Virtual worlds?

One of the arguments against space tourism as a long-term market is that as the VW technology advances, the real thing may actually be viewed as boring compared to the possibilities offered by programmable realities. I suspect that this will be true to some limited degree (particularly given the cost differential of doing things in cyberspace as opposed to meat space), but I'm sure that there will always be "Luddites" who refuse to hide in virtual worlds, protected from real consequences, but will prefer to go out and test their bodies and senses against the real thing.

Look on the bright side Rand. The Socialists will finally have a world of their own where their system convincingly appears to function.

Market studies have shown that introduction of extreme sports video games _increased_ the level of participation in actual extreme sports, not decreased. With that said, I played EVE-On-line a few times recently and those things can be a _huge_ time suck.

Look on the bright side Rand. The Socialists will finally have a world of their own where their system convincingly appears to function.

The most successful MMORPG, WoW, is rather capitalist, actually, both internally and in its emergent interactions with the real world (gold farming, outsourcing leveling up of low level characters, raid assist services, and so on.) Earlier MMORPGs demonstrated basic economic principles such as the relation of the money supply to inflation.

I believe this is the answer to the "Where are the aliens?" question. The technology required for practical interstellar travel exceeds that for generating your own custom VR worlds. Old news, of course to the the folks who did the Star Trek pilot episode.

Michael, I agree with you about Eve On_line being a time hole. But it doesn't have to be; the training system is in my opinion a whole lot better than the absolutely necessary grinding in most MMORPGs.

Mr Anonymous, some MMOs are a wonderful illustration of capitalism at work. Or can be; quite a lot of guilds, in several games (including EVE) work on a communistic basis. This is rather easier to do, of course, when your basic living costs are zero as in most of these games. However, EVE in particular would in my opinion form a useful part of economics courses. Its economic system, although of course simplified, is the most realistic I've seen.

Including the risk vs. profit calculation. Of course, the risk is different; some of the risks in business in MMOs include getting killed. Equally of course, in most of these games getting killed isn't permanent. :)

Well Wow certainly doesn't have much punishment for death. Asheron's Call however had a nasty punishment where you were resurrected at a graveyard nearly naked and weaponless. In order to get all your gear back you had to run all the way back to grab all your loot off your corpse. Really painful if you died at the bottom of a difficult dungeon.

Wow's success has developed in part because of a good balance between simple arcade action and intricate life simulation. Your character has a maximum of 60 possible levels. At lower levels you progress quickly with a high degree of satisfaction for completing some very interesting story line quests. The higher you get the more it requires the help of friends and turns more into a time-sink of activities where you have to farm (x) number of (y) so that you can eventually craft item (z) which is needed to defeat boss/dungeon (a). So, in fact WoW transgresses multiple types of game styles as you progress through the game. Starting off as an easy fix of rock cocaine candy. Then, unwittingly transforms into a monotonous clicking experience akin to a game of Wack-a-mole. Once you realize this you feel guilty because you've invested so much time already and why stop now. Then, you finally give up in frustration when you realize that you have to assemble a 20 man group to run the same 5 hour dungeon 30 times just so you can find 10 piles of fairy dust so this dumb-ass dwarf will finally give you the key you need to progress to the next dungeon -- rinse repeat.

The one thing that I can't overcome about MMO's is that you have to pay to play. Not only do you buy the game in the box but then you have to hand over an account number just so you can then continue to waste your life and hard earned money grinding for a virtual sword of ultimate power. Find the power up, win the game, die broke and fat.