Everquest is 77th most wealthy "country" in the world...

[hong]

Ah well; another demonstration that "economic value" and real-world value can be very different things....

 

[Kesh]

That's one economics professor who needs his degree revoked.

 

[The Sunderer]

You'd think that they would divert some of this money into an Evercrack Welfare State

 

[angramainyu]

I'm confused, you're saying it's not real?

 

[Rinulin]

They should give out the game and gaming hours for free, legitimize item/character sales and incorporate it into the UI, and take 10% of all transactions. They would increase their playerbase by an order of magnitude and make enough money to buy an island in the Pacific and declare it an independant nation. Then they could REALLY be the 77th wealthiest nation in the world. Ah well, maybe another MMORPG company will figure out the potential soon and let us (the smart ones at least) play for free.

Actually, there is a game coming out that will do just that. All of the money that they make will be based off of player transactions. From what I understand, it will be free to play.

Here's a link: Project Entropia

 

[kenjib]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that link. Say, would you happen to know how playable the game is expected to be for those who don't want to put any money into it? I couldn't really tell from the FAQ or message boards. I love officially sanctioned freeloading!

 

[Voneth]

They would increase their playerbase by an order of magnitude and make enough money to buy an island in the Pacific and declare it an independant nation. Then they could REALLY be the 77th wealthiest nation in the world. Ah well, maybe another MMORPG company will figure out the potential soon and let us (the smart ones at least) play for free.

Two words

Dream Park

1 - Dream Park (1981) Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
2 - The Barsoom Project (1989) Larry Niven
and Steven Barnes
3 - Dream Park: The Voodoo Game (1991) Larry Niven
and Steven Barnes

These guys pretty much predicted the rise of WWF and multigenre franchises.

 

[Rinulin]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing that link. Say, would you happen to know how playable the game is expected to be for those who don't want to put any money into it? I couldn't really tell from the FAQ or message boards. I love officially sanctioned freeloading!

Sorry, I don't really know all that much. The Norrath economics paper refers to that game though, thats about all I know of it.

I do know that they ask you if you would be willing to spend money if you were to participate in the beta, which leads me to think that you would have to spend some amount of money on the game.

Plus, consider that they are not charging the standard subscription that most MMORPGs charge. I doubt that they will let many people play who aren't able to buy things.

The question is, how much are things going to cost?