Reaction to Readings

    Even after reading all these different articles about virtual economies, I still feel helplessly lost. With the Chinese gold farmers, I don’t fully understand what the workers are doing or getting that can then be sold to other people in the virtual world and make a physical world profit. It’s also hard for me to understand the demand for these products in the virtual world because I am so far removed from that culture. When I buy an app or a game, I can never justify spending the $0.99 or whatever to buy a special power to beat the level on which I’m stuck. So, it’s hard for me to understand the mindset of someone who would be willing to spend thousands of dollars within a game that would make having these gold farms profitable. I guess I have an easier time imagining how someone would make a profit in Second Life, where it is a creationist capitalism as Boellstorff calls it, because you would be buying a creative item for your avatar or home, similar to how you would buy clothing or items in the physical world. I can understand how someone can make a profit off of that and even have a career from selling things in the virtual world. Even though I do not fully understand these virtual economies, I think it is great that there is the opportunity for people who are fully engrossed in these virtual worlds to make money. Like the Ge Jin article talked about, it was the perfect opportunity for some of these gamers to combine their passion with a job, which is what most people’s dream is. It was also interesting to me though that Ge Jin mentioned how other gamers really hate gold farmers and will take it upon themselves to police and kill the gold farmers. It’s hard to imagine a type of abuse happening in these virtual worlds and it also brings about the questions of what one can do about the abuse or even murder of your avatar. Are the gamers entitled to protect their game and playing atmosphere and therefore attack these gold farmers who are just trying to make money?  

    I also took some time to look at the bitcoin documentary trailers. I was really intrigued by the “Life on Bitcoin” documentary. I have a hard time buying into bitcoin because something about it almost seems fake to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t fully understand it or because there is no physical money ever with it, but I would have a hard of switching over to that. Furthermore, I’m curious how this couple even figured out where to use their bitcoin and how businesses decide to take bitcoin. Actually last year when I was one of the executive directors for Dance Marathon at WashU, we got an email from a bitcoin company about wanting to get us to use it. That was the first time I had ever heard of bitcoin and I really thought it was a scam. Who knows, maybe in another 10+ years, everyone will be using bitcoin and it’ll be difficult to remember a time without it, but I can’t imagine bitcoin taking hold and replacing credit cards and cash.