EVE Online's Space Economy Currently Worth $18 Million 88
DavidGilbert99 writes: "According to Eyjólfur Guðmundsson, the lead economist of CCP Games, developer of EVE Online, the total amount of ISK (InterStellar Kredits) in the system at the moment is 600 trillion, which equates to about $18 million in real world money — and the economist believes we could learn a lot from how the economy works in the game. There was a massive battle within the game earlier this year, which CCP estimated destroyed between $300,000 and $330,000 worth of game materials. Guðmundsson said, 'In economics there is a big difference between consumption and loss. In EVE, the war is the consumption of the economy. Even though they are giving money away they are not losing value, they are gaining something instead. People were willing to spend that money [in the Battle of B-R5RB] to get this thrill of participating in this battle.'"
Re:Second Life anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
The bread market is likely even bigger.
Currency or good?
Stupidest stat ever (Score:4, Interesting)
Economists can generate numbers however they want, but the true 'value' of something is what someone would actually pay for it.
For example, if we 'value' someone's free time playing (ie the entertainment value) at $20/hour, then the purported 10,000 players in EVE are 'generating' at least $200,000 'value' per hour. To suggest that after 10 years of crafting, they've only created 90 'hours' worth of virtual durable goods (there's an oxymoron) would suggest that the EVE economy is staggeringly unproductive.
As a famous economist opined: "Put 10 economists in a room and you'll probably get 12 opinions".