[MUD-Dev] [NEWS] Gaming Open Market

[Freeman, Jeff]

From: "Freeman, Jeff" <jfreeman at soe.sony.com>
> From: Vladimir Cole
>> From: Peter Keeler

>>> Will we ever see a virtual currency in the "real" currency
>>> exchange, perhaps?

>> Nope.

> Jeff, why not?

What Scott said: Because then it wouldn't be virtual currency, it'd
be real currency.  Want to use real currency for in-game
transactions?  Fine, but just do that, then.

We already have lots of different kinds of real-world currencies,
there's just no need to invent a new one.

> I would have said yes because "ever" is a very long time. =3D)

There'll never be a horse which is also an apple.

If you make a virtual currency which is "real currency" it will only
ever be, at most, a one-off of some realworld currency. e.g. "These
gold coins represent one dollar each."  And they're "real currency"
in the sense that they represent dollars.  But people won't put
virtua-gold coins on a currency exchange, they'll just trade the
real dollars.

> Long enough for a new sort of virtual world to evolve? Maybe one
> could eventually come about where a virtual currency would be:

>   - very liquid (easily exchanged for in-game and out-of-game
>   items and currencies),

>   - stable (predictable inflation levels in line with other major
>   currencies),

>   - well managed by a strong virtual central bank (talking about
>   money supply management),

>   - backed by a strong economy behind it where goods of
>   widely-recognized value are produced.

There are two questions that have to be answered before we take even
one step down this path:

  A) Why not just use real dollars, then? (or any other current
  real-world currency)

  B) Why do this at all?

I don't expect to hear a compelling answer to A any time soon.
Someone might make a VW in which people buy and sell things for real
money, but the currency you should be using in that VW, IMO, is real
money.  US Dollars, probably.

And I don't expect a good answer to B for a good long while.  The
answer right now sounds to me like "Just for the sake of doing it".
The types of VW's which generate sufficient interest in out-of-game
transactions to even warrant a discussion on vurtual-vs-real
currency are all games, and they all require virtual currency in
order to function as games, and in fact most of the real-world
transactions involve buying and selling the virtual currency.
Switch that to using real money, and there's so little interest in
buying and selling stuff that it's certainly not worth inventing a
new form of currency to do so.
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