The virtual world has evolved immensely over the last 15-or-so years. From the early days of Second Life to the current (and sometimes terrifying) developments in the Metaverse, MMORPGs and the idea of online roleplay is a fixture in gaming.
Given these virtual worlds act as a mirror of our lives, virtual economies are a massive part of it all — and historically, folks have gone wild over them, from virtual riots to the development of online in-game black markets. On the other hand, they can also be a great place to start understanding how to manage money and wealth in the real world too.
While there are multiple reasons why gamers have gone buck wild with power over virtual currency, Dr Kim Barker, a senior lecturer at the Open University Law School in the UK, put it pretty simply. She said folks are passionate about accumulating wealth and skill in the virtual world when users become very attached to their game accounts, characters, items and skills, which can sometimes have real-world value. In short, we’re all just brainwashed capitalists (probably).
As we become more wrapped up in the potential future of a meta world, here’s a look back on some of the most bizarre things to happen when in-game economies got all too real.
EVE Online’s Player Riots
As a longstanding MMORPG, EVE Online users have really flexed their virtual economic skills over the years. In fact, the economy of the game is so vast, the developers had to hire economists to monitor it in 2007. Last November, thousands of player characters swarmed the game’s primary trade hub, the Jita star-system. This happened after developers promised that the game’s update ‘New Dawn’ would see a return to an age of prosperity to the game’s universe.
Players (who’ve historically had beef with the developers) ended up spending hours shooting an invulnerable monument with lasers, bullets, and fireworks, causing the system to be locked in simulated lag for an entire weekend. Similarly, in 2014, EVE Online’s most significant economic hub was under attack by an alliance of the game’s most ruthless players (known as Goonswarm), as they attempted to damage it for good.
Considering the ridiculous IRL money some players play with — one player spent $30,000 to purchase an in-game spaceship in 2020, the virtual economic ferocity is somewhat understandable.
The Sandbox Yacht
The Sandbox (a community-driven gaming platform that allows players to create and monetise in-game assets and experiences using blockchain) has some serious real-life money circulating amongst its players. For example, for most of us, buying a yacht is probably a lofty dream that’ll likely never happen. Yet, last November, a Sandbox player spent $920,000 AUD buying an NFT yacht in the game — genuinely ridiculous.
This came after the game launched its digital property tokens, known as LANDs, in 2019, in which the game’s owner Animoca Brands netted more than $7 million AUD off the venture.
Runescape’s Gold Farmers
Runescape is a nostalgic classic. Most of us probably associate the game with playing it with our parent’s gigantic 00’s computer with dodgy dial-up internet in tow — but it’s a different story for some more recent Venenzualen players. Back in 2018, Kotaku reported that some players in the country were getting around the game’s controversial real-life trading rules to farm gold. According to a player who goes by the handle ‘Fhynal’, farming gold on Runescape proved marginally more safe than getting a job in Venezuela.
“I gold farm mostly for the raw benefits of it,” he told Kotaku. “I don’t have to go out. That may sound strange, but we live with a lot of crime. If you want to go out, you have to use a bus, [which increases your] propensity to be robbed.”
Fhynal said he earned approximately $19-$26 AUD per week from Runescape, which adds up to “double, sometimes triple” the average monthly salary in Venezuela.
The world of online economies is undeniably a little wild — but considering it mirrors the ins and outs of the real-world economy (which can be equally as ridiculous), it’s a way to wrap your head around how to safeguard your money.
Be sure to take a listen to our latest podcast on the world of investing and how you could get started (other than buying a yacht on The Sandbox), Unlikely Investors here. If you’re keen to start investing, you can sign up to the Sharesies platform and use promo code “UINVEST” for $10 in your account.
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