Play Money

Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
Cover of the book Play Money by Julian Dibbell, Basic Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Julian Dibbell ISBN: 9780465003679
Publisher: Basic Books Publication: March 9, 2007
Imprint: Basic Books Language: English
Author: Julian Dibbell
ISBN: 9780465003679
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication: March 9, 2007
Imprint: Basic Books
Language: English

Play Money explores the remarkable new phenomenon of MMORPGs, or Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games, in which hundreds of thousands of players operate fantasy characters in virtual environments. With city-sized populations, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world. The desire for virtual goods-magic swords, enchanted breastplates, and special, hard-to-get elixirs-has spawned a cottage industry of “virtual loot farmers”: people who play the games just to obtain fantasy goods that they can sell in the real world. The best loot farmers can make between six figures a year and six figures a month. Play Money is an extended walk on the weird side: a vivid snapshot of a subculture whose denizens were once the stuff of mere sociological spectacle but now-with computer gaming poised to eclipse all otherentertainments in dollar volume, and with the lines between play and work, virtual and real increasingly blurred-look more and more like the future.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Play Money explores the remarkable new phenomenon of MMORPGs, or Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games, in which hundreds of thousands of players operate fantasy characters in virtual environments. With city-sized populations, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world. The desire for virtual goods-magic swords, enchanted breastplates, and special, hard-to-get elixirs-has spawned a cottage industry of “virtual loot farmers”: people who play the games just to obtain fantasy goods that they can sell in the real world. The best loot farmers can make between six figures a year and six figures a month. Play Money is an extended walk on the weird side: a vivid snapshot of a subculture whose denizens were once the stuff of mere sociological spectacle but now-with computer gaming poised to eclipse all otherentertainments in dollar volume, and with the lines between play and work, virtual and real increasingly blurred-look more and more like the future.

More books from Basic Books

Cover of the book Comeback Cities by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Blended by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book The Tinkerers by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Breathless by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book The Sh!t No One Tells You About Pregnancy by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book What We Talk About When We Talk About Books by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Quantum Mechanics by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Rats in the Grain by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Words and Rules by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Dreams of El Dorado by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Body Positive Power by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Triangular Road by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Powering the Future by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Borderland by Julian Dibbell
Cover of the book Postethnic America by Julian Dibbell
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy