Virtual Economies

Virtual economies has facinated me for the past year or so.  I knew they existed clear back in 2000, when I first heard of them because I had some friends who played Everquest and sold their avatars for hundreds of dollars.

I'll admit to the fact I play a little FarmVille on facebook for a few minutes each day just as something fun to do.  I've watched (sometimes in pain-staking agony) as the game has evolved over the last six months.  It's designed so if you want a head start or simply not wait, you can pay REAL money for the privilege to expedite  a process/building, or to simply purchase items ONLY available with "FarmVille cash", which you acquire only when you level up (and even then it's only in increments of one).  Zynga (the producers of FarmVille) is in it for the money, not to please its gamers by developing improvements to enhance user enjoyment.

Virtual economy spending will amount to nearly $2 billion this year and next year it's expected to reach $2.6 billion! In a recent article I read (found in the "spending" link above) that one report shows a virtual game player paid $330,000 REAL dollars for an imaginary space station in a virtual world!

I'm thinking I should learn some additional programming and manage a team to make the next big & highly addictive virtual world/game.  There's potential big money in this area!