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EVE Evolved: Mining is broken, but it can be fixed

Brendan Drain — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, Culture, Economy, Expansions, Game Mechanics, Patches, PvE, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Subscription, MMORPG

Mining has a reputation for being the most boring activity in EVE Online, but it's always filled a niche role as a low-effort way to make ISK and play with friends casually. When there's no PvP going on and you can't give your full attention to smashing NPCs in missions or anomalies, mining fills that downtime with something more lucrative and social than spinning your ship in a station. The problem is that mining has slowly become obsolete over the years; alternative mineral sources now supply much of the market's needs, and the risk of flying a defenseless barge just isn't worth the mediocre payout.

It's currently more efficient for an individual to buy minerals with ISK made via some other form of PvE, such as level 4 missions or incursions. And on the macroscopic level, such huge quantities of minerals hit the market from alternative sources such as reprocessing loot that the economy could potentially function with no miners at all. CCP has tried to make mining more appealing over the years with buffs and new ships, and the devs recently announced plans to nerf mineral compression as part of a campaign to make mining worthwhile, but I think it'll take a lot more than ISK to get people mining again.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at how mining and reprocessing are at odds and suggest some ideas for new mining features that could revitalise this long forgotten profession.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Mining is broken, but it can be fixed

EVE Evolved: Mining is broken, but it can be fixed originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Mar 2014 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMO Mechanics: Balancing game economies

Christina Lauro — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Economy, Game Mechanics, Endgame, Final Fantasy XIV, EverQuest Next, Crafting, Star Citizen, Elite: Dangerous, MMO Mechanics

Most players won't need an economics degree to play an MMO, but strong mechanical forces under the bonnet still guide our actions in our favourite titles. Virtually every financial exchange can be broken down into an effort equals economic gain equation: We put in our hours, and the game economy churns out new gear or money.

Since so many in-game actions financially reward players, MMOs have developed mechanics that attempt to curtail the inflation game economies usually see. Charging your character for goods and services, bind-on-pickup gear, regular destruction of valuable goods, and player-controlled auction house and farming systems all combine to keep the spiralling amount of coppers falling into player hands in check.

In this week's MMO Mechanics, I'm going to look at some ways both sandbox and themepark MMOs automatically rebalance weighted economies by exploring the systems that restrict the free trade of goods and curb players' constant accrual of money. I'll look at how each system functions and how player manipulation adds a new layer of realism to game economies.

Continue reading MMO Mechanics: Balancing game economies

MMO Mechanics: Balancing game economies originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask Massively: The dilemma of the free-to-play sandbox

Brianna Royce — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Economy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, PvP, Opinion, Star Wars Galaxies, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous, ArcheAge, Housing

Reader Sharvis recently emailed the Massively Speaking podcast with a question I felt deserved more than just a quick verbal reaction on the 'cast. That, and we just discovered that the ask@massively.com email address went dead approximately three weeks ago, and I've not been receiving your letters there (so send 'em again!). In the meantime: Sharvis.

What makes a sandbox so susceptible to its business model in comparison to a themepark? I'm not experienced with sandbox titles, and I can only guess on some of the implications. For example, selling boosters in a themepark is fairly acceptable, but in a sandbox, as Jef pointed out [in his ArcheAge column earlier this summer], that'd be cutting into one of the main features of a sandbox. I'd guess it has to do with these sort of MMOs being more player-centric, and that's a very delicate system to be messing with.

See? I told you this was a juicy one.

Continue reading Ask Massively: The dilemma of the free-to-play sandbox

Ask Massively: The dilemma of the free-to-play sandbox originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Oct 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game

Brendan Drain — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Culture, Economy, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Hands-On, The Soapbox, Diablo III, Buy-to-Play

After his departure from the Diablo III development team, Game Director Jay Wilson released a statement that the introduction of an auction house "really hurt the game." While players predicted doom the moment the Real Money Auction House was announced, Jay argued that the gold auction house was equally to blame for the game's fall from grace following its absolutely stellar launch sales. I don't normally agree with what Jay has to say on Diablo III, but in this case he does have a very valid point.

Diablo II was consistently popular for over a decade thanks to its immense replayability. At its core, D2 was a game about building new characters and gearing them up by any means necessary. Every enemy in the game was a loot pinata just waiting to be popped, and players farmed endlessly for a few sought-after unique items. You almost never found an item that was ideal for your particular class and build, but you could usually trade for what you needed via trade channels and forums.

Blizzard claimed that the auction house was intended just to streamline this process, but when Diablo III launched, it was clear that the entire game had been designed to make the auction house almost necessary for progress. The fault here lies not just with the concept of an auction house but with the game designers.

That's right: I'm here to argue not only that Jay Wilson was right about the auction house ruining Diablo III but also that it was his own damn fault.

Continue reading The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game

The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 May 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Virtual world economist says Guild Wars 2's pre-endgame economy 'broken'

Matt Daniel — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, News Items, Guild Wars 2, Buy-to-Play

Ever since Guild Wars 2 went live back in August of last year, the state of the game's economy has... fluctuated wildly, let's say. But now, about eight months down the line, how is the economy holding up? Virtual world economist Ramin Shokrizade (the same fellow who wrote about using EVE Online to predict the real-world recession) has published a new piece on Gamasutra that takes an in-depth look at the economy of Guild Wars 2 as it stands today.

