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Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis by Vili Lehdonvirta, Edward Castronova (Hardback, 2014)

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 ecomy, simple or complex. In this book, Vili Lehdonvirta and Edward Castrova introduce the basic concepts of ecomics into the game developer's and game designer's toolkits. Lehdonvirta and Castrova explain how the fundamentals of ecomics -- markets, institutions, and money -- can be used to create or analyze ecomies based on artificially scarce virtual goods. They focus on virtual ecomies in digital games, but also touch on serious digital currencies such as Bitcoin as well as virtual ecomies that emerge in social media around points, likes, and followers. The theoretical emphasis is on elementary microecomic theory, with some discussion of behavioral ecomics, macroecomics, sociology of consumption, and other social science theories relevant to ecomic behavior. Topics include the rational choice model of ecomic decision making; information goods versus virtual goods; supply, demand, and market equilibrium; mopoly power; setting prices; and externalities. The book will enable developers and designers to create and maintain successful virtual ecomies, introduce social scientists and policy makers to the power of virtual ecomies, and provide a useful guide to ecomic fundamentals for students in other disciplines.

Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass.
Spine
12mm
Series Title
Information Policy
Content Note
35 Figures
Author Biography
Vili Lehdonvirta is a Research Fellow at Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. Edward Castronova is Professor of Communications and Professor of Cognitive Science at Indiana University. He is the author of Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games and Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality.
Date of Publication
03/06/2014
Interest Age
From 18
Country of Publication
United States
Genre
Industrial Studies: General

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