Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (Hardcover)

by Edward Castronova (Author)
Key Phrases: special ale, game site, derivative content, Star Wars Galaxies, United States, Ultima Online (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations."--Tim Harford, Chronicle of Higher Education (Tim Harford Chronicle of Higher Education )

Product Description

From EverQuest to World of Warcraft, online games have evolved from the exclusive domain of computer geeks into an extraordinarily lucrative staple of the entertainment industry. People of all ages and from all walks of life now spend thousands of hours—and dollars—partaking in this popular new brand of escapism. But the line between fantasy and reality is starting to blur. Players have created virtual societies with governments and economies of their own whose currencies now trade against the dollar on eBay at rates higher than the yen. And the players who inhabit these synthetic worlds are starting to spend more time online than at their day jobs.

In Synthetic Worlds, Edward Castronova offers the first comprehensive look at the online game industry, exploring its implications for business and culture alike. He starts with the players, giving us a revealing look into the everyday lives of the gamers—outlining what they do in their synthetic worlds and why. He then describes the economies inside these worlds to show how they might dramatically affect real world financial systems, from potential disruptions of markets to new business horizons. Ultimately, he explores the long-term social consequences of online games: If players can inhabit worlds that are more alluring and gratifying than reality, then how can the real world ever compete? Will a day ever come when we spend more time in these synthetic worlds than in our own? Or even more startling, will a day ever come when such questions no longer sound alarmist but instead seem obsolete?

With more than ten million active players worldwide—and with Microsoft and Sony pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into video game development—online games have become too big to ignore. Synthetic Worlds spearheads our efforts to come to terms with this virtual reality and its concrete effects.

“Illuminating. . . . Castronova’s analysis of the economics of fun is intriguing. Virtual-world economies are designed to make the resulting game interesting and enjoyable for their inhabitants. Many games follow a rags-to-riches storyline, for example. But how can all the players end up in the top 10%? Simple: the upwardly mobile human players need only be a subset of the world's population. An underclass of computer-controlled 'bot' citizens, meanwhile, stays poor forever. Mr. Castronova explains all this with clarity, wit, and a merciful lack of academic jargon.”—The Economist
 
“Synthetic Worlds is a surprisingly profound book about the social, political, and economic issues arising from the emergence of vast multiplayer games on the Internet. What Castronova has realized is that these games, where players contribute considerable labor in exchange for things they value, are not merely like real economies, they are real economies, displaying inflation, fraud, Chinese sweatshops, and some surprising in-game innovations.”—Tim Harford, Chronicle of Higher Education

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (November 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226096262
• ISBN-13: 978-0226096261
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #658,379 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different tack than I expected..., November 15, 2005

By	Sean G "Sean G" (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews

I expected something a little more "rigorous" from Dr. Ed. I believe though that he takes an excellent first swipe at virtual worlds.

For people already playing these games the first 50 or so pages are boring. But he obviously covers this material so that even lay people can quickly be brought up to speed on his other topics. He sometimes slips back into these rudimentary explanations but I believe it is an effort to help the larger market.

He covers a wide variety of topics in this book. Discussions of property rights within VR worlds, violence within VR worlds, and the actual value of VR money and items. The variety of topics leads to a slight rambling feel in the book and some thiness on the arguements. However, I thought everything was adequately covered. I was looking for something of a "truer" economic discussion of synthetic worlds but he teased me. He does write an explanation, and defense, of synthetic economies and problems within them. For me though, I thought this was going to be all 300 or so pages when it was just about 75.

If there were more books like this published I would have given him 3 stars but since this is going to be the start in a long, long, long series of books I will give him 4 for breaking ground. He probably should have milked the material for two books. :)

If you have play these games and have and a tidbit of economics in you then buy the book and enjoy. I am going to read his papers now in an effort to get that fix.

Sean

26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Face of Gaming explored inSynthetic Worlds, October 17, 2005

By	Robert E. Murena Jr. "tedmurena" (Fairfield, CT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I first came across DR. Castranova after reading a paper he had written on the cost variance between male and female Avatars (characters) sold on Ebay for the game "Everquest". As a recovering ex-gamer I found this material interesting. Anyone who has ever played a game that is within a synthetic world should understand exactly how engrossing they are.

(A Synthetic World is a gaming landscape that is always running in which gamers can interact with each other and play within a virtual reality that has loose rules and the characters can nearly do whatever they want)

Dr. Castranova's book "Synthetic Worlds" explores the new technology of role playing games set within these virtual realities and what they mean to the players and to society at large. It all started in the later 90's when the video game classic Ultima was created as "Ultima Online". From then on there have been more and increasingly complex virtual world games including "Everquest" and "World of Warcraft". Gamers who want to have good characters in these games can play for many hours and build their warriors, mages etc into powerful players OR they can buy them on Ebay. This is one way in which the game world has real world implications. But on a deeper note it seems that gamers many of whom put in many hours a day within these synthetic worlds, often seem to care more for their synthetic life than their actual one. There are several problems with this and while the majority of people can cope with the separation of synthetic and actual worlds there are a few that cannot. Either way these synthetic worlds have become a great new form of escapism that lets the user do things they could never do in a very real feeling way.

Castranova further looks into the video game industry and poses the question of what happens when the gaming company cannot make money on the game any longer and wishes to "pull the plug" on the synthetic world. Obviously people would be annoyed and he suggests that possibly the game could be turned over to the players but this too poses difficulties.

I found this book to be a very interesting read and as we spend more time in front of computer interfaces each day I think we can all learn something about they way we interact with technology from reading this book. Certainly reading about the gamers themselves is very enlightening and anyone interested in the way people escape will also find this an interesting read. I think anyone interested in sociology or technology will find this book worthwhile.

Ted Murena

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eh...alright, November 9, 2006

By	Maverynthia "book detective" (Savannah, GA) - See all my reviews

it's good for what it is, though the author writes it as a term paper for college "This is what the chapter is about..." exactly like that. Lots of dryness there, lots of facts. It's also mostly focused on the Economy of and existing in MMO, not so much the culture people are thinking of (dating, avatars selection, gender bending, etc.) or how MMO's are ran as a buisness.