Virtual Economy


Despite primarily dealing with in-game currencies, this term also encompasses the selling of virtual currency for real money.[]


Virtual economies are observed in MUDs and massively multi player online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The largest virtual economies are found in MMORPGs. Virtual economies also exist in life simulation games which may have taken the most radical steps toward linking a virtual economy with the real world. This can be seen, for example, in Second Life's recognition of intellectual property rights for assets created "in-world" by subscribers, and its laissez-faire policy on the buying and selling of Linden Dollars (the world's official currency) for real money on third party websites.[] Virtual economies can also exist in browser-based Internet games where "real" money can be spent and user-created shops opened, or as a kind of emergent gameplay.

Virtual property is a label that can refer to any resource that is controlled by the powers-that-be, including virtual objects, avatars, or user accounts.[1] The following characteristics may be found in virtual resources in mimicry of tangible property. Note however that it is possible for virtual resources to lack one or more of these characteristics, and they should be interpreted with reasonable flexibility.[2]

  1. Rivalry: Possession of a resource is limited to one person or a small number of persons within the virtual world's game mechanics.
  2. Persistence: Virtual resources persist across user sessions. In some cases, the resource exists for public view even when its owner is not logged into the virtual world.
  3. Interconnectivity: Resources may affect or be affected by other people and other objects. The value of a resource varies according to a person's ability to use it for creating or experiencing some effect.
  4. Secondary markets: Virtual resources may be created, traded, bought, and sold. Real-world assets (typically money) may be at stake.
  5. Value added by users: Users may enhance the value of virtual resources by customizing and improving upon the resource.




The release of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft in 2004 and its subsequent huge success across the globe has forced both MMORPGs and their secondary markets into mainstream consciousness, and many new market places have opened up during this time. A search for WoW Gold on Google will show a multitude of sites (more than 90 sponsored results as of June 2006) from which Gold can be purchased. Real money commerce in a virtual market has grown to become a multibillion-dollar industry. In 2001, EverQuest players Brock Pierce and Alan Debonneville founded Internet Gaming Entertainment Ltd (IGE), a company that offered not only the virtual commodities in exchange for real money but also provided professional customer service. IGE had a trained staff that would handle financial issues, customer inquiries and technical support to ensure that gamers are satisfied with each real money purchase. It also took advantage of the global reach of synthetic worlds by setting up a shop in Hong Kong where a small army of technically savvy but low wage workers could field orders, load up avatars, retrieve store goods and deliver them wherever necessary.[3][4] This lucrative market has opened a whole new type of economy where the border between the real and the virtual is obscure.[5]

Hundreds of companies are enormously successful in this new found market, with some virtual items being sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Some of these companies sell multiple virtual goods for multiple games, and others sell services for single games. Virtual real estate is earning real world money, with people like 43-year-old Wonder Bread deliveryman, John Dugger, purchasing a virtual real estate for $750, setting him back more than a weeks wages.[6] This virtual property includes nine rooms, three stories, rooftop patio, wall of solid stonework in a prime location, nestled at the foot of a quiet coastal hillside. Dugger represents a group of gamers that are not in the market for a real house but instead to own a small piece of the vast computer database that was Ultima Online, the mythical world in which the venerable MMO Ultima Online unfolds. Such trading of real money for virtual goods simply represents the development of virtual economies where people come together where the real and the synthetic worlds are meeting within an economic sphere.[7]

Although virtual markets may represent a growth area, it is unclear to what extent they can scale to supporting large numbers of businesses, due to the inherent substitutability of goods on these markets plus the lack of factors such as location to dispense demand. In spite of numerous famed examples of the economic growth of Second Life an amateur analyst in 2008 estimated the income inequity in Second Life's economy as worse than has ever been recorded in any real economy: a Gini coefficient of 90.2, a Hoover index of 77.8, and a Theil index of 91%.[] However, the application of these economic measures to a virtual world may be inappropriate where poverty is merely virtual and there is a direct relationship between in-game wealth and time spent playing.

