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Virtual worlds and games have their own currency, which can be bought with real money. Users can purchase virtual items, and some virtual worlds simulate real-life communities. Experts worry that users may invest too much real money in synthetic economies. Virtual worlds offer unlimited opportunities, but anything purchased is subject to loss without reward. The laws of the real world have not caught up with virtual worlds, leaving them the “Wild West” of the computer age.
In games and persistent virtual worlds that use their own form of currency, participants buy virtual currency with real dollars. This generates a synthetic economy within the virtual world.
In games, users can purchase weapons, secrets, characters, or tools. Other virtual worlds are not created for play, but to simulate real-life communities. In these virtual worlds, participants can buy clothes, land or businesses. Whereas many online games and virtual communities have hundreds of thousands of users interacting, buying and selling, the basic model leads to a synthetic economy within each virtual world with some aspects reflecting real-world economies.
Some experts fear that users may invest too much real money in a synthetic economy, forgetting that the purchase has no tangible counterpart. Business Week magazine featured a real estate mogul in Second Life, a virtual worldwide community, making several hundred thousand real dollars a year selling virtual land. While this is certainly the exception, it does illustrate how many people are willing to sink real hard-earned money into a synthetic economy.
For people who have never experienced a virtual world, this concept would surely sound bizarre. Why exchange real dollars for “fake dollars?” The answer is simple: virtual worlds are enthralling and strangely enthralling places. Once interested in a virtual world, the user begins to identify with his avatar and the world itself. Just like in the real world, the user wants to excel in the virtual world, stand out or indulge themselves, and this ultimately leads to buying things that fuel the synthetic economy.
Wikipedia notes that in December 2004, an island on Project Entropy sold for virtual dollars equal to real US dollars (USD) 26,500, while a virtual space station intended to be a nightclub sold for USD 100,000. A synthetic economy offers unlimited opportunities for an entirely new way to generate real dollars. However, anything purchased in a synthetic economy is subject to loss without reward. The laws of the real world have not caught up with the unique circumstances generated by virtual worlds, leaving virtual worlds the “Wild West” of the computer age. For most, however, the plunge into virtual worlds is a social escape, and the investment in the synthetic economy is probably modest enough to be a guilty pleasure – for many, a guilty pleasure worth every penny.
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