A few years back, I read an article in the Utne Reader where an economist analyzed the game Everquest. His conclusion was that based on the value of Everquest gold (in USD - apparently people sell resources online) Everquest could be a nation with a fully thriving economy.
It looks like World of Warcraft is heading the same way.
Last week, VideoGamesBlogger wrote:
Blizzard Entertainment announced today that World of Warcraft, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), is now played by more than 9 million gamers around the world.
That’s half a million more than the number of monthly players WoW had back in March five months ago. And all this before the release of the World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion pack in mainland China, which Blizzard expects to give a huge increase in gold farmers, no wait they didn’t say that, they said an increase in new and returning subscribers.
It’s interesting to note that if the World of Warcraft were a nation, CIA’s World Factbook says that out of 236 listed countries it would be the 90th most populated country on Earth above Haiti, but behind Sweden.
[Hat tip to Slashdot for the article tip.]
I would really love to see a demographics study on World of Warcraft - with so many gamers, I would love to see how people identify themselves and their backgrounds.