The global secondary market - defined as real money trading between players - turnover was estimated at 880 million dollars in 2005 by the president of the, at the time, market leading company IGE.[8] Before that, in 2004, the American economist Edward Castronova had estimated the turnover at over 100 million dollars based solely on sales figures from the two auction sites eBay and the Korean itemBay.[9] A speculative extrapolation based on these quotes and other industry figures produced a global turnover figure of 2 billion dollars as of 2007.[10]

However, the secondary market is unlikely to have followed the growth of the primary market since 2007 seeing as game companies have become better at monetizing on their games with microtransactions and many popular games such as World of Warcraft are sporting increased measures against player to player real money trading. Also hampering the turnover growth are the extreme price drops that has followed the increased competition from businesses in mainland China targeting the global secondary market. Furthermore, the global decline in consumption that followed the financial crisis of 2007-2008 would have affected the secondary market negatively as well. Post 2007 secondary market growth is likely localized to emerging markets such as Russia, eastern Europe, South America, and South East Asia - all of which are relatively inaccessible to international merchants due to payment systems, advertisement channels and language barrier. For example, South Korea is estimated to have the biggest share of the global real money trading market and it has there become an officially acknowledged and taxable part of the economy.[11] In western countries the secondary market remains a black market with little to no social acceptance or official acknowledgement.

As for an actual economic model, secondary market turnover in popular player vs player oriented MMORPGs without trade restrictions such as Runescape, EVE Online and Ultima Online has been estimated at around 1.1 dollar per concurrent player and day.[12] No model for more regulated MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft has been suggested. However, being a largely unregulated market and tax free market, any turnover figure or economic model remain speculative.

Recent developments

More controlled markets

One-way currency

An example of a much more controlled market is World of Tanks' "gold", a virtual currency which is only available from the vendor itself and typically only for cash payment. This has become a model for other freemium games. It does not allow for any vending of game goods or capabilities without the permission and direct participation and control of the game server/operator/vendor.

In this model, players are strictly forbidden from employing means or methods of maximizing gold availability (for instance bonuses for new accounts which are then shared). They can gift gold to each other but cannot solicit or ask for it. Gold sharing among game guilds is common and encouraged, but not among players who don't know each other for specific benefits. For instance, vehicles cannot be bought and sold within the game except to the server, for a fixed price ratio (selling earns back half the price paid).

Price comparison

Information brokerages and other tools that aid in the valuation of virtual items on secondary markets have increased in number. This has occurred as a response to alleviate the labor involved in leveling that requires hours, days or weeks to achieve. Being able to exchange real money for virtual currency provides the player purchasing power for virtual commodities. As such, players are guaranteed opportunities, increased skills and a fine reputation, which is a definite advantage over others.


Most scholars agree that the sale of virtual property for real currency or assets is taxable.[13][14][15] However, there are significant legal and practical challenges to the taxation of income from the sale of virtual property.[16] For example, uncertainty regarding the nature and conceptual location of virtual property makes it difficult to collect and apportion tax revenue when a sale occurs across multiple jurisdictions.[17]

In addition to taxing income from transactions involving real currency or assets, there has been considerable discussion involving the taxation of transactions that take place entirely within a virtual economy.[15][18] Theoretically, virtual world transactions could be treated as a form of barter, thus generating taxable income.[14] However, for policy reasons, many commentators support some form of a "cash out" rule that would prevent in-game transactions from generating tax liabilities.[13] Nevertheless, as one commentator notes, "the easier it is to buy real goods with virtual currency (e.g. order a real life pizza) the more likely the IRS will see exclusively in-world profits as taxable."[19]

Gambling regulation

Conversion between in-game and real-world currency has led to direct comparisons with other online games of chance as 'virtual winnings'. This is why gamers and companies engaged in this conversion, where it is permitted by a game, may fall under gambling legislation.

During an interview with Virtual World News, Alex Chapman of the British law firm Campbell Hooper stated: "Now we've spoken with the gambling commission, and they've said that MMOGs aren't the reason for the [Gambling Act 2005], but they won't say outright, and we've asked directly, that they won't be covered. You can see how these would be ignored at first, but very soon they could be in trouble. It's a risk, but a very easy risk to avoid."[20] He suggested that compliance might require MMOGs and related traders to obtain a gambling license, which is not excessively difficult in the EU.

When queried about games where real-world transactions for in-game assets are not permitted, but there is an 'unofficial secondary market', Chapman responded: "Ultimately the point is whether the thing that you win has value in money or money's worth. If it does have value, it could be gambling."[20] So to avoid regulation by these laws, the "operator would need to take reasonable steps to ensure that the rewards they give do not have a monetary value[,]"[20] possibly by demonstrating enforcement of their Terms of Service prohibiting secondary markets.

