2005-10-07

Stock Markets and Virtual Worlds

"""
This special session will look at the financial speculation and
experimentation going on in virtual worlds. From player-created in-world stock
exchanges to public companies engaging in virtual real estate speculation,
virtual worlds are home to a raft of new financial schemes and opportunities.
This panel examines the rise of virtual securities. Can an exchange flourish
without enforcement?
""" http://www.nyls.edu/pages/3367.asp

[this isn't your usual in-game economics panel: one issue that's on the agenda
is how you build an in-game legal system.]

there's a neopets stockmarket, with random pricing not based on real-world
events. what is this teaching children?

[these corporations inside eve online and second life... we've already
abstracted from manufacture to the service economy. this is one step
abstracted again.]

on the consequences of breaking contracts in second life: the repercussions
are to go with having a persistent identity for landownings, etc.

questioner now talking about grass roots elements of civil society which are
now important institutions online (she's a SL rentals magnate): - nota bene,
hashmarked documents that can't even be changed by linden labs, have helped -
consumer associations to combat fraud

she says that what is needed is courts, and until then it's just a game.

the answerer is saying that the market will sort this out. different games
will declare different things as fraud, and the market will sort it out. [i'm
not sure i agree, but i don't see an alternative.]