[MUD-Dev] RE: Value of PvP avatars (was: To Kill an Avatar)

[Castronova]

From: "David Kennerly" kennerly at sfsu.edu
> Ren Reynolds wrote:

>> For example, all other things being equal I would imagine that
>> the economic value of P and Q (in game A) would be higher than R
>> and S game B, as in B they are a less 'stable'.

> This conclusion requires more statements to be true.  In many
> games the exact reverse is true.  In Korea, I'm told by Korean
> developers that Lineage has a stable MMO item trade economy, in
> external markets akin to eBay.  Lineage is the most popular PK=ON
> MMORPG.  It's a wierd facet of human value that many value exactly
> what may be taken away.  What's granted and protected, at least in
> this example, has less value than what is unstable and at risk.

My paper on male-female price differences also had info on server
characteristics, unfortunately buried in the hype about sex
discrimination. Originally I thought that I would find a negative
price effect for PvP servers, and I was going to ballyhoo that as
evidence that Hobbes' state of nature sucks a$$. However, while the
PvP effect is consistently negative, it is small, about $15 off the
base price of $333 for an account. Unlike the sex effect, this
doesn't pass the 'statistical significance' test.

Why no effect? Remember, price is determined by supply and demand,
so, even though there's less demand for PvP avatars, if there's less
supply too, the price will be about the same as No-PvP avatars. Not
many people like yellow cars, but they don't sell at a huge discount
either: there's not many demanders, but not much supply either. The
best evidence that PvP is a less fun way to play, for the average
player, is not in the price of PvP avatars but in the fact that PvP
servers seem to have low populations relative to non-PvP servers in
the same game. If Lineage offered Blue servers, I wonder how many
people would play the game Red?

Edward Castronova
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