“The In-Game Economics of Ultima Online”, 1999-04-07 ():
Ultima Online (UO) is a popular online computer role-playing game created and maintained by Origin Systems [‘Broadsword’ as of 2014]. Subscribers to UO gather online and interact with one another in a medieval fantasy world. One interesting aspect of this game is the inter-player economy which is analyzed in detail in this paper.
In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy—goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currency or barter. In other ways, the economy is alien; for example, some commodity prices are determined by a robotic simulation of business profit motivation. These quirky rules will be described in Chapter 3 to ensure that the reader appreciates the entire economic environment of the game.
The economy is highly planned by the game designers; this includes everything from the possible items which can be manufactured to the rules which govern supply and demand. However, the economy did not behave as expected in many ways. It is these failures and the resulting redesigns which are most interesting and which we will examine in detail in Chapter 5.
This paper begins with an introduction to the virtual universe for those that are unfamiliar. We then turn to the economy and describe the micro and macro elements of it in detail.
This is followed by an analysis of the evolution of the economy—what went wrong, and how it was fixed.
Finally, the paper concludes with a proposal for several specific research topics.
The goal of this research is to provide information for the design of new virtual worlds as well as use the virtual world as a platform for investigating real world economic phenomena. This is a particularly exciting research field as it will allow the researcher complete measurement and variable control while still operating in a non-trivial economy.
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