Academic Economist Studies Everquest

So this somewhat failed economist got hooked on Everquest (an online fantasy based role-playing game). He suddenly had this brainstorm that because Everquest items were being sold for real currency that he could legitamately apply economic theory to the online world. It's as though Everquest is another country with its own internal economy and industry. He did some calculations and got some interesting results. He averaged some online to real transactions and calculated an exchange rate of about 100 EQ platinum pieces(PP) to 1 USD. That makes EQPP a stronger currency than the Japanese Yen! Average EQ player income about 3.50 USD/hour. Better than minimum wage a lot of places. It turns out that Everquest is about the 77th strongest economy in the world!

It's a very long article but well worth the read if you're interested in online games. Here is the professor's professional page and a list of publications you can download and read.

This was covered on Slashdot today, too so sorry if this is redundant for you slashdorks.