Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Edward Castronova, the economist who wrote about the GDP of Norrath, the EverQuest world, has asssembled a group blog that discusses the economics, law and culture of game worlds. It's serious but it's also fun and just a tad weird.

The site takes games on their own terms but also watches their intersection with the real world. For example, one entry discusses an article on virtual money by Dave Rickey:

...a company named Black Snow Interactive sued my former employer, Mythic Entertainment, essentially because Mythic blocked access to the "inventory" of Camelot currency that Black Snow was selling through eBay and their own website.

The entry's author, Julian Dibbel, figures that the market for items and characters bought and sold in the real world is US$20-63M. Impressive.