The article is too detailed to summarize here, but one thing worth taking away is Shokrizade's observation that, "with the exception of craft materials, [Guild Wars 2's] pre-endgame item economy is broken." He elaborates that, for example, a level 39 green-quality chestpiece regularly sells on the auction house for around 112 copper -- a scant 1 copper more than vendors pay for the same item. He concludes that GW2's pre-endgame economy is "one of the worst [he has] studied in the last 14 years." Eesh. He also takes an in-depth look at the role crafting plays in the economy and the effects of the in-game economy on cash-shop purchases. The full piece is a bit long but certainly worth the time for anyone interested in the intricacies of virtual economies or Guild Wars 2 players in general.

Virtual world economist says Guild Wars 2's pre-endgame economy 'broken' originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Jacobs on the coming F2P apocalypse

Jef Reahard — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Business Models, Interviews, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Crowdfunding, Camelot Unchained

Mark Jacobs isn't jumping on the free-to-play bandwagon like most of his MMO-making contemporaries. The Camelot Unchained developer and former Dark Age of Camelot head honcho predicted a F2P "apocalypse" in a recent interview with VG247.

You know, free-to-play is just another model, and just like every other model in the industry, it will hold its special little place for a while but then there will be consequences. Those consequences in a few years will be a bit of an apocalypse.

You're going to see a lot of developers shutting down, and you're going to see a lot of publishers going, oh yeah maybe spending $20 million on a free-to-play game wasn't the best idea ever. That's part of the reason, but the other reason is equally as important, that if you go free-to-play, you really have to compete with every other free-to-play game out there.

Camelot Unchained, which recently passed the halfway point of its $2 million Kickstarter goal, will be a "niche subscription game," which Jacobs says will allow his studio to focus on creating content for a more desirable audience.

The subscription model "allows us to focus our game on the people who want to pay for it, and are willing to pay for it," Jacobs explains. "I'll take a smaller subscription base that is dedicated, is energized and is excited to play our game, and to work with our game, than ten times that base where I have to deal with a lot of people who really don't care."

Mark Jacobs on the coming F2P apocalypse originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 13 Apr 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Art of Wushu: Winning in market PvP

Patrick Mackey — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Historical, Economy, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Guides, Crafting, Age of Wushu, The Art of Wushu

Last time on the Art of Wushu, I promised I would write on how to sell production crafts. Crafting is a big deal in Age of Wushu, so it seemed like a reasonable topic to cover. However, I realized doing so would probably be a mistake. Why?

If you followed my advice from two weeks ago, congratulations. You probably noticed a huge nosedive in a few markets: hemp, ramie, iron, and mint all took a huge hit. It's a bit flattering to see how I can write a post on what to sell and readers like you guys take it to heart, flooding the market with supply and crashing the value of these commodities. If I gave advice on production crafting, the same thing would happen.

Instead, this week I'm going to talk about real market strategy. Pointing out things that sell doesn't help you if the market takes a nose-dive. Understanding supply and demand curves, market equilibrium, and the importance of market diversity are all long-term tools that will help you regardless of what you're selling.

Continue reading The Art of Wushu: Winning in market PvP

The Art of Wushu: Winning in market PvP originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Top ten ganks, scams, heists and events

Brendan Drain — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, Lore, Professions, PvP, Endgame, News Items, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox

It's been called "boring," "confusing," and "the world's biggest spreadsheet," but every now and then a story emerges from sci-fi MMO EVE Online and grabs the gaming world's attention. Tales of massive thefts, colossal battles, high-value kills, record-breaking scams, political dirty deals, and controversial player-run events never fail to grip us. Perhaps it's the fact that these events have such huge impacts in the EVE sandbox that captures our imaginations, or maybe we just want to watch with morbid curiosity as a virtual society self-destructs.

Whether it's innocent interest in quirky stories or a secret sense of schadenfreude that keeps us glued to EVE's most illicit events, the game continues to deliver them with startling regularity. Most scams, thefts, and high-profile battles will never make the news, instead becoming another forgotten part of EVE's history or just a story for a few friends to reminisce about. But those stories that do reach the news always draw in a huge audience that wouldn't play EVE in a million years but can't get enough of its engrossing stories.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down a list of ten incredible EVE kills, scams, heists, and sandbox events that have made it into the news over the years.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Top ten ganks, scams, heists and events

EVE Evolved: Top ten ganks, scams, heists and events originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TERA's new launch features section adds economic changes

Matt Daniel — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, News Items, TERA

TERA's May release date is less than a month away now, and En Masse Entertainment is filling the days leading up to the big event by unveiling a series of new launch features. Today's piece is focused on a number of adjustments that have been made to the game's economic system.

For starters, the trade broker has been vastly improved with "robust search features," while private stores have been abolished in order to make the broker the true hub of the game's economy. Enchanters will be pleased to know that the penalty for failing an enchantment has been removed, so while an enchantment can still fail, it won't weaken the target piece of equipment in the process. And to top it off, the currency demoninations have been changed up to prevent players from having to deal with astronomical amounts of gold. The full details, as well as previous new launch features, can be found over on the game's official site.

