RuneScape Economy Revisited
Okay… I’ll admit it, when I posted my last article, it was just a quick “hey cool, I’ll post it” type of post. And the information it contained was rather interesting… So interesting in fact that I began to think more about it…. the whole economy of RuneScape… Can it actually be compared to Real World Economies? And was that number accurate?
The RuneScape Economy
A 2007 study of "MMORPG Economics," estimated a single game - Runescape - to have a US$2.1Billion economy, with a per capita GDP of ~US$400. If the author’s estimations are correct, then that means Runescape is about the 149th largest "national" economy on the planet, making its virtual, in-game economy larger than roughly thirty real-world economies.
With the same scale as real-world national economies, one must wonder how these "virtual" economies are managed, and whether they’re victim to the same vicious cycles we see in the real world.
An interesting article I found on a site comparing the real world economy with in game economics. If you would like to see the actual study click here (PDF FILE).
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