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Hello fellow Gaians !
A conversation in the line to get coffe today: Someone: "So, what do you do?" Sagger: "I'm the chief economist of a vitrual economy" Someone: "Is that a fancy way to say you're unemployed?"
Good thing it was before I got my coffee
I did not get a chance to take part in the manly Manuary festivities cry But check out what the rest of the guys did.
I don't have too many economic updates. I have been working on some things, but as usual, more backend stuff, statistics analysis and some planning for bright future of the Gaian Economy.
I happened to answer some interesting questions about the Gaian economy a week or two ago, and I thought I could share them with you.
Until the next time,
-S
question If gaia didn’t have any monthly collectibles or cash items. Do you think it will be boring then?
Monthly collectibles seem to have been on Gaia since forever (they were here long before I joined xp ). They drive a lot of attention - guessing what they will be, opening the letters, trading (and questing for) old collectibles, not to mention that they are excellent items in their own merit. Cash items, (especially the evolving ones) have similar qualities. I wouldn't say that without them Gaia would be boring, since Gaia is many different things to different people (try asking 10 Gaians what is Gaia, and you'll get at least 9 different answers...), but MCs and cash items do provide a lot of interest and excitement.
question The monthly collectables in 2004 were about 7K when the letters opened, in the marketplace. now in 2008 they are worth like 19K. Can you explain why there is this difference?
The short answer is that today it's easier to get gold on Gaia than it was in 2004 (more games, email and phone notifications, etc.). People who pay real world money for collectibles want to be compensated for their investment, and when it's easier to earn gold, gold is worth a bit less than when it was hard to get gold. Gaians today are also richer than they were in 2004, so they are willing to pay more for current MCs. The long answer can be found here.
question What was your first opinion about gaia’s economic structure ? Has your opinion changed after some time?
I've been studying Gaia's economy for more than 7 months now, so some of my opinions have had a chance to change more than once since my first impression smile . One of the things that seemed odd at first was the fact that items do not deteriorate ever, and that they are infinitely durable. Stores' fixed prices also seemed quite odd. At first I had a feeling that these two things create a potential for infinite accumulation of items, that will drive down their value. It took me some time to realize what kind of equilibrium exists in such an economy, and to see their merits.
question If you wan’t to make lots of gold how would you do it? (like buying monthly collectibles and keep them till they are worth millions or would you play the marketplace?)
There are several way to make *lots* of gold on Gaia. Making art, for example (or related services, like designing profiles, sigs, etc.), generates significant income for some users. (I will check if I can share some numbers, but I wouldn't count on that). Buying collectibles and keeping them is a valid option, but the only way to make *lots* of gold fast is to "play the marketplace". It is one of the few activities on Gaia that does not follow a gold curve (you make just as much gold on the second hour of doing it as you get during the first), and there are always opportunities for a quick profit. The new marketplace, with its plentiful information, warnings for mispriced items and closing fee makes it a little bit harder to do, but it is still possible. Personally, I have stopped "playing the market", and even when I did, I did it on a very small scale (I invested heavily in soccer balls xp ).
question Do you think the free quest items will have an effect on the economy?
Free quest items affect the economy - when they become "old quest items" (when the quests themselves are discontinued) they have essentially the same role as old MCs. The only difference is that there are many more of them out there, so it takes them a while longer to gain value.
question Does it help the economy to re-release old donation items and monthly collectibles. Or not?
It's a hard question to answer, since there are several competing effects. The most important issue is that Gaia commited not to mass release old collectibles, and we should stick to our words. Many people buy MCs today knowing that one day they will be worth a lot more in the future, and if we renege on this commitment, the purchases of currenct MCs will go down, and that's not good to neither the economy (fewer collectibles in the MP - higher prices in gold) nor to the Gaia (the real world part of it) that uses money from MCs to cover costs such as servers, bandwidth, etc. It will also affect Gaians in different ways - those who are questing for these items will be better off, since they will be easier to obtain, but those owning them today will lose from their value going down. Interestingly, even those questing for the old MCs will be somewhat worse off (at least some of them) - the scarcity the old MCs is what makes some of them to be "quest worthy", and removing this scarcity will take the point out of the quest.
question What if gaia came out with a gold member sytem. That you have to pay to be a gold member and you get more features than other members. Would you like that? Would you think that that will help the admins pay for bills etc.?
Right now, the only difference between donating members are non- donating members is ads. I'm not sure it what will happen to revenue stream (which is needed to pay the bills), but it will probably affect the community in significant ways. I personally like the fact that with decent amount of participation in the community, even a non- donating Gaian can experience everything on the website (including having this months' MCs). It gives Gaia a feeling of a real equal community.
question If you don’t buy monthly collectibles from gaia itself or the marketplace. Do you think it will take longer to have a good looking avatar or do you think it takes less time?
There are plenty of good looking avatars to be made from store items only. For a while, all I was wearing was store items, and I considered my avatar good looking xp . People run store item- only avatar contests all the time, with or without quest items, price limits and rare items, and the winning entries are very impressive. There are interesting and good looking avatars for as low as 5K including hair styles, so I have to say that if you're giving up on MCs you can get a good looking avatar pretty fast, definitely faster than if you want to include MCs.
Sagger-AT3 · Tue Feb 12, 2008 @ 06:41am · 12 Comments |
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