TERA's new launch features section adds economic changes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid

Brendan Drain — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Professions, PvP, EVE Evolved, Guides, Sandbox

Anyone who's familiar with EVE Online will have heard stories of the game's criminal underworld, from devastating corporate infiltration to the daily grafting of common con artists. Most players will never perpetrate a scam, but those who do are constantly coming up with new tricks to part you from your hard-earned ISK. For every genuine smooth-talking con-artist who comes up with new schemes and socially engineers his way to a fortune, you'll find dozens of copycats who flood popular chat channels with scams they've seen perpetrated in the past.

On an average day, over 90% of the chat in Jita's local channel is people posting copycat scams, with legitimate offers completely drowned out. There may not even be anyone at the helm with these scams, as a script could easily paste the scam message every few minutes for an entire day. Not confined to Jita, these scams are often replicated across all of the game's main trade hubs and popular mission-running systems. Knowing how these scams work is the first step to protecting yourself from making an expensive and extremely embarrassing mistake.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I explain the trick behind five of EVE's most common copycat scams and how to protect yourself from them.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid

EVE Evolved: Five scams to avoid originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic announces economic adjustments

Matt Daniel — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, Economy, Patches, News Items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Economic upheaval is coming to the galaxy in Star Wars: The Old Republic's patch 1.1.5. A series of rumors and announcements from major organizations across the galaxy have been published on the official site in order to give players some insight into the upcoming changes. From all of the delicious lore tidbits, we find out that the speeder manufacturer Korrealis is retiring its Sovereign, Prince, Baron, and Commander speeders, while the Tirsa Industrial Consortium has quietly removed its Prime model speeders from the market. As a result of this decision, all of the aforementioned models are now steeply discounted, so grab them while they last.

Meanwhile, the Republic Senate's Committee on Transportation and Public Safety has decided to lower the cost of speeder licenses. Speeder purchase taxes, however, are being raised in response to this move. The Imperial Transportation Authority recently passed a similar law. To top it off, the Republic has recently come into possession of some previously Empire-owned purple color crystals, and both Republic and Empire merchants have some into possession of some very rare -- and very expensive -- white color crystals. Market speculators, start your engines; there's money to be made!

Star Wars: The Old Republic announces economic adjustments originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EA reveals SWTOR subscription and sales numbers, beats financial predictions [Updated]

Matt Daniel — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

It looks like Star Wars: The Old Republic didn't let its daddy down, as EA has reported much better sales than expected for the December quarter, largely thanks to the runaway sales of the new MMO title (as well as many of EA's other heavy-hitters). The company ended up earning an adjusted $344 million for a total net loss of $205 million, which isn't too shabby if you consider how much money just went into the development and launch of The Old Republic.

Perhaps most interestingly to players, however, is the fact that EA has reported sales of more than 2 million units of The Old Republic with about 1.7 million subscribers. Those are the highest (and the hardest) numbers we've heard so far. EA's Chief Financial Advisor, Eric Brown, stated in an interview that EA managed to pull in more SWTOR subscribers than the studio had initially anticipated. He added that at launch, the studio was able to add a great number of users per server courtesy of some technical improvements. If you're economically minded and want to get the full, dirty, stock market details, just click past the link below.

[Thanks to Gabriel for the tip!]

[Update: Darth Hater has compiled some additional TOR-related statistics and Q&A from today's EA earnings call: "2,000,000+ copies sold, 40% sold through Origin; 1,700,000+ active subscribers, 1 million concurrent." The company also notes that "Active subscribers means anyone paying OR in their trial period. MOST of those 1.7m are paying at this point."]

EA reveals SWTOR subscription and sales numbers, beats financial predictions [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Funcom tops Oslo stock exchange, invests heavily in The Secret World

Jef Reahard — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Age of Conan, Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, The Secret World

Funcom's future is looking pretty bright according to a report at Views and News from Norway. The site says the development firm behind Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World topped the Oslo stock exchange last year and saw its share price rise by 227%.

AoC has "sold well and still generates income for Funcom," says the report, but the real cause for optimism is the positive buzz surrounding The Secret World. Funcom head honcho Trond Arne Aas says that the firm has received "very good feedback" from both testers and journalists, and it's a good thing since the company absorbed a third quarter loss despite its share price increase.

"We're investing heavily in The Secret World now, therefore the loss," Aas explained. "But we're hoping for major income after the launch in April."

Funcom tops Oslo stock exchange, invests heavily in The Secret World originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MindArk announces Planet Calypso land grab

Matt Daniel — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, Events (In-Game), News Items, Virtual Worlds, Planet Calypso, Miscellaneous

MindArk's Planet Calypso is certainly one of the most unique virtual worlds out there, due in large part to the fact that the game's real estate is bought, sold, and traded for real-world cash. Land management, however, has generally been an activity for the ludicrously rich, with some properties costing as much as 500,000 USD.

MindArk looks to change that, however, by introducing a whopping 60,000 new plots of land (each measuring at 100 square meters) that can be bought for the (relatively) low price of 100 USD. Each deed that a player purchases "entitles the holder to a share of the 50% planet partner Gross Revenue generated by Planet Calypso." So if you've got a few hundred bucks to blow on virtual real estate and want a piece of the pie, head on over to the official site and sign up.

MindArk announces Planet Calypso land grab originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Nov 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Are we witnessing the bursting of a gaming bubble?

