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Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy, Making money

Elnia continues posting some interesting (and complicated) insight into the World of Warcraft over at the Pink Pigtail Inn. This time, it"s about what she calls "rent seeking," which isn"t about trying to find the money to pay for your apartment so much as it"s about individuals petitioning authorities (the government, or in this case Blizzard) for their own income. The post dabbles with some complicated market theory, but in the end, the conclusion is this: while players have definitely petitioned Blizzard for changes to their own class, they have generally stayed away from asking for more money, or changes to the rules that would grant it to them. In general, players are fine with Blizzard staying hands-off of the various in-game economies running in Azeroth.

As the commenters over there say, there"s a good reason for that, and it"s because most of the economic play in WoW is completely optional. Aside from repair costs (which can be high for raiders, but for everyone else are fairly inconsequential), you don"t really need money at all; given enough time, you can collect whatever you need from somewhere in the world, either by simply collecting ore or herbs, or by running instances and doing quests. But that doesn"t mean that the "rent seeking" comparison isn"t valid.

Continue reading Rent seeking (or lack thereof) in WoW

Rent seeking (or lack thereof) in WoW originally appeared on WoW.com on Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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