Virtual crime

Monetary issues can give a virtual world problems similar to those in the real world. In South Korea, where the number of video game players is massive, some[who?] have reported the emergence of gangs and mafia, where powerful players would threaten beginners to give money for their "protection", and actually steal and rob.[]

Other similar problems arise in other virtual economies. In the game The Sims Online, a 17-year-old boy going by the in-game name "Evangeline" was discovered to have built a cyber-brothel, where customers would pay sim-money for minutes of cybersex. Maxis canceled each of his accounts, but had he deposited his fortune in the Gaming Open Market he would have been able to keep a part of it.[21][22]

A 2007 virtual heist has led to calls from some community members in Second Life to bring in external regulation of these markets: "In late July, a perpetrator with privileged information cracked a stock exchange's computers, made false deposits, then ran off with what appears to be the equivalent of US$10,000, disappearing into thin air. This heist left investors feeling outraged and vulnerable."[23]

In EVE Online however, theft and scamming other players is perfectly allowed within the game's framework as long as no real world trading is committed. Players are allowed to loot all items from fallen victims in battle, but there is a disincentive in the form of NPC police intervention in higher-security space. Virtual possessions valued in the tens of thousands of USD have been destroyed or plundered through corporate espionage and piracy. This has resulted in widespread retributive warfare and crime between various player corporations.

Black market

Many MMORPGS such as RuneScape, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Final Fantasy XI strictly prohibit buying gold, items, or any other product linked with the game, with real world cash. RuneScape went as far as making this practice impossible by removing unbalanced trades and their traditional player vs. player fighting system (this was scrapped on February 1, 2011 after having been in place for 3 years), resulting in over 60,000 cancelled subscriptions in protest.[24]Final Fantasy XI and Warhammer Online both have entire task forces dedicated to the removal of real money trading from the game. To control real money trading, EVE Online created an official and sanctioned method to convert real world cash to in-game currency; players can use real world money to buy a specific in-game item which can be redeemed for account subscription time or traded on the in-game market for in-game currency.



As in the real world, actions by players can destabilize the economy. Gold farming creates resources within the game more rapidly than usual, exacerbating inflation. In extreme cases, a cracker may be able to exploit the system and create a large amount of money. This could result in hyperinflation.

In the real world entire institutions are devoted to maintaining desired level of inflation. This difficult task is a serious issue for serious MMORPG's, that often have to cope with mudflation. Episodes of hyperinflation have also been observed.




Other virtual economies

Virtual economies have also been said to exist in the "metagame" worlds of live-action role-playing games and collectible card games. Other "metagame" currencies have cropped up in games such as Everquest and World of Warcraft. Dragon kill points or DKP are a semi-formal score-keeping system used by guilds in massively multiplayer online games. Players in these games are faced with large scale challenges, or raids, which may only be surmounted through the concerted effort of dozens of players at a time. Dragon kill points are not official currencies, but are created and managed by endgame guilds to manage distributions of rewards in those raids.[25][26]

Virtual economies represented not only in mmorpg genre but also in online business simulation games (Virtonomics, Miniconomy). Simplified economy represented in almost all real-time strategies (StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, Red alert 2) in a form of gathering and spending resources. Diablo III has its virtual economy as well which is represented by online game auction.

Moderation on social news and networking sites

On a number of discussion and networking sites, such as Slashdot, Reddit, care2 and Yahoo! Answers, points are gained through the garnering of trust evidenced in upward moderations of posted content; however, as stated by Slashdot co-founder CmdrTaco, his implementation of user moderation was not intended as a currency, even though it has evolved on other discussion-oriented sites into such a system. On some such sites, the accumulation of "karma points" can be redeemed in various ways for virtual services or objects, while most other sites do not contain a redemption system.



A game's synthetic economy often results in interaction with a "real" economy; characters, currency, and items may be sold and bought on online auction websites or purchased from standalone webshops. Since January 2007 users are no longer allowed to sell virtual goods of online games on eBay due to the ambiguous legal status of real world trading.[27][28]

While many game developers, such as Blizzard (creator of World of Warcraft), prohibit the practice, it is common that goods and services within virtual economies will be sold on online auction sites and traded for real currencies.[29]

According to standard conceptions of economic value (see the subjective theory of value), the goods and services of virtual economies do have a demonstrable value. Since players of these games are willing to substitute real economic resources of time and money (monthly fees) in exchange for these resources, by definition they have demonstrated utility to the user.

In January 2010, Blizzard stepped up its offensive on account security scams with the launch of a new website. The new Battle.Net account security website hopes to highlight the importance of keeping it safe when it comes to subscribers' accounts.[30]

These pages are part of a larger effort to provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to identify and report threats to your account's safety, to spotlight ways in which we work to fulfill our security commitment, and to act as a helpful resource in case someone manages to steal account information from you.

