"Julian Dibbell's 'Play Money'... What A Fascinating Read!" 83 Pageviews...
Written: Dec 10 '07 (Updated Oct 22 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Remarkable journalism found in unlikely places.
Cons: Typos and extra words on page 65 and 66.
The Bottom Line: This is ideal reading for businessmen, economists, entrepreneurs, financiers, game designers, gaming players and lawyers.
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| sfarmer76's Full Review: Julian Dibbell - Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day... |
Play Money, $10.85 Amazon.com, is an enjoyable three hundred page softbound book from Indiana author Julian Dibbell. Prior to this particular effort, Dibbell also authored another non-fiction book entitled My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. Dibbell is currently a contributing editor for Wired magazine, and he’s also had several lengthy pieces published in Details, Harper’s, Le Monde, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Time, and the Village Voice.
Laughingly, Dibbell began selling virtual goods to members of online gaming communities – EverQuest, Final Fantasy, Star Wars Galaxies, Ultima Online, and World of Warcraft. – in hopes of developing a second career in early 2003. His goal was to get rich, document the process for a blog and book, and then exit. But while Dibbell started this venture optimistically – mingling with various weirdoes along the way – he lost his marriage due to this financial pursuit.
Aside from that downer, Dibbell’s book soars when examining legal implications of virtual economies. Dibbell introduces Blacksnow Interactive – a company that mined wealth from the in-game economy of Dark Age of Camelot early on in Chapter Two. Mythic Entertainment owns intellectual property rights to Dark Age of Camelot and frowned upon in-game items being auctioned on eBay. Soon thereafter, President Mark Jacobson called Meg Whitman and shut those auctions down. Prompting lawsuits.
You sense Dibbell was skeptical when he began writing about MMO economies in 2002. Dibbell discovered John Dugger had bought a virtual house (for $750) previously owned by Troy Stolle inside Britannia, the mythical world of Ultima Online. Dibbell couldn’t fathom why anyone would do this for a game, so he interviewed the 29-year-old Indianapolis construction worker that sold the house, and interviewed the 43-year-old Stillwater bread delivery man that bought the house.
Much of Play Money concentrates on the vagaries of play, work, and a condition called flow. Dibbell also introduces us to UOTreasures.com – reseller of second-hand items that mines wealth from the in-game economy of Ultima Online in Chapter Six. Bob Kiblinger, sole proprietor of UOTreasures.com, first spotted Stolle’s UO account for sale on eBay. He then bought the account for $500, split up the items, then sold Stolle’s virtual digs to Dugger for $750.
Of the people profiled here, West Virginian Kiblinger comes off as the most likable. It’s implied Kiblinger derives a six figure income off his online bartering, and that he has $15k tied up in “online inventory” at any given moment, but all of that could disappear at any given moment. For some reason though, Electronic Arts has chosen not to go after UOTreasures.com, unlike what happened between Mythic Entertainment and Blacksnow Interactive.
Next, Dibbell compares the imaginary gold of UO to e-gold’s gram. Launched in 1996, e-gold is one of six metal-backed currencies circulating online. Dibbell further compares the gold of UO to the Ithaca Hour, a paper currency launched in Ithaca during 1991 and backed by local labor. Finally, Dibbell compares the gold of UO to crypto cash – secure untraceable digital money proposed by mathematician David Chaum that lives on in finance geek sub communities.
Eventually, Kiblinger informs Dibbell of a suspicious gold devaluation, and both realize another player called Ingotdude is involved in “gold farming.” In short – Ingotdude was running a bot (composed of 22 PCs, each running a copy of the game, with characters in macro mode) inside Ultima Online which was generating real world payouts on the order of more than $300k. Dibbell is amused to later find that Blacksnow Interactive is behind Ingotdude’s exploit.
You’ll be surprised to learn that over the course of a year, Dibbell did manage to earn $47,000 by selling intangible virtual goods online through Play Money. His goal was to earn more than $55k (his best year as a writer) but he failed in that respect. Spending 50 hours a week online cost Dibbell his marriage and emotional collapse, but his career eventually recovered and he did manage to finish this exceptional book.
(46/83)
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The Book:
Play Money,
Basic Books
ISBN-13:
978-0-465-01536-8
Pages:
321 Pages including Index
Rating:
4 Stars
Chapters:
Forty-Five Chapters
If You Like Play Money, you might enjoy:
Designing Virtual Worlds,
Designing Your Second Life,
Play Between Worlds,
Synthetic Worlds,
The State of Play,
Visit the Publisher’s Official Website:
www.basicbooks.com
Visit the Author’s Wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Dibbell
Recommended:
Yes
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sfarmer76
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