Brianna Royce — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Economy, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, Opinion

The last few weeks have cast a dark shadow over the MMO gaming industry. At a time when MMOs release seemingly every other day and big blockbusters are just over the horizon, MMO companies are canceling titles, shelving games, cutting back, changing models, and laying off staff. CCP Games dropped employees and slowed its development pace; NCsoft and GamersFirst followed suit, though with assurances that their games would proceed as usual. In the last few days alone, we saw Gameforge let go both developers and titles, TurnOut halt development on Earth Eternal, and both LEGO Universe and Troy Online announce impending shutdowns.

What do you think? Are we dealing with a "gaming bubble" on the verge of bursting? Did MMOs become too popular too fast, such that the industry is now bloated and unsustainable? Is a culling of the MMO herd a necessary evil to improve the overall quality of MMOs? Or is this flurry of layoffs and closures merely a coincidence, a temporary downsizing due to end soon?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

The Daily Grind: Are we witnessing the bursting of a gaming bubble? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 05 Nov 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ChangYou reports record revenue, registered accounts

Matt Daniel — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous

With all the layoffs that seem to be going around the MMO industry as of late, it's about time we hear some good news from a developer. ChangYou, known in North America primarily for its quirky title Zentia and the bizarrely named Duke of Mount Deer, reports a 119 million USD revenue for its third fiscal quarter.

The company's amount of registered users rose as well, with the company citing 159 million current gamers inhabiting ChangYou's titles. CEO Tao Wang is understandably pleased with these results and says that "we believe these results once again demonstrate our ability to understand and fulfill gamers' needs and showcase our content development and game operation strengths." For the full details, check out the article over at Gamasutra.

ChangYou reports record revenue, registered accounts originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively Exclusive: WindSlayer 2 dev diary gets economic

Matt Daniel — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Game Mechanics, Professions, News Items, Free-to-Play, Dev Diaries, Crafting

Now that we've gotten a look at the basics of WindSlayer 2's melee and ranged classes, it's time to delve into what makes the game's economy tick. So if you're a shrewd businessman, head on past the cut to the dev diary and find out how you can play the market in WindSlayer 2.

Continue reading Massively Exclusive: WindSlayer 2 dev diary gets economic

Massively Exclusive: WindSlayer 2 dev diary gets economic originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy

Jeremy Stratton — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Economy, Opinion, Free-to-Play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea

I've got one more article concerning the current state of Runes of Magic's economy. To round out my trilogy, I'm taking a look at actual fixes to what could be seen as a broken mechanic. If the current inflation is indeed seen as something that is broken and could quickly damage the playability in RoM, then the fixes would likely be band-aids. It would take too long to rework an entire system filled with thousands of items, each affecting the other. The fix would also need to be implemented quickly. That puts some limitations on our speculations. What does the fix need to concentrate on?

The problem seems boil down to the excess amounts of gold that can be hoarded -- hundreds and hundreds of millions can be saved up. It's also possible for high-level, well-geared players to accumulate gold rather quickly. In this week's Lost Pages of Taborea, I want to take a look at gold sinks (including one Frogster is testing), gold-caps, and some other ways to tame the economy.

Continue reading Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy

Lost Pages of Taborea: Fixing the economy originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Oct 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online dev blog hints at new economic datastream

Jef Reahard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Dev Diaries, Sandbox, Crafting

The latest EVE Online dev blog isn't for the faint of heart, or perhaps more accurately, it's not for those who feel suddenly drowsy when confronted with charts, graphs, and economic technobabble. The piece is penned by Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, CCP's resident economist and an expert on all things related to New Eden's ever-changing marketplace.

To make a long story short, CCP is getting ready to take the wraps off a new datastream that will "give EVE players access to historical time series on items sold in the main EVE market hubs."

What does that mean? In a nutshell, "more data, more knowledge, more power to the pod pilots of New Eden." The final presentation format for the data dump has yet to be decided, but the initial test run is available in your choice of files types (CSV or SQL). You can read more specifics at the official EVE website.

EVE Online dev blog hints at new economic datastream originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Soapbox: Subs and cash shops - Two great tastes that taste awful together

Jef Reahard — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column.

Hoo boy, The Secret World. On the one hand, I was really looking forward to it. On the other hand, it's now joined the likes of EVE Online, pretty much every Sony Online Entertainment title ever made, Star Trek Online, Champions Online, and Funcom's own Age of Conan in my personal double-dipping doghouse.

Yeah, The Secret World is going to have a subscription model (hooray) and a cash shop (boo, hiss, and zomgwtf). This should surprise no one, really, since game industry devs have been going all Gordon Gekko on us for a while now, but it was nonetheless a disappointing reveal on several levels.

Equally disappointing are the folks who defend the subscription-plus-cash-shop model and erroneously refer to it as an example of consumer-friendly choice.

Continue reading The Soapbox: Subs and cash shops - Two great tastes that taste awful together

The Soapbox: Subs and cash shops - Two great tastes that taste awful together originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP cancels EVE's Quarterly Economic Newsletters

Brendan Drain — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items

EVE Online is often lauded for its complex player-run economy, which functions so like a real world economy that CCP even hired its own lead economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson to analyse it. Dr Eyjo's findings are normally released four times per year in his Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN), detailing everything from subscription numbers and popular ships to price changes on the market. The economic report for the fourth quarter of 2010 was released back in April, but at the time players weren't aware that this would be the last QEN ever to be released.

