The results of the Arden project are available in a working paper here. The working paper has also been submitted to a journal for peer review.
Summary: In a fantasy game setting, we made two equivalent worlds and set the price of potions to be higher in one than in the other. We found that people bought fewer potions when they were more expensive.
Discussion: The result suggests that people in fantasy games act in an economically normal way. Perhaps these game worlds can be used to study real economic behavior.
The results are based on an environment that was significantly more fun to play than the first one we made and represents the completion of the Arden project. My thanks go to the MacArthur Foundation for their early trust, their support through hard times, and of course the funding that made the study possible. I'd also like to thank the Bioware corporation for allowing us free use of Neverwinter Nights.
You can download the game environments we used for the study here.
As some of you might recall, two months ago I announced that the results were done, but I did not say what they were. I held back because I felt an obligation to the funder of the study, the MacArthur Foundation, to give them time to respond and comment before publicizing the results more widely. I am sorry to have given the impression of a 'tease' strategy. I won't do it this way again.
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