Virtual economies : design and analysis
In the twenty-first-century digital world, virtual goods are sold for real money. Digital game players happily pay for avatars, power-ups, and other game items. But behind every virtual sale, there is a virtual economy, simple or complex. This book introduces the basic concepts of economics into the game developer's and game designer's toolkits. This book explains how the fundamentals of economics, markets, institutions, and money, can be used to create or analyze economies based on artificially scarce virtual goods. It focuses on virtual economies in digital games, but also touch on serious digital currencies such as Bitcoin as well as virtual economies that emerge in social media around points, likes, and followers. The theoretical emphasis is on elementary microeconomic theory, with some discussion of behavioral economics, macroeconomics, sociology of consumption, and other social science theories relevant to economic behavior. Topics include the rational choice model of economic decision making; information goods versus virtual goods; supply, demand, and market equilibrium; monopoly power; setting prices; and externalities. The book will enable developers and designers to create and maintain successful virtual economies, introduce social scientists and policy makers to the power of virtual economies, and provide a useful guide to economic fundamentals for students in other disciplines
Electronic games
294 pages ; 24 cm.
9780262027250, 9780262535069, 0262027259, 0262535068
861323036
Series foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Theories of human behavior
Goods : material, digital, virtual types of goods
Supply and demand
Regulating markets
Market power and pricing
Methods of exchange
Externalities and secondary market trade
Institutions and non-market allocation
Money
Macroeconomic design
Macroeconomic management
Policy making
Why the real world needs virtual economy design
Notes
References
Index