In a new devblog yesterday, CCP Recurve posted the four main price indices normally contained in the QEN along with a graph of their development since October 2003. In response to player questions in the comments thread, Dr Eyjo revealed that the QENs for 2011 would not be published as usual. Instead, players will be getting monthly price index devblogs and the economic reports will likely be released once per year.

This comes as bad news for players who were looking forward to finding out the economic impact of April's controversial nullsec anomaly changes. It may also mean that details like subscription numbers, population distributions and ISK generation will only be made public a maximum of once every year and that a current snapshot of those metrics may never be released.

CCP cancels EVE's Quarterly Economic Newsletters originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Men outspend women on mobile social games

Matt Daniel — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous

Ladies (or gentlemen), is your man a gamer? If so, you may finally have a worthwhile retort for the next time he scoffs and rolls his eyes at that $10 non-combat pet you just had to have. A recent study by MocoSpace surveyed 1,500 "mobile social gamers" about their spending practices within social games. The results? "While 53 percent were male, and 47 percent female, 69 percent of men were buying virtual goods, while only 31 percent of females did."

Venturebeat adds: "On top of that, those male gamers are responsible for 90 percent of virtual goods that are purchased inside the games." The article goes on to note the recent practices of selling in-game items for real-world currency in World of Warcraft and EverQuest, though no numbers are available regarding the gender parity of those who purchased such items. For the full article -- which naturally could not resist one not-so-subtle stab at the SOE network outage -- click on over to MSNBC's Technoblog.

Men outspend women on mobile social games originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 May 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP releases EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter

Jef Reahard — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Dev Diaries

It's time for another in-depth look at New Eden's thriving economy, and as you'd expect in a game built around interminable conflict, business is booming. CCP's resident economist, Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, is back with the latest EVE Online Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN), and while it's a bit on the old news side for those lucky enough to attend last month's Fanfest where it was initially presented, the trends, observations, and raw data are still relevant for the rest of us.

In a nutshell, keep killing your friends and neighbors, as the constant bloodletting is integral to New Eden's economic well-being. "Warfare and the EVE Online economy thrive on each other. Without warfare there is very little consumption in EVE Online and without a strong economy (and lots of personal wealth) wars can't be won," Guðmundsson explains.

CCP releases EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 04 Apr 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter discusses PvP

Brendan Drain — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry, PvP

Four times per year, CCP's lead economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson publishes the EVE Online Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN). Each report provides a snapshot of the in-game economy, with graphs showing market trends over the previous quarter and some speculation on the reasons for them. The third quarter 2010 QEN has just been released, and it contains some interesting information. This report has a special focus on PvP and death, starting off with statistics on ship kills by race and deaths as a function of skillpoints. Dr Eyjo suggests that players tend to progress from high security space, through low security space and eventually on to nullsec PvP. He goes on to suggest his data shows that an average player needs two years worth of skillpoints to be competitive in nullsec PvP.

The QEN shows the effect of recent nullsec wars, with a mass exodus of players from the eastern regions of nullsec to those in the south and west. Following up on the previous report's look at EVE's ISK sinks and faucets, this quarter's report indicates that the total amount of ISK in the game has been rising steadily over the past year. Most of this can be attributed to a 16% rise in total bounties paid out on NPC ships. Dr Eyjo believes this rising trend began with Dominion as system upgrades made ratting more profitable in nullsec. The ISK sinks designed to counteract the massive influx of liquid ISK bounties provide are not adequately tackling the issue, with the top five ISK sinks combined taking only 31% of bounty income out of the game. The rest of the report contains the usual snapshots of various market items in addition to a special statistics segment on ship deaths and killing blows.

New EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter discusses PvP originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: ISK sinks and faucets

Brendan Drain — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy, Game Mechanics, PvE, EVE Evolved

In EVE Online's player-run economy, the flow of ISK is a vital concept. While there are many ways to make ISK in EVE, most of them only move it around from one player to another. When you mine ore and sell it on the market, for example, the mining process doesn't introduce any new ISK to the game. Only a few game mechanics can be called ISK faucets, as the game mechanics actually create ISK from thin air. Similarly, the ISK sink mechanics destroy ISK or remove it from the game in some manner.

To the individual player, the difference between something being an ISK faucet or not is largely immaterial. When you sell something on the market for a few million ISK, or get the insurance payout on a lost ship, it doesn't really matter to you where that ISK came from. Where the concept really matters is in discussions on inflation and how the game chooses to reward us in PvE. Are ISK bounties and rewards always a good idea, or could their over-use eventually lead to runaway inflation?

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the various ways in which ISK flows in and out of EVE Online, and why we should care about inflation.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: ISK sinks and faucets

EVE Evolved: ISK sinks and faucets originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Mog Log: Gil rules everything around me

Eliot Lefebvre — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Economy, Game Mechanics, Opinion, Consoles, Final Fantasy XIV, The Mog Log

My original plan for this week was to step back into the experiment with soloing that I started in Final Fantasy XI what feels like an eternity ago, but the recent updates about Final Fantasy XIV's market system prompted a comment that interested me. A reader noted that the auction block in Final Fantasy XI was partly responsible for the enormous gilselling issue that's plagued the game more or less since its release stateside, with the theory going that the market wards and so forth in Final Fantasy XIV were a specific response to this.

