse i got tired of messing with it,,

Posted: 5/12/2004 7:36:38 PM EDT

[#39]

There was a game called Motor City Online for a while that my friend played a lot. It was a car game and you'd race for pink slips and win parts and upgrades and whatnot. He made about 1000 bucks selling custom cars over the couple years he played.

IT's crazy. Course he played for hours a day......

Posted: 5/12/2004 7:56:58 PM EDT

[#40]

I played it and a few other for awhile, they got kinda old with me

Posted: 5/12/2004 8:06:46 PM EDT

[#41]

Quoted:
anybody else thinking of setting up 8 or so computers in a room and just playing everquest to sell items on ebay?

I know of quite a few people who have done that. I used to play Ultima Online on a free server and the admins ran a buisness, www.mysupersales.com which happens to be one of if not the biggest online everquest store right now. I signed up for the affiliate link and made 7 bucks by posting their link on message boards.

Posted: 5/13/2004 1:17:01 AM EDT

[#42]

I play Star Wars Galaxies like there's no tommorow. For the current going price of a million creds for 30 bucks, I could make $10 an hour just running missions over and over again. If i get my manufacturing up to speed, I may manage to exceed that. Not bad in comparison to my day job, and when I go to work AND play......perfect.

It's not hard to grind out a full-skilled character, especially once you know all the tricks. So for a college student like me, I could easily grind out a character or two a weekend and then resell it. Haven't yet done it but it's crossed my mind.

Posted: 5/13/2004 7:50:50 AM EDT

[#43]

About 1 year ago a college drop out killed himself when his Evercrack character got killed off.
His Mother was taking leagal action against the company.

Posted: 5/13/2004 7:57:19 AM EDT

[#44]

Do you get machine guns and grenades to blow up dragons or two headed donkeys or whatever?

These guys are pathetic...

I saw a show on Dateline, where some of these fuckers were offing themselves if they lost.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - The Economics of Everquest

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