Ongoing campaign by WoW fan sites to boycott gold ads on their sites is just one of several community efforts to raise awareness against crackers.[31]


On August 1, 2011, Blizzard Entertainment announced that their forthcoming MMORPG, Diablo III, will include a currency-based auction house, wherein players will be able to buy and sell in-game items for real money.[32] Robert Bridenbecker, Vice President of Online Technologies at Blizzard, explained that the intent behind the effort is largely to reduce account thefts resulting from player interaction with third-party sites. An undisclosed fee structure including listing fees, sale fees, and cash-out fees will accompany the Auction House at launch, and all transactions will exist within the protected context of Blizzard's MMORPG. The "Real Money Auction House" (RMAH), as it is called by the Diablo III fanbase, will exist in the presence of a parallel auction house wherein items are exchanged for gold, the in-game currency. Accordingly, gold can be posted on the RMAH such that the two currencies may be exchanged for one another at the market rate less applicable fees.

Other virtual world developers officially sell virtual items and currency for real-world money. For example, the MMOG There has therebucks that sell for US dollars. If the currency in Second Life, the Linden Dollars, can be easily acquired with real money, the reverse is done through a market place owned by Linden Lab, but is not guaranteed, as the TOS of linden Lab explicitly says that Linden dollars are not redeemable. Rates would fluctuate based on supply and demand, but over the last few years they have remained fairly stable at around 265 Linden Dollars (L$) to the US Dollar, due to "money creation" by Linden Lab. The currency in Entropia Universe, Project Entropia Dollars (PED), could be bought and redeemed for real-world money at a rate of 10 PED for U.S$. 1. On December 14, 2004, an island in Project Entropia sold for U.S. $26,500 (£13,700). One gamer also purchased a virtual space station for U.S. $100,000 (£56,200) and plans to use it as a virtual nightclub.[33][34] Another example was recently cited on CNBC[35] that one seller was selling a Pokémon Go account for $999,999.

Many Korean virtual worlds (such as Flyff) and other worlds outside that country (such as Archlord and Achaea, Dreams of Divine Lands) operate entirely by selling items to players for real money. Such items generally cannot be transferred and are often used only as a means to represent a Premium subscription via a method which is easily integrated into the game engine.

These intersections with real economies remain controversial. Markets that capitalize in gaming are not widely accepted by the gaming industry. Reasons for this controversy are varied. Firstly, the developers of the games often consider themselves as trying to present a fantasy experience, so the involvement of real world transactions takes away from it. Further, in most games, it would be unacceptable to offer another player real currency in order to have them play a certain way (e.g., in a game of Monopoly between friends, offering another player a real dollar in exchange for a property on the board); and for this to be necessary or valuable may indicate a Kingmaker scenario within the game. However, such rules of etiquette need not apply, and in practice they often don't, to massive game worlds with thousands of players who know one another only through the game system.


A third issue is the involvement of the world's developer or maintenance staff in such transactions. Since a developer may change the virtual world any time, ban a player, delete items, or even simply take the world down never to return, the issue of their responsibility in the case where real money investments are lost through items being lost or becoming inaccessible is significant. Richard Bartle argued that this aspect negates the whole idea of ownership in virtual worlds,[36] and thus in the absence of real ownership no real trade may occur. Some developers have acted deliberately to delete items that have been traded for money, as in Final Fantasy XI, where a task force was set up to delete characters involved in selling in-game currency for real-world money.[37]

LindeX Market Data

However, Second Life has shown a legal example which may indicate that the developer can be in part held responsible for such losses. Second Life at one stage, offered and advertised the ability to "own virtual land", which was purchased for real money. In 2007, Marc Bragg, an attorney, was banned from Second Life; in response he sued the developers for thereby depriving him of his land, which he - based on the developers' own statements - "owned". The lawsuit ended with a settlement in which Bragg was re-admitted to Second Life. The details of the final settlement were not released, but the word "own" was removed from all advertising as a result. (Bragg purchased his land directly from the developers, and thus they were not an uninvolved third party in his transactions.)[]