It seems fitting, in light of all of the gilselling issues that we've gone through in Vana'diel, to take a look at the sordid history of the currency in the game and at how likely it is to translate to the new kid on the block. I don't think the problem lies so much with the sellers as with the environment that Square-Enix unintentionally created, as well as with the perfect storm of circumstances that devalued the currency of the game to near-worthlessness with no alternatives. That's right -- it's time to look back six years or so to the launch of the game in the U.S.

Continue reading The Mog Log: Gil rules everything around me

The Mog Log: Gil rules everything around me originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMO market predicted to swell to $8 billion

Eliot Lefebvre — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items

No matter how many different games you play, follow, or even care about, the fate of the bigger MMO industry affects them all. Every game, from World of Warcraft to Fantasy Earth Zero, is playing in the same sandbox. But for our favorite genre, it looks like the size of that sandbox is only trending upward. Gamasutra reported recently on a new study that predicts the global MMORPG market will reach a total of $8 billion in worth by the end of 2010, a significant increase from the $5 billion in 2009.

So what's spurring the increase? According to the study, the growth in the Western market has been slow but steady, while the Eastern market has been making great strides, led by companies such as Nexon and NCsoft. The study also predicts that the traditional subscription-based revenue model is losing steam as an aggregate, citing it as one of the causes behind the slower growth in the Western side of the industry. Free-to-play isn't everyone's cup of tea, but considering what it seems to be doing to the economic side of our hobby, it's certainly not going anywhere soon.

MMO market predicted to swell to $8 billion originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter highlights Tyrannis insurance changes

Brendan Drain — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry

EVE Online is a game with complex economic activity that often mirrors real-world economic systems. The similarity is so pronounced that CCP even hired its own Lead Economist, Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, to examine the in-game markets in detail. Each quarter, the economist and his team of researchers publish the EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN). The report provides a timeline of market indices and major economic changes over the past several months. This quarter's report focuses on the effect of the insurance changes that came with the Tyrannis expansion. It also has a special segment on ISK sinks and faucets, and their changes following the release of planetary interaction.

Continue reading Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter highlights Tyrannis insurance changes

Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter highlights Tyrannis insurance changes originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: EVE Online's not-so-free market

Brendan Drain — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game Mechanics, EVE Evolved

One of the most talked-about features of EVE Online is its player-run economy. Due to over 330,000 players living on one server, the markets have reached a critical mass where the laws of economics play out in a very effective manner. When there's a demand for something, no matter how obscure the item or low the demand, you can be sure there are dozens or hundreds of pilots trying their best to supply it. The in-game economy mirrors real-life economic situations so closely that CCP even hired a dedicated economist to analyse the market and advise CCP of any problems that arise.

EVE's economy is often referred to as a pure free market, but that isn't technically true. At its heart, EVE is still a game designed and implemented by a team of developers. All MMO economies require some degree of control and intervention for the game to remain playable. In EVE, this comes in the form of careful balance of supply and demand via changes to game mechanics and drop rates. There are also a number of more direct passive influences on the market, such as NPC market orders and insurance.

In this economic article, I look at a few of the influences that constrain free-market economics in EVE.

Continue reading EVE Evolved: EVE Online's not-so-free market

EVE Evolved: EVE Online's not-so-free market originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter talks wormholes and tech 3

Brendan Drain — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry

Four times per year, CCP Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson and his team of researchers publish the Quarterly Economic Newsletter (QEN). In addition to providing trackable statistics on EVE Online's in-game market, each issue focuses heavily on analysing one particular topic. This quarter's report focuses on wormhole systems and the state of the tech 3 market. Updated player demographics show more and more players entering wormhole space, with a drop in the number of characters in high-security space. Statistics for the number of jumps in wormhole space over the past year show a similar trend of growing activity.

This QEN provides some enlightening graphs on the popularity of various tech 3 offensive subsystems and how tech 3 material costs have changed in EVE over the past year. Perhaps most illuminating is the sharp rise in the use of tech 3 strategic cruisers in locations that put them at risk. While the majority are being flown in mission hubs and market systems, over 35% were found outside the safety of high-security space. In addition to this quarter's focus on wormholes, the report contains the usual graphs tracking in-game prices, trade volumes, ships in use and other useful metrics.

New EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter talks wormholes and tech 3 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter shows effect of Hulkageddon

Brendan Drain — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry

EVE Online is a game that's often lauded for its sandbox style and realistic economic structures. Every quarter, CCP Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson and his team of researchers wade through mountains of EVE usage logs to find some interesting economic statistics. In their Quarterly Economic Newsletters (QEN), CCP deliver graphs tracking in-game prices, trade volumes, ships in use and a whole host of other useful metrics.

Read on for an overview of this QEN's main highlights.

