One article this week that really stuck out to me was, “The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer”. The article discussed the economics behind the growing and expanding jobs inside “game workshops”. In massive multiplayer online games, such as World of Warcraft, it is very common for there to be upgrades in the game that cost real currency. These in-game additional upgrades, along with the obsessive nature of online video game players in general, has created a uniquely large market and economy for post-purchase sales in online games. Li Qiwen is first introduced in the article as a shirtless, chain-smoking man who spends tweleve hours a night, seven nights a week playing world of warcraft, farming gold. Li makes about three cents an hour. Todays virtual economics generate anywhere from seven billion to twelve billion gross domestic product, that is more than Bolivia. The line of work and play are blurring more and more everyday. This made me think about the “wiesure” lifestyle and how it is blowing up and growing all around us.
The article, “How Meeting In Second Life Transformed IBM’s Technology Elite Into Virtual World Believers” discussed how IBM decided to hold press conferences in Second Life. This was a very interesting article to me because it made me really think about the future and what the work place may look like when we (current students) reach the working world. Related to the “wiesure” lifestyle as seen above, the line between work and leisure are blurring as we are not required to go into a cubicle any longer to get work done. It is much more cost effective and easier to get everyone in one virtual place than in a physical real world place. Furthermore, besides the fact that I, after using Second Life for months now, see Second Life as a viable option to hold meetings; I believe it is a huge step towards that because the leaders of our technology have been impressed and accepting of the virtual meetings space. I believe that there is just too many benefits to meeting in the virtual world for it to be ignored. Also in the future as technology gets better, I can see specialized virtual world for businesses – something like a Second Life meets GoToMeeting.com
Both of these articles made me think about the future of the work and economy. With things becoming more and more virtual everyday, I may be possible that on day everyone is working from home and all companies use distributed work. Further more the creation of new jobs is something else that will be coming about soon in the future. The “gold mining” in World of Warcraft is not the only virtual job out there. As we saw in the Life 2.0 documentary people on Second Life are making money making houses and clothes and similar things are happing in tons of virtual worlds and online games everywhere. The virtual economy is huge and booming and there is no denying how much it has grown and will continue to grow.