See also


  1. ^ Nelson, John (2010). "The Virtual Property Problem: What Property Rights in Virtual Resources Might Look Like, How They Might Work, and Why They are a Bad Idea". McGeorge Law Review. 41: 281, 285-86. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1805853. SSRN 1469299 Freely accessible.  Fairfield, Joshua (2005). "Virtual Property" (PDF). Boston University Law Review. 85: 1047. Retrieved . 
  2. ^ Fairfield, Joshua (2005). "Virtual Property" (PDF). Boston University Law Review. 85: 1047. Retrieved .  Blazer, Charles (2006). "The Five Indicia of Virtual Property". Pierce Law Review. 5: 137. SSRN 962905 Freely accessible. 
  3. ^ "CNN.com - Material gains from virtual world - Oct 25, 2004". CNN. 2004. Retrieved . 
  4. ^ Castronova, Edward (2005). Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 164. ISBN 0-226-09626-2. 
  5. ^ "The Game Is Virtual. The Profit Is Real. - New York Times". New York Times. 2005. Retrieved . 
  6. ^ Dibbell, Julian (January 2003). "The Unreal Estate Boom". Wired (11.01). 
  7. ^ Musgrove, Mike (17 September 2005). "Virtual Games Create a Real World Market". The Washington Post. 
  8. ^ Dibbell, Julian (November 2008). "The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire". Wired (16.12). 
  9. ^ Biever, Celeste (29 October 2004). "Sales in virtual goods top $100 million". New Scientist. 
  10. ^ "How big is the RMT market anyway?". Virtual Economy. 2 March 2007. [permanent dead link]
  11. ^ Eun-jung, Kim (14 January 2010). "Gamers make real money on virtual items, court says OK". Yonhap. 
  12. ^ "Estimation of MMORPG secondary market size". Avatar Within. 13 January 2013. 
  13. ^ a b Camp, Bryan (2007). "The Play's the Thing: A Theory of Taxing Virtual Worlds". Hastings Law Journal. 59: 1. doi:10.2139/ssrn.980693. 
  14. ^ a b Lederman, Leandra (2007). ""Stranger Than Fiction": Taxing Virtual Worlds". New York University Law Review. 82: 1620. 
  15. ^ a b Masnick, Mike (18 October 2006). "Nice Work Retrieving That Magic Sword...... But Now You Need To Pay Uncle Sam For It". Techdirt. 
  16. ^ Walpole, Michael. "Taxing Virtual Profits" (PDF). 
  17. ^ Druckman-Church, Michael (2013). "Taxing a Galaxy Far Far Away: How Virtual Property Challenges International Tax Systems". Columbia Journal of Transnational Law. 51: 479. 
  18. ^ Joint Economic Committee. "Virtual Economies Need Clarification, Not More Taxes". 
  19. ^ Duranske, Benjamin (23 October 2007). "Two Experts Suggest Virtual World Profits May Be Taxable Even Before Conversion to Real World Cash". Virtually Blind. 
  20. ^ a b c "UK Gambling Act: How to Protect Your Virtual World". Virtual Worlds News. 11 July 2007. [permanent dead link]
  21. ^ Schaefer, Jim (27 January 2004). "SEX AND THE SIMULATED CITY: Virtual world raises issues in the real one". Detroit Free Press. Archived from the original on 2005-07-16. 
  22. ^ "Evangeline: Interview with a Child cyber-Prostitute in TSO". Alphaville Herald. 8 December 2003. 
  23. ^ Di Meglio, Francesca (10 August 2007). "Virtual exchanges get real". Businessweek. 
  24. ^ Sabbagh, Dan (1 February 2008). "Online games group aims for growth the Nintendo way". The Times. Retrieved 2010. 
  25. ^ Castronova, Ted; Fairfield, Joshua (October 16, 2006). Dragon Kill Points: A Summary Whitepaper. Rational Models Seminar. University of Chicago. pp. 1-10. SSRN 958945 Freely accessible. 
  26. ^ Gilbert, Dan; Whitehead, James; Whitehead, James II (2007). Hacking World of Warcraft. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 183, 184. ISBN 978-0-470-11002-7. 
  27. ^ "Buying and Selling Virtual Items on eBay : eBay Guides". norwood_trading_company. Retrieved 2013. 
  28. ^ "eBay Delisting All Auctions for Virtual Property". slashdot. 26 January 2007. 
  29. ^ "Virtual worlds wind up in real courts - Technology & science - Games". MSNBC. Retrieved 2005. 
  30. ^ "Battle.net Account Security". Blizzard Entertainment. Retrieved 2010. 
  31. ^ "Protect Your Account". Agency News. 31 January 2010. Retrieved 2010. 
  32. ^ "Diablo 3 Auction House: General FAQ". Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. 1 August 2011. Retrieved 2012. 
  33. ^ "Virtual club to rock pop culture". BBC News. 2 November 2005. 
  34. ^ "Virtual property market booming". BBC News. 9 November 2005. 
  35. ^ Kharpal, Arjun (2016-08-10). "Want a full 'Pokemon Go' account? It's yours for $999,999". CNBC. Retrieved . 
  36. ^ Bartle, Richard A. (2004). "Pitfalls of Virtual Property" (PDF). The Themis Group. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-17. 
  37. ^ "Special Task Force". FINAL FANTASY XI Official Web Site. 6 November 2006. 

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