The Walrus (a “Canadian general-interest magazine”) has a bio piece by Clive Thompson on TN’s own Dr Castronova. As well as an interesting summary of Dr C’s work, the piece touches on a number of what we might term: virtual-physical world intersection issues. Ludlow, Balkin, Dibble, Will Harvey – they are all quoted.
But hay, the reason you should read this, the reason you _want_ to read it, is the choice descriptions of Dr C and the unmasking of his double life as a thespian.
Thanks to Brian Whitener of Games Guides Online for the tip-off.
I quite like "the weird enormity of his findings dawned on him".
How does "Castronova discovered that women in the game are worth less than men" stack up against "Evangeline reserved the richest customers for herself, making up to $40 or $50 (U.S.) a trick"?
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | May 13, 2004 at 05:36
Richard>How does "Castronova discovered that women in the game are worth less than men"
Well strictly speaking, if I remember the paper, the finding was based on average eBay prices of male vs female avatars. And if I remember the MUD-DEV debate that seemed to go on for ever about this, didn’t it come to a demand side things – players being predominantly male and relatively few males play female avatars (again from memory – this time of Nick Yee’s results its about 15% isn’t it). Hence you get higher prices, though as many players know you can make cash items by virtue of having a Female avatar.
Posted by: ren | May 13, 2004 at 06:40
Excellent article, Clive. A very comprehensive and readable summary of many vw issues du jour.
And this is the quote of the day: Like an avatar in the game, he had levelled up.
LOL
Posted by: Betsy Book | May 13, 2004 at 07:45
Excellent summary article and a very good read!
Posted by: Tessa Lowe | May 13, 2004 at 08:17
While I truly appreciate the efforts of professional writers and journalists who try to cover our little niche -- I can't help but cringe every time they misrepresent even the most mundane aspects.
I should have grown accustomed to it reading 'general audience' science pieces that woefully misrepresent scientific analysis, or hopelessly bungle analogies intended to clarify - only to confuse. But I haven't.
::shrug::
Posted by: weasel | May 13, 2004 at 09:19
I can only agree with Weasel's disgust about the misrepresentations in this article.
Far from being a "short, nebbishy guy", Ted is a tall, dark force-of-nature.
Posted by: Dan Hunter | May 13, 2004 at 11:09
Ren>the finding was based on average eBay prices of male vs female avatars.
Yes, I know that - I wrote a long MUD-DEV posting on the subject.
The point I was making here, though, was that in one breath the author is saying that women in the game are worth less than men, and in the next breath he's saying that they can command up to $50 a trick. How much can male characters get for a trick?
It's the difference between share price and dividend.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Bartle | May 13, 2004 at 17:02
Good article with lots of generalities and a liberal license to spice up the article.
"Lunar, vacant & suburban" is a good title :)
Frank
Posted by: magicback | May 13, 2004 at 22:38
Well 60k Users for Lineage 2 is a brilliant result if we think that the game was designed for an Asian market and the US market in this case is just a side market. It would be interesting to know the provenience of the 160k subscribers, if they are moving from other MMOGs to the new ones, if they are adding new accounts to their existing account pool or if they are just new customers. But I suppose we will never know (even if it is reasonable to assume at this stage that EQ, SWG, UO and DAOC did not increase their subscriber pool in the last months and most probably they lost subscribers).
In any case a source of hope for the several dozens of MMOGs in development.
Posted by: Luca Girardo | May 14, 2004 at 02:49
Ops, wrong article.
Posted by: Luca Girardo | May 14, 2004 at 03:53
Ooh, now this is main page slashdotted.
You're totally a media darling, Ted. Nice going.
Posted by: greglas | May 18, 2004 at 10:22
the hype was fun for awhile, but you know what? its getting to be too much work. my gaming time is suffering: a clear sign that this is getting far too serious.
Posted by: Edward Castronova | May 18, 2004 at 13:55