Midterms, Buying, and Selling

Midterms have come and gone, and a second round is coming soon for some of us. Annie is one of the lucky few! Given this, she has been quite busy lately. This has not prevented her from logging on to earn virtual gold, however. In WoW, items collected by the player through their interactions in the world can be sold to other players, and most items found are of some value to someone. In this sense, it is much like the real world. Also the like the real world, WoW has an economy. And in the time of midterms, Annie has discovered a way to exploit the WoW economy to continue earning her upkeep.

I logged on one day to realize that my level 70 (maximum level) character has less money than Annie's level 44 character. Much to my dismay, I realize that she also has not been logging much time playing, given that she has needed to study for various tests lately. When I asked her how she earned all her cash, she gave me a fairly short explanation on how easy it was, and how she just logs on a for a couple minutes per day to do a few simple things. Astounded, I implored her to elaborate.

Apparently, in her experiences within the game so far, she has realized that certain items she collects sell best under two conditions: 1.) there arn't very many of them currently on the market, and 2.) it is a time of the week that has quite a few players online. Following these two conditions, she proceeded to buy up all of the items that she knew normally sell for a certain amount, especially those she saw being sold cheaply. Then, she waited until the weekends when many players are online, and sold them all off. The end result was just slightly under double the amount of money she put into it. And she did all this in just a few minutes per day.

The question is not necessarily why this works, or how this works, but more how did Annie figure it out? Or more specifically, why Annie? She has no experienced playing online games, and she has little idea the scope of what items are particularly valuable to player, and for what reasons. She is, however, extremely smart. Like deadly smart. Like, I embarrass myself around her, smart.

In fact, many players have to consult online guides in order to figure out how to manipulate the virtual world in the manner that Annie has. I would assume that most players have to consult an outside source, either a guide or another player, in order to figure out the strategy that Annie is using to make money. She is using simple economic theories of the marketplace in order to sell her items. First, she is buying items at a low price, and selling them at a high price. Second, she is choosing to sell her items at a time that gives her a market advantage. However, Annie is not an Economics major, nor does she particularly enjoy economics.

Perhaps, it is her inexperience with virtual worlds that is giving her the advantage. Since games like WoW, called massively multiplayer online role playing games, or MMORPGs, have been around for many years, many players are multiple generation users -- that is to say, they have a played several MMOs, for several years each. When a user has this kind of experience, they tend to interact with each game in similar ways -- the way that one kills monsters and gains levels in one game is very similar to other games. But a strategy that works in one game, or a theory that works in one game, may or may not work in the other. People who have this type of experience seem to be blinded by the fact that there are many theories and ideas of the actual world that apply to virtual worlds.

honestly, I haven't quite figured out the extent of this phenomenon regarding the interaction between experience, virtual worlds, and the actual world. It is obvious, however, that Annie's advantage comes from the her application of her knowledge, and that she is able to apply her knowledge because she recognizes the virtual world of WoW as similar to the actual world in certain aspects, in particular the economy. She provides an interesting example regarding why some players apply their knowledge, and some don't.