Edward Castronova is an Associate Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is an expert on the economies of virtual worlds and wrote Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games in 2005. His new book Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality will be published shortly by Palgrave Macmillan. Mark Bell is a PhD student in the Telecommunications program at Indiana University. His research emphasis is online social networks, synthetic worlds, digital narratives, collective knowledge, tagging and folksonomy. He is currently writing Second Life for Dummies due for publication in 2008. In their joint contribution to receiver they take a look at the fun, the money and the friendships synthetic worlds have to offer.

http://mypage.iu.edu/~castro/home.html
Castronova's site

http://www.storygeek.com
Mark Bell's site

Artwork for this article by Silard Ozorak

You've had a hard day at work. The boss yelled at you. You broke the zipper in your pants and spilled your lunch on your shirt. Some guy flipped you off on the highway. Your apartment is cramped and claustrophobic. You'd like to get away but that jerk of a boss doesn't pay you enough to really take a vacation. What's the solution to your woes? Escape into a virtual world.

Millions of people around the globe have chosen to leave at least part of the drudgery of the real world behind and begin again in worlds where the above inconveniences don't have to be tolerated. There's an axe at hand to dispatch them. And those stained up clothes? Well, you won't have to worry about what fits, what it costs, and you'll always look your best. Why spend your time in a little apartment when you can build your own mansion or hang out in a guildhall, swigging tankards of beer with your closest friends? But there's more than escape to be had in these digital landscapes. You can learn new skills, start a business, or meet the love of your life. It may sound hokey but synthetic worlds like Second Life, World of Warcraft, and Eve Online are offering millions of people a year the chance to do just that. Escape, start over, or reinvent themselves … and they're worth a look.

With the increase in graphics and processing power and the decrease in cost, today's personal computers are incredibly powerful gates to these exciting online worlds. The world of Tolkien is a CD away in Lord of the Rings Online. A cooperative space station filled with interesting explorers waits in Entropia Universe, sword-wielding knights on horseback rule Dark Age of Camelot and you can be super hero (or a super villain, for that matter) in City of Heroes.

Your avatar, a word originating from Sanskrit meaning "god on earth", is your embodiment in the synthetic world. It could be a dwarf with a long beard, or a hairy-footed Hobbit, or a tall, Barbie-esque bombshell. Virtual Worlds allow you to take on a new identity and are attracting new users like moths to a flame. In Second Life, for example, you can, with a click of your mouse, become a bouncy brunette or a hulking muscle-bound hunk. Make your own clothes using graphics software like Photoshop and completely customize your look. But it's more than just looking good. There are tasks to accomplish and adventures to be had.

Ever get tired of wondering if you're doing a good job at work? Your boss doesn't give you a pat on the back when you finish a big project. There's no cash in your hand at the end of the day. That all changes when you enter a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) like World of Warcraft. Finish a mission and you'll get instant rewards of new skills, weapons, and magic items. Instant gratification for a job well done might sound trite but, believe me, it's pretty satisfying when you compare it with the struggles of your day job.

Unlike the pub on the corner where you run into the same old folks night after night, in a synthetic world you can run rampant with a pack of global cronies from every corner of the world. From doctors in New York, to students in Mexico City, to a barber from Liverpool, the crowd is diverse, interesting and engaged. Residents of synthetic worlds are global citizens who just might take a break from slaying a dragon to talk about their real life businesses and make real connections. And unlike the mix of networking and play in the real world, no one has to break a sweat, hit a ball, or wear funny pants. Whether it's a real company in Second Life or a cooperative effort to save the virtual world in Entropia, residents of synthetic worlds are making real world connections while they play.

We know. You've heard that social synthetic worlds like Second Life are just full of degenerates who want to gamble, cross dress, and have sex. Hmm … doesn't that happen in the real world too? It's true that there is some aberrant behavior but this doesn't define the space as a whole so don't be put off. There's tons of great fun to be had visiting the virtual Eiffel Tower, scuba diving on a coral reef, or shopping for new clothes. Don't let the negative hype deter you from jumping in and checking it out for yourself.

And don't think that these spaces are just occupied by a bunch of computer geeks who have no social skills. These worlds are full of CEOs, housewives, academics, and even the girl next door. Yes, there are women in these worlds too! Second Life has even become a haven for academics striving to blow the walls off the traditional brick-and-mortar campus. Leaders in business, politics, and entertainment are paying attention to the possibilities offered by these spaces to reach a new generation of constituent, student, and consumer.

Synthetic Worlds Initiative

The economy

You have fought the giant fire demon with your band of players called a guild and finally won. As your team of 25 players lick their wounds and celebrate, you distribute the spoils. Your count of coins almost doubles. It is easy to see this as play money. This is far from the truth. If you run around WoW or another MMORPG long enough, you collect coins and begin to buy and sell things in the auction houses. The problem is you can't take your gold coins to a real world bank and pay your rent or buy cat food. Don’t dismiss all your virtual treasure so fast. Early in the century, the strangest things started popping up on auction sites like eBay: virtual goods. Say I made a character in EverQuest (an early MMORPG), but had reached the highest level and wanted to start a new character. Why not sell that character on eBay for real money? People started doing it and trading virtual currency. In Second Life, you can make virtual clothes, cars and just about anything. You sell those things to other residents and then cash your money out. Linden Lab, the company that runs Second Life, has a currency exchange built into its website and a small number of residents actually make enough money in the world to support their non-game lives.

Think about it, for roughly the price of a single movie ticket you can have hundreds of exciting hours of entertainment where you can become your own virtual mogul. You may work in a boring cubicle by day but at night you can run an haute couture fashion house in Second Life or lead an army into battle. You aren't going to get the thrill of selling something you made or being an intergalactic smuggler sitting in a seat eating your popcorn.

This new economy is beginning to grow. In 2001, EverQuest's Gross National Product was determined to be 2,266 USD per capita. This places it somewhere between Russia and Bulgaria in comparison. With several more online worlds bigger than EverQuest, virtual economies are exploding. In the month of August over 40,000 residents in Second Life spent between 10,001–50,000 Linden dollars (40–180 USD) and almost 7,000 residents spent between 370 and 1,800 USD. The LindeX has a volume of around 200,000 USD a day.

Banking, currency trading and stock markets have been popping up in these virtual worlds and have encountered success and scandal. Virtual economies are now catching the interest of business, investors, and regulators.

The Community

The question becomes: "why would you not do this?" Live the dream life you wanted to at little cost and a high excitement level. But aren't you sitting all alone with your computer? Ask a 14 year old about her WoW account and she will tell you her friends are both online and offline people. She will have friendships that include deep, intense talks with people she has never met face to face. Just because a guy looks like an undead ogre doesn't mean they aren’t friendly. This new social world is not a quirk or an anomaly, but what is becoming the norm. The membrane is allowing not only economic factors to seep through, but social and cultural ones as well. People all over the world are connecting in new ways through the technology moving from a calculation model to one of communication. Our children will grow up knowing people in Africa, Asia and Europe and see it as the norm. They will lose sight of geographical distance and explore cultures and people my grandfather had no chance of meeting. The new world offers limitless expanses of both digital and analog connection and understanding, and brings the world closer together. New social connections can overcome geography, culture, and sometimes even language. Most companies find a team of 25 unruly on a project, but in WoW guilds take part in raids every night creating a sense of group connection and goal achievement. The identities that form in these communities allow people to explore and play with their own identities. The world might not recognize your leadership skills, but you can learn and mature them in a virtual world and then apply them to the real world. All this can create a close, strong bond of friendship and community.

This article was written for receiver

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