Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games

by Edward Castronova (Author)

29 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0226096261

ISBN-10: 0226096262

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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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“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)

About the Author

Edward Castronova is associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, where he specializes in the economic and social impact of multiplayer online video games.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University Of Chicago Press (November 13, 2005)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 344 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226096262
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226096261
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.35 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,063,582 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,367 in Video & Computer Games
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- #29,801 in Computer Science (Books)

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Eric Jain

Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games

Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2008

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This book was written for people who have heard about online "synthetic" (the author avoids using the over-hyped term "virtual") online worlds such as "World of Warcraft" or "Second Life", and are curious, but assume it's just some nerds in basements, not tens of millions of "ordinary" people engaged in near-billion dollar economies.

If you already have a rough idea of what's going on (you don't need to be an active "citizen" in any of these worlds for that), then the book doesn't have all that much to offer, though there is a great chapter on economics that discusses strategies for avoiding inflation ("MUDflation"), and the chapter on politics may stimulate some thoughts.

The book could have been more interesting if the author had been able to go into more detail and compare different online economies, and get an insider's perspective on why it is that things are the way the are (incl. failed experiments etc). I'd also have liked to see a less shallow discussion of the psychology behind all of this -- is the reason people kill each other online when they can just because that's the nature of humans, and is the reason South Koreans are way ahead online simply down to bandwidth rather than cultural differences?

The book is also (inevitably) a bit outdated. The author frequently mentions how virtual items are traded on Ebay; Ebay prohibited sales of items from World of Warcraft and EverQuest beginning of 2007. There is no mention of the "farming" phenomenon. And I was surprised that the book didn't mention Second Life (which I'd imagine should be more interesting than most fantasy worlds from an economist's point of view) much except in passing.

3 people found this helpful

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Time Traveler 00001

Still Relevant

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2014

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Castronova's ground breaking book remains at the top-- even after all these years-- as a must read for anyone interested in virtual worlds and the implications and promise they hold for man. So much can be learned here. And while one would think that an economics professor would write to bore, that isn't the case. The book flows well and cannot be put down.

While "dated" in the larger scheme of publications, Castronova's masterpiece remains relevant to this day. A difficult feat in the world of technology but a testament to how far ahead of his time he was.

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Katrina Peterson

Nothing I didn't already know

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2011

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I feel like this is a good book but wasn't an enjoyable read like I thought it would be. Having played MMO's for the last 7 years it didn't contain much I didn't already know. I gave it to my mom and she understood a lot more about why I was playing after she did so. I guess it served it's purpose.

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Raul Santiago Zapata

The bible for designing a breathing world

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2009

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Castronova goes beyond the ideas of Virtual Reality equipment to surrender into practical virtual reality, a much more powerful and doable technology.

One of the most important chapters, worth reading and reading again if you are into designing a highly interactive virtual world, is no doubt Chapter 8 (The economics of fun), where Mr. Castronova uses all of is formal economics knowledge and mixes it with the dynamics of virtual worlds, landing into a concise list of things to have in mind for your virtual world economy.

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Anon

A stranger in a strange land.

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2012

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This is a very long scientific paper of basic observations about new and unknown world of games. Writer is uncomfortable, a stranger in a strange land.

If you are looking for the big picture view of the industry and the brave foresight into the future of game world and it's effects of social structure of society - read the second book by the author "Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality." One can question the predictions, but admire the courage to recognize the changes to come.

But, if you are doing an academic research you may find lots of detailed and structured information on the game design elements and factors.

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Hello

Perhaps Worth a Read, but Out of Touch and Out of Date

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2010

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The author offers some interesting perspective, but only if you are unfamiliar with online gaming and social media. This book is very out of date now (published in 2004). 6 years isn't usually too terrible for a book, but when the entire foundation of the book is based around technology, especially social media and gaming, this book lost its relevance quickly.

It certainly did not help that I did not choose to read this, but rather read it to fulfill a class requirement. However, being an avid user of social media for both business and personal use and a player of online games I felt this book was terribly dated and would have only been useful to people who knew very little about the book's topic in 2004. Today this book would not educate anyone very well.

2 people found this helpful

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Kron

A Virtual Gem

Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2005

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Dr. Ted Castronova is a remarkable man with startlingly clear vision and profound insight into an increasingly important aspect of modern society, the blending of the real world with synthetic worlds. It is an amalgam that will doubtlessly endure and thrive, and which Dr. Castronova explores and explains in a way that's as fun and intriguing as his subject. Whether you're just virtual-curious or a true believer, time spent reading this book is time well spent. Wish I'd written it.

3 people found this helpful

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Brandon Davis, Ph.D.

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2015

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Great book; arrived in good time!

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Devi

A definitve background account

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 3, 2009

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An essential text that has already become a classic, addressing the issues arising in MMORPGs and MUDs, most of which apply directly to the fundamentals of the more recent 'goal-free' worlds such as Second Life. Castronova writes as a senior economics academic, and deals with all the relevant issues of the synthetic world economy and its relationship to the non-synthetic world. Along the way he successfully establishes and defends a position that asserts the mutual interpenetration of synthetic and non-synthetic worlds, based on the widely-accepted utility (subjective) definition of the value of goods and services offered in a marketplace. Thus, an artefact created within Second Life and sold for the same final bid alongside non-synthetic articles on e-Bay is as real and as valuable as they are: within the economist's definition of value, identical. Text 283pp, Appendix 10pp, Notes 16pp, References 7pp, Index 14pp. It could have been dry but it is emphatically not so; a fascinating account, told with humour and insight.

4 people found this helpful

R. A. S. Brown

Explains virtual worlds well

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 6, 2006

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Ed Castranova is probably the best known academic who writes about virtual worlds and Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games. These include the big online fantasy games such as Everquest and World of Warcaft, where thousands of people go and adventure together in lavish 3D worlds, as well as the more creative virtual playgrounds such as Second Life and Project Entropia, where people can more or less create whatever virtual objects they like and possibly make a real living from it.

In his first proper book on the subject, he refers back to his very first paper where he argued how the `residents' of Everquest were more productive in real dollar terms than the residents of some real countries. This brought him international fame and now many other academics are now researching the subject.

From this basis he describes what makes a virtual world, looking at the design, the technology, the in-game economy, the social aspects and possible futures for the genre. I find Castranova a very accessible writer and found this book very interesting. People who are knowledgeable about the subject may not find too much they didn't know already but nevertheless it's a good read for anyone interested in the subject.

7 people found this helpful

dazro

ヴァーチャルな現実の経済

Reviewed in Japan on March 18, 2007

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経済学を専門とし、当初は、名も知られていなかった経済ライターが、オンラインゲーム（正確にはMMORPG）の経済と現実社会との関係、インパクトに気づき、それを起点に述べたものだが、この本は、ちょっとした思いつきで、ジャーナリズムがとりあげるようなレベルを越えて、ヴァーチャルな経済が、まじめに経済学の対象として扱える可能性を感じるだろう。この本の出版後には、Second Lifeのような、通常のゲームとは異なるヴァーチャルな世界もでてきているので、このような未発達な経済は、さらに経済としても発展していくだろう。この本は文字数が多いので、和訳されるチャンスは少ないかもしれないが、そうだったら残念。

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