Economic Enlightenment brought by World of Warcraft

The sun rose slowly from the horizon, a goblin clad in cortical armor - a man who did not know the game, tentatively understood as an ugly dwarf - with a dagger in his hand on a broken earth Running, jumping ... He has extraordinary talent, if this talent into the real-world language words, then - to make money.

This is the network "World of Warcraft" in the scene, "World of Warcraft" the latest piece of information, "the fission of the earth" (aka: Cataclysm) was officially launched. Love to make money goblin, it is this new version of the race added.

However, a group of people rely on "World of Warcraft" make money, but at this time feel cold-hearted, that is, the game's "gold coin trader." Due to the launch of the new version of the game, the group that used virtual games to gain real benefits was temporarily out of work. For some gamers who earn a living by the game, this may well mean a decrease in income and even unemployment.

Why a virtual game based on the virtual worldview can affect the real economy?

The birth logic of "RMB warrior"

As a game, "World of Warcraft" is undoubtedly synonymous with success, this MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) developed by well-known game maker Blizzard Inc., from the birth of a grand view of the world has set a spectacular scene Art production, outstanding game experience and a huge supportive groups.

Such a successful game, of course, no shortage of topics. Due to the attractiveness of its superhuman game, some young people indulge in it, triggering social questions about its negative impact. Some experts even compared it to drugs, triggering social discussions.

How can we explain its impact on the economy around what is happening in World of Warcraft, starting with the RMB warrior?

What is meant by "warrior"? This is the netizen for some type of game player, these players are mostly office workers, have a certain economic base, due to time constraints and other reasons, they can not stay too much in the game. In order to gain equal strength with others, they make up for the shortcomings by buying the game currency, equipment and even direct purchase of game characters. In some money-driven domestic online games, crazy into the "RMB warrior" can even get more than the ability of the crowd, triggering the game's imbalance. So that the industry came from time to time there are "mysterious RMB warriors into the game hundreds of thousands of" news.

With a complete commercial system of "World of Warcraft," there is no shortage of "RMB fighters" there. Although World of Warcraft bar game trading equipment, but savvy players still invented the transaction mode: by experienced players to team up, led the "RMB warriors" challenge game level leveling, get rare items, and then auctioned willing to pay high The amount of game currency players. So called "golden group" team (due to "World of Warcraft," the currency referred to as "G", also known as "G group") flooding the various game servers. Allegedly, this business model was first invented by Chinese players, and now has "value output" to foreign players.

If only this step, it can not constitute the game economy from virtual to physical changes. The Renminbi Warriors did not have time and was not interested in earning the money needed to participate in the Golden Mission. Therefore, there are some professional players who become "gold coin traders" and specialize in "playing money" businesses ("playing money" is a boring process for ordinary players), collecting a large amount of game currency and selling them to online trading platforms Players. Game currency into a real RMB, and even have a more fixed "exchange rate."

Virtual currency also devalued

This is simply the reality of economics teaching, as Mancun's "Principles of Economics" stated at the beginning: "Trade can make everyone's condition better." Professional gamers "produce" the game currency to help "RMB warriors "Get a better gaming experience; RMB Warriors are better at earning real money to help pro players gain material benefits.

This example is very easy to calculate: a monthly income of 10,000 yuan of white-collar workers, hourly wage of about 50 yuan, if you win the game equipment, monthly spend 20 hours of game time. So, let the white-collar workers pay 400 yuan a month to save 20 hours, almost a matter of course. If the white-collar workers to save time to work overtime, you can get thousands of overtime pay, a comparison, the advantages of trade is obvious.

There may be only one victim to this calculation: the operator of the game. Because the profits of game players, just from the player's online time, white-collar countless save 20 hours, for the game operator is not a disaster. It is not surprising then that gamers oppose "golden group" perennial (the reason that game players oppose "golden group" is often that "golden group" reduces the player's gameplay and causes the game system to be unfair, which may Is a fact, but hard to prove it).

However, gamers are not no way to curb the "golden group", and its approach, also from "World of Warcraft" business system and financial system.

Although World of Warcraft does not have the currency issue in the traditional sense, players get monetary rewards when leveling and completing tasks. This reward, in fact, is equivalent to the game player disguised payment of currency.

Monster and task refresh, but also to "World of Warcraft" in the "amount of money" more and more, inevitably, devaluation of the currency will appear in the game to exchange the actual price has not changed the point card as an example, a few Years ago, only a few hundred "gold" could be redeemed, and now four or five thousand "gold" is needed.

However, due to the continuous introduction of new equipment gamers, in the past some "valuable" high-end equipment, the price dropped significantly. A full-fledged hero, the rarity is also declining.

As a result, the work of "gold coin merchants" will be harder and harder to do. It is more and more difficult to earn enough gold for life. Not to mention the constantly updated version, is still attracting "RMB warrior" into the new mission can participate without advanced equipment.

The Practical Enlightenment of Warcraft Economy

Game market there is a fair rule, free competition, players have the option of "RMB warrior" rights, but also have the option of "gold coin traders" rights. Market-generated "gold coin traders", which are deterred by the market and thus diminish the negative impact on the game, are undoubtedly an interesting model of "invisible hand." The laws of the real economy and society can also be glimpsed into the game.

With the hand of the market alone, will the "gold coin trader" disappear as the gaming trader wishes? As mentioned above, it is very hard to do so as long as trading opportunities exist in the game. However, "World of Warcraft" game player does not seem to care about, but continue to introduce new services, new items, to stabilize the "gold coin traders" the negative impact.

The other hand, domestic online games, there are often "visible hand." Such as the game player to sell currency and even equipment, skills, although the game player so get a high operating profit, the player's interests have suffered serious losses, "money is cow" unhealthy ideas, but also mistakenly passed on to young players (this It is the "golden group" is often criticized). The impact is that we seldom see a domestic online game that can last for years.

Invisible hand and visible hand, which is more useful in the end, in the face of problems, which is more effective? Such a real problem, so far there is no final conclusion. But playing a play "World of Warcraft", maybe we can get a little inspiration.