Continue reading Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter shows effect of Hulkageddon

Latest EVE Quarterly Economic Newsletter shows effect of Hulkageddon originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE's Quarterly Economic Newsletter focuses on impact of anti-RMT operation

James Egan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy, MMO Industry

One of the strengths of the sandbox game EVE Online is its player-driven economy, which developer CCP Games monitors through a small team of researchers headed up by Lead Economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson (aka CCP Dr.EyjoG). They observe all manner of player interactions and sift through a tremendous amount of data to track how EVE Online's economy changes over time. Their findings are presented to the playerbase (or to anyone curious about virtual economies) in the form of Quarterly Economic Newsletters (QEN). CCP released the 3rd Quarter 2009 report this week, which gives us a look at player demographics and the most popular ships flown by those players. (It's interesting to note that the most popular ship in the game is now the Hulk, a mining vessel which has usurped the Raven battleship as EVE's most flown ship, while Black Ops battleships are EVE's least flown ships.)

This latest QEN also gives various price indices and Market Snapshots, which chart the volumes of a number of popular items traded on the open market. CCP also shows the impact "Operation: Unholy Rage" -- their anti-RMT initiative -- has had on EVE Online's economy with over 18,000 (paying) accounts banned to date. Dr.EyjoG writes, "Unholy Rage taught us a great deal about RMT operations in EVE. We now have a much clearer picture of the extent of operations and the tools and methods they use."

Continue reading EVE's Quarterly Economic Newsletter focuses on impact of anti-RMT operation

EVE's Quarterly Economic Newsletter focuses on impact of anti-RMT operation originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New EVE quarterly economic newsletter

Jon Shute — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy

Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson from CCP has released another quarterly EVE Online economic newsletters, this time for the 1st quarter of 2009. Despite the quarterly name this is the first report since the one for Q1 2008. This time the PDF weighs in at 48 pages of editorial, graphs and images. The first graph in the document show the number of active paying accounts that the game has had from launch up until March 2009, ending shortly before the point at which CCP announced they have passed 300,000 subscribers. Interestingly although the graph shows strong growth from November 2008 onwards, which is when CCP released the Quantum Rise expansion, the actual numbers before that showed a slight decline in subscriptions that is not addressed in the commentary.

There is also an extensive analysis of skill points, with the difference in the number of points in each skill point group for each race showing correlation between the race of the character and the skills trained. Interestingly Gallente characters tend to have more points in drone skills, while Caldari characters have the highest missile skills. This seems to indicate that players are following their racial ship choices for their skill training, which is not something that the game enforces. There's a lot more information in the report itself, including detail on ship prices over time, Tech 3 production for the first month and mineral trading.

You can read the full document at the dev blog, and follow the comments from players on the EVE Online forums.

New EVE quarterly economic newsletter originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Massively interviews EVE Online Lead Economist Dr. EyjoG

James Egan — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy, Crafting, Interviews (Massively's)

The sci-fi game EVE Online is unique amongst the other massively multiplayer online titles on the market. One major aspect of the game is that its far future setting of New Eden functions as one server, where players can build up empires -- or topple those of their rivals -- across more than 5000 solar systems. Beyond its scale, what distinguishes EVE Online from other games is that it has a player-driven virtual economy, the backbone of the game. EVE's economy has been a major draw for players interested in market and crafting sophistication generally unseen in an online game.

EVE's creators, CCP Games, have fostered a setting where players can do what they want in the 'sandbox', a setting where the tools are in place for players to use as they see fit. Nearly every ship, module, and item used by a player in the game was produced by another player in New Eden at some point. Fight for military dominance and control vast regions of space, or corner the market as part of an industrial conglomerate -- it's all possible in EVE. In fact, the game's warfare and industry are very much intertwined, making EVE's virtual economy a dynamic one. Monitoring and researching this economy is important to CCP Games, and to further that goal, they've hired real world economist Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson (aka CCP EyjoG).

Massively recently caught up with Dr. EyjoG, who told us about his rather unique position at CCP Games, and what he's learned about virtual economies along the way.

Continue reading Massively interviews EVE Online Lead Economist Dr. EyjoG

Massively interviews EVE Online Lead Economist Dr. EyjoG originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game revenue taxation begins spread to Sweden and South Korea

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, MMO Industry, Virtual Worlds

They always say the two things you can't avoid in life are death and taxes. Yet, being an MMO player, death always just seems to be a part of life. And now, governments around the world are beginning to become interested in putting in the other unavoidable part of life in our gaming experience -- as if we had enough of death.

As in-game transactions and RMT are beginning to become major boons to business the government is getting interested. And, of course, like any good government, they want their share. China was only the first, now Sweden and South Korea are interested in getting their tax laws straight as well.

Taxing game transactions, however, isn't as easy as making laws that tax a physical currency. There's the issues of relative value, constantly diminishing returns as more money flows into virtual economies without enough monetary sinks in the game, and the whole issue if the game goes out of business.

We tend to believe that worlds like this should avoid colliding, but it seems that as we begin to mesh our virtual currencies and begin to value them as much as our real world ones, paths like these seem inevitable.

Game revenue taxation begins spread to Sweden and South Korea originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China's virtual goods taxation sparks price increases and controversy

James Egan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Politics, Legal, Virtual Worlds

China's State Administration of Taxation recently imposed a 20 percent income tax rate on profits made from virtual currency and virtual items, sparking price increases for virtual goods. While this tax rate (if actually enforced) clearly impacts the virtual space, it also affects transactions happening outside of MMO servers and virtual world grids. The taxation policy could ultimately extend to the virtual currencies linked to the largest IM providers in China such as Tencent, drastically increasing the percentage of the population affected by the new laws. Despite this, the positive benefits of eliminating gray and black markets for virtual items and currency may outweigh the drawbacks for gamers and users of the various digital services in China.

