As real as real? Macroeconomic behavior in a large-scale virtual world

New Media and Society

Volumn 11, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 685-707

  Castronova, Edward ^a   Williams, Dmitri ^b   Shen, Cuihua ^b   Ratan, Rabindra ^b   Xiong, Li ^b   Huang, Yun ^c   Keegan, Brian ^c  

^a INDIANA UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA   (United States)

^c NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Behavioral data; Computer games; Economics; Everquest 2; Mapping; MMORPG; Supercomputing analysis; Video games; Virtual world

Indexed keywords

EID: 70449492713     PISSN: 14614448     EISSN: 14617315     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1461444809105346     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. Bailenson, J., A. Beall, J. Blascovich, J. Loomis and M. Turk (2005) Transformed Social Interaction, Augmented Gaze and Social Influence in Immersive Virtual Environments, Human Communication Research 31(4): 511-37.
2. Bomfim, A. (2001) Measurement Error in General Equilibrium: The Aggregate Effects of Noisy Economic Indicators, Journal of Monetary Economics 48(3): 585-603.
3. Brown, C., R. Solow, A. Ando and J. Kareken (1963) Lags in Fiscal and Monetary Policy, in C. Brown (ed.) Stabilization Policies: Commission on Money and Credit, pp. 1-14. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
4. Castronova, E. (2001) The Rise and Fall of a Policy Rule: Monetarism at the St. Louis Fed, 1968-86, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review January/February: 1-24.
5. Castronova, E., M.W. Bell, M. Carlton, R. Cornell, J.J. Cummings, W. Emigh, M. Falk, M. Fatten, P. LaFourest, N. Mishler, J. Reynard, S. Robbins, T. Ross, W. Ryan and R. Starks (2008) A Test of the Law of Demand in a Virtual World: Exploring the Petri Dish Approach to Social Science, CESifo Working Paper No. 2355, Social Science Research Network.
6. Cook, T.D. and D.T. Campbell (1979) Quasi-experimentation: Design and Analysis Issues for Field Settings. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
7. Cox, J. (1997) On Testing the Utility Hypothesis, Economic Journal 107(443): 1054-78.
8. Cunningham, T. (1992) Some Real Evidence on the Real Bills Doctrine versus the Quantity Theory, Economic Inquiry 30(2): 371-83.
9. Dibbell, J. (2006) Play Money. New York: Basic Books.
10. Fixler, D. and B. Grimm (2008) The Reliability of the GDP and GDI Estimates, Survey of Current Business, February, URL (consulted 29 March 2009): http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2008/02%20February/0208_reliable.pdf.
11. Hafer, R. and D. Wheelock (2001) The Rise and Fall of a Policy Rule: Monetarism at the St. Louis Fed, 1968-1986, Review 83(1): 1-24.
12. Hall, R. and M. Lieberman (2003) Macroeconomics: Principles and Applications (2nd edn). Mason, OH: Thomson Learning.
13. Jankowski, N. (2007) Exploring e-Science: An Introduction, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(2): 549-62.
14. Kazdin, A. (1977) The Token Economy: A Review and Evaluation. New York: Plenum.
15. Landefeld, J., E. Seskin and B. Fraumeni (2008) Taking the Pulse of the Economy: Measuring GDP, Journal of Economic Perspectives 22(2): 193-216.
16. Lankenau, S. (2001) Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em: Cigarette Black Markets in US Prisons and Jails, The Prison Journal 81(2): 142-61.
17. Lehdonvirta, V. (2005) Virtual Economics: Applying Economics to the Study of Game Worlds, paper presented at the 2005 Conference on Future Play (Future Play 2005), Michigan State University, Lansing, MI.
18. Lessig, L. (1999) Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic Books.
19. Nash, J. and E. Schneyer (2004) Virtual Economies: An In-depth Look at the Virtual World of Final Fantasy XI: Online. Philadelphia, PA: Wharton School of Business.
20. Paarlberg, D. (1992) An Analysis and History of Inflation. New York: Praeger.
21. Radford, A. (1945) The Economic Organization in a POW Camp, Economica 12(48): 189-201.
22. Samuelson, P. and R. Solow (1960) Analytical Aspects of Anti-inflation Policy, Proceedings of the American Economic Review 50(2): 177-94.
23. Sargeant, T. and N. Wallace (1981) The Real Bills Doctrine vs. the Quantity Theory: A Reconsideration. Minneapolis, MN: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
24. Simpson, Z. (1999) The In-game Economics of Ultima Online, paper presented at the Computer Game Developer's Conference, San Jose, CA, 8-12 March.
25. Steinkuehler, C. and D. Williams (2006) Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as Third Places, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 11(4), URL (consulted 29 March 2009): http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.html.
26. Taylor, T.L. (2006) Play between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
27. US Department of Commerce (1998) Updated Summary NIPA Methodologies, Survey of Current Business, September, URL (consulted 29 March 2009): http://www.bea.gov/scb/account_articles/national/0998niw/maintext.htm.
28. Webb, E., D. Campbell, R. Schwartz and L. Sechrest (1966) Unobtrusive Measures: Non-reactive Research in the Social Sciences. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally and Company.
29. White, P. (2008) MMOGData: Charts, URL (consulted 29 March 2009): http://mmogdata.voig.com/Charts.html.
30. Williams, D., N. Yee and S. Caplan (2008) Who Plays, How Much and Why? A Behavioral Player Census of a Virtual World, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 13(4): 993-1018.
31. World Bank (2008) Gross National Income Per Capita 2007: Atlas Method and PPP, in World Development Indicators Database, URL (consulted 29 March 2009): http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GNIPC.pdf.
32. Yee, N. and J. Bailenson (2007) The Proteus Effect: Self Transformations in Virtual Reality, Human Communication Research 33(3): 271-90.