The Currency of Everquest

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The Currency of Everquest

• Platinum Pieces

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What is Everquest

• MMORPG
  Massively Multiplayer Online Game
• 400,000 Players Globally
• Virtual World
• Be a Adventurer, Blacksmith,
• Role-player, Whatever
• 12 Monthly Fee

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The Currency

• 4 Denominations
• Copper / Silver / Gold / Platinum
• Semi-Common Expensive Items Sometimes Have
  Universal Values
• - FBSS / SMR / RBB
• 5k 7k 10k Platinum Pieces
• Everything in-game is measured by Platinum
  Pieces
• Implemented by Everquests makers from the games
  start

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Obtaining Money and Items

• Obtaining Money
• - Killing things that drop coins
  Primary way of putting new money into
  circulation
• - Crafting Item, Doing Quests
• Slow, secondary way

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Obtaining Money and Items

• Obtaining Items
• Killing specific things, Doing Quests
• Slower and harder to do than getting money

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Storage of Value

• With each new expansion old items tend to drop
  dramatically in value
• Items Short Term Value, Depreciate
• Platinum Long Term Value - Preferred

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Similarities to Real Money

• Stored in virtual banks
• Retains value over time
• Easily traded
• Fiat Money No Backing
• Durable
• Widely accepted in the issuing nation
• Easily Divisible
• Amount in circulation is controlled

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Controlled Money Supply

• Money is introduced through killing things and
  crafting items
• Money is removed through players buying from
  computer-controlled vendors
• Often, players dont buy enough
• Money Going In gt Money Going Out
• Inflation

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Removing Excess Money Money Sinks

• One-Time Expenditures
• - Investing in skills, Teleporting
  players
• Consumable Items
• - Food, Item coloring, Spell components
• Effect Destroys Large Chunks of Money

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• Large group of people (400,000)
• Buying / Trading / Selling w/ Platinum!
• Happy and Healthy Virtual Currency!

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Bad Sides ?

• Counterfeiting - Duping
• Creating a 1 to 1 copy of a block of currency
• Detection
• Digital IDs Serial Number
• Difficult to track down
• Scamming Stealing, Fraud, Identify Theft

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So What

• It is just a game right?

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Real World Implications

• Auctioning of items and money
• Ebay.com
• Playerauctions.com

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Real World Implications

• Actual Online Stores
• MySuperSales.com
• IGE.com

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25 Items per Page 30 Pages 43 Servers 32250
Items
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Study by Castronova

• Exchange rate
• 1 Platinum .0107 Dollars or 1 Penny or
• About 1 Japanese Yen
• Players make 3.42/hour
• Overall, about 15,000/hour is created
• GNP 135 Million
• Makes EQ 77th richest nation

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Study by Castronova

• Many people play over 80 hours/week
• At 3.42/hour 12,000 a year
• 12,000 is above poverty line in the US
• 1 Member Family 9,310
• 2 Member Family 12,490
• Majority of calculations were done with respect
  to the Platinum Piece

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Study by Castronova

• Average player
• 20 Year-old Male
• Working Full Time
• Well Educated (High school diploma)
• 20/hour
• 35 are students
• Voluntary, possibly detrimental

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Overview

• The Platinum Piece exists only on computers in
  San Diego
• Not backed
• Retain value over time (for now)
• Fair number of people (400,000)
• Controlled Circulation

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Big Picture

• Currency needs no backing
• Anything can be currency or have value
• Even in virtual worlds, currency helps form
  economies
• This virtual currency has a decent exchange rate
• MMORPGs are rapidly gaining popularity
• - Future effects?

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Questions?