Questions remain about what will and will not be taxed in the virtual space, but it's clear that individuals who gain virtual income are expected to declare their profits and pay taxes on this, and do so within seven days of having earned the profit, according to Shanghai Daily.Taxpayers who can provide proof of the value of this property or the value of the transaction are taxed at 20 percent on their profits, while those who cannot provide sufficient verification are taxed at three percent of the total transaction value. But how many people are affected by this new system?

Continue reading China's virtual goods taxation sparks price increases and controversy

China's virtual goods taxation sparks price increases and controversy originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Making/Money: EVE Economic Review Reviewed

Alexis Kassan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: EVE Online, Economy, Making/Money

Each quarter, the economist over at EVE Online, Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmondsson (there are supposed to be accent marks in there but I can't figure out how to make them appear), writes up a review of the in-game economy. There has been a noticeable lag in times past between the schedule for these quarterly newsletters and when they were actually distributed. October saw the release of the Quarterly Economic Newsletter for Q1 of this year and the promise of QENs for quarters 2 and 3 to follow in November and December, respectively.

Today, we'll take a look through what Dr. Gundmondsson has to say about the economy from January to March. I do encourage you to look through the PDF of the QEN for yourself ... and just ignore that they talk about June 2008 in future tense.

Continue reading Making/Money: EVE Economic Review Reviewed

Making/Money: EVE Economic Review Reviewed originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Establishing trust in EVE's player-run financial institutions

James Egan — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Economy, Game Mechanics, Interviews, MMO Industry, Crafting

The player-driven economy of EVE Online is very much a playground for those interested in being financiers, traders, or whatever variant of corporate tycoon their greedy little hearts desire in the virtual space. EVE is a far cry from most MMOs in that its market isn't manned by NPC vendors, it's almost entirely player driven and remains dynamic due to the fact that EVE is a single-world game, where all player interactions can conceivably affect the game's economy. For some players, EVE's economics is where they immerse themselves. Indeed, in some cases it's even where they PvP with their rivals in price wars and market manipulations. To them, the market is where they live and breathe, just as much as lowsec is the ideal environment for many pirates, and lawless 0.0 space is where players interested in large-scale alliance warfare feel at home.

While EVE doesn't officially support a stock market or banking institutions, the sandbox approach CCP Games took to the game has allowed players to establish their own financial ventures in-game. However, without safeguards put in place by CCP Games, and with New Eden being a place where players can act as they wish, there's always the risk of embezzlement in any large-scale, player-driven financial institution. While it doesn't happen as often as most assume, there have been incidents like the EVE Intergalactic Bank (EIB) scam that have eroded investor confidence in such ventures. Fortunately, not all players are daunted by this, both in terms of those with a vision to establish a financial venture and the investors they rely upon. One such visionary in New Eden is "Ricdic", Founder and Managing Director of EBANK.

Continue reading Establishing trust in EVE's player-run financial institutions

Establishing trust in EVE's player-run financial institutions originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China legislates 20% tax rate on virtual currency profits

James Egan — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Legal

While much of the world's gold farming activity is based in mainland China, the black market industry operates in violation of the law. Despite this, a large part of the problem in curbing illegal activities in China is that there's a substantial divide between what the law states is illegal and the actual enforcement of those laws. This may well be the case with the law passed last week by China's State Administration of Taxation, which will impose a personal income tax rate of 20% on profits made from virtual currency.

Juliet Ye at The Wall Street Journal's "China Journal" blog reports: "The policy would cover China's legions of online gamers, who can use online virtual currency to buy better equipment and new powers for their online warriors. But it also affects millions of others who use virtual currencies on instant-messaging services and Web portals." The widespread use of virtual currencies in China spurred last year's restrictions on exchanging virtual currency into RMB. If the new law becomes a reality rather than a technicality in the lives of China's internet users, it will be a substantial change in virtual economics in the country.

China legislates 20% tax rate on virtual currency profits originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Real world economic impact on MMOs and virtual worlds?

James Egan — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, Opinion, Academic, Virtual Worlds

Given the drastic real world economic shifts of late, is it unreasonable to assume that there will be repercussions in virtual worlds and MMOs? That's the gist of a question posed by CBBC, a longtime commentator at the Terra Nova blog, but specifically he asks: "What now for virtual economies? What happens to EVE now that Iceland's economy is collapsing?... Will my WoW gold be worth more or less? Will games go under taking their value with them? Will we see a run on games the same as a run on banks?"

While his questions aren't focused solely on EVE Online, and are more of a general inquiry, CCP's title is not surprisingly the main example cited by both the CBBC and Terra Nova's readers. As expected, the responses to the question are intelligent and shed some more light on how real world economics might affect MMO economies, namely that of EVE Online. Some speculate that real world issues will result in increased escapism, imbuing virtual worlds and their economies with greater significance. Others related financial scenarios that affect CCP Games and its virtual economics. If you're interested in the economies of MMOs and virtual worlds, you might want to get involved in the discussion of "Whither MMO economies?" over at Terra Nova.

Real world economic impact on MMOs and virtual worlds? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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