Reading Dibbell Play Money, I came across a section where he talks about what drives people to play online games like Ultima Online or, more importantly, pay actual money to acquire in-game items. He proposes that things which have limits or boundaries are more attractive than those which are limitless.
"Users could...generally get whatever they needed from the world without having to do much more than hang out socializing... But in the end, the worlds they actually wanted to be in - badly enough to pay an entrance fee - were the ones that made the digital necessities almost maddeningly difficult to come by." (Dibbel 41)
Everyone has that friend, or at least seen people like this, that won't wear the same clothes that someone else is wearing. There's something about being the "only one" is truly fascinating to people. Everyone wants to be a little different. Whether its a pair of shoes, that new baseball bat, or a magical sword in a virtual game, its funny the lengths that people will go to to have something that no one else has. There are even stories of people buying virtual properties for $100,000.
While this may seem a little crazy it is quite a common occurrence for players in these online games to trade virtual items for real money, albeit not at astronomic prices like previously mentioned. Some people, like myself, may wonder why someone would pay money that they have worked hard for in return for a few pixels on a screen. The answer is really one word. Exclusivity. The same notion that drives up the prices of things like classic cars and jewels, tangible items, has jumped from reality into virtual reality.
Really this is not so surprising given the fact that the instigators of this are from the tangible world, humans. So it only makes since that if a person would pay multiple millions of dollars for a car that will never be driven, and perhaps like the Ferrari of Cameron's dad (in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") and only rubbed down with a diaper, that a person would also pay a few hundred, maybe thousand, dollars for pixelated horse dung. Right?
Cameron: The 1961 Ferrari 250GT California. Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion.
Ferris: It is his fault he didn't lock the garage.
Ferris: It is his fault he didn't lock the garage.
Cameron: Ferris, my father loves this car more than life itself.
Ferris: A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile.
[Ferris caresses the car in admiration]
Cameron: No. No! Apparently, you don't understand!
Ferris: [ignoring Cameron] Wow.
Cameron: Ferris, he never drives it! He just rubs it with a diaper!
Ferris: A man with priorities so far out of whack doesn't deserve such a fine automobile.
[Ferris caresses the car in admiration]
Cameron: No. No! Apparently, you don't understand!
Ferris: [ignoring Cameron] Wow.
Cameron: Ferris, he never drives it! He just rubs it with a diaper!
www.imdb.com
I really like where you took this post; I am in complete agreement in wondering why people purchase strange items (like altered horse manure) in a world that technically doesn't even exist. Oh well, maybe someday I will eventually catch up with this strange obsession.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, good choice of a movie. I loved watching Ferris Bueller as a kid.
I agree with your idea that scarcity and exclusivity is applies universially to economies, whether they be virtual or real. It's amazing to think about what we will do to obtain somethings just because others can't have it. I guess that says something about human nature though.
ReplyDeleteI can see buying a virtual horse because it looks good, Magellan, or gives some advantage for in-game combat. But manure?
ReplyDeleteSomeone is laughing all the way to the virtual back on that one :)
Scarcity is key. But I'd rather buy and sell rare cars as a hobby than to, ahem, buy and sell rare poop.