There's a good article in Wired on the days before the planned demolition of an online gaming community. From the version on the author's blog:
The economy has also tanked. . . . High-powered character accounts used to sell for as much as $500, but the online auctions have gone silent. That's partly because, as the end nears, Turbine is tossing out some freebies and giving away more "rare" items, making them less rare. Without a sense of a future, capitalism ends. There's no demand in a condemned world.
See also the observations in the comments.
Posted by Ben Brumfield at December 23, 2005 09:02 PMFascinating. It brings to mind a question I've been mulling over for some time: if a community can sustain its own currency, then what's so virtual about it?
Particularly found this interesting from the comments about, of all things, the death of a "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" board:
"*Around four hours before the end, we started ignoring or breaking rules and social conventions that were not hard-coded into the board."
Of course BBSs don't really have economies...or do they?
Posted by: Alan Hogue at December 24, 2005 12:16 PM