[ExI] The "real" world

[Giulio Prisco]

Facebook and other online venues are part of our reality and,
therefore, are as "real" as bricks and mortar. I don't know what
reality is but, perhaps, reality is what we choose to pay attention
to. In this sense, Facebook is more "real" than bricks. I am unable to
understand why so many people play Farmville but, if they do, there is
certainly a reason, and a very valid one from their point of view.

On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
> "If you've spent time on Facebook, you might be mystified by all the
> people tending to their virtual farms and virtual pets. I know I am.
> Not only does this seem a strange way to spend time, but here's the
> even weirder part: a lot of these people are spending real money to
> buy virtual products, like pretend guns and fertilizer, to gain
> advantage in these Web-based games."
>
> snip
>
> "CCP Games, creator of a virtual community called EVE Online, actually
> hired an in-house economist to regulate the economy of its online
> world, which has 330,000 members. "My role is like that of a lead
> economist in a central bank—I give information about the economy to
> the players and to CCP," says Eyjólfur Gudmagnusson, who was an
> associate professor at a university in Iceland before joining CCP."
>
> http://www.newsweek.com/id/235170
>
> Game economy stabilization was the background on which _Halting State_
> was written.
>
> I wonder how long it will take for the virtual economy to exceed the
> "real" economy?  (And for that matter how you would measure it?)
>
> It the last few years what has been going on in the real world is
> stranger than what has been discussed on this list.
>
> Keith
>
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