Gaming and its economic implications is an interesting topic, especially given the fact that it does not only have macro consequences - the creation of various industries, the effect on general employment, the exchange rate between gaming currency and real-world currency, outsourcing (in the case of gold farming), but also micro implications - such as wage determination plus real estate prices in games. With the advancement and popularization of online gaming worlds, economic theory can also for the first time, be simulated in popular virtual worlds with thousands of users available at any one time.
Contents
- Overview
- The Video Game Industry
- Emergence of Online Gaming
- Economics of Online Gaming
- See Also
- Video Sources
- References
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Overview
Games and gaming in general have advanced rapidly in the last twenty years. It has progressed from catering to a niche market to one that encompasses the general young male population to one that now serves to entertain the whole family. No doubt, the main catalyst for this rapid change is the motivation of game publishers to generate more profits by expanding the targeted game audience and also to provide more means and mechanism to increase the interactivity for games in general. In the process, whole new markets have emerged (casual gaming for females and older males) and new profit-making methods have been introduced (an evolutionary change from charging per game to a subscription charge per month to charges for micro-items). At the end of the day though, it is interesting to discover how some games tend to be reproduced again and again - being first played on arcade machines and now being ported to next-generation consoles as cheap mini-games. Maybe some games, are well, just timeless.
The Video Game Industry
The video game (interactive entertainment) industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video and computer games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs millions of people worldwide.
Statistics of Gaming in US
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According to the Entertainment Software Association, the US computer and video game software sales grew six percent in 2006 to $7.4 billion ¨C almost tripling industry software sales since 1996. Sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play computer and video games. Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (30%) than boys age 17 or younger (23%). In 2005, 25 percent of Americans over the age of 50 played video games, an increase from nine percent in 1999.
It is an industry where internet gaming - involving browser-based games and persistent online games (MMOs) have taken a significant market share. It is also a country where the video game unit sales growth and dollar sales growth have seen an upward trend since the NPD group started measuring point-of-sales information in 1996.
In-Game Advertising
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The games industry sees in-game advertising as a promising new revenue stream. Industry figures suggest this could bring an extra $1 to $2 of profit per game unit sold towards publishers, this is a significant increase over the current $5 to $6 profit per unit. Publishers see this revenue stream as a way to offset growing game development costs, which are estimated to rise up to $20 million per title for a 7th generation console (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii).
For advertisers, they see in-game advertising as a prime way to target the male 18-34 demographic, who are increasingly neglecting television in favor of interactive entertainment such as computer and video games. Still others see in-game advertising as a way to reach into casual games, for example through NeoEdge Networks and titles like Diner Dash, and target a predominately female demographic, who are frequently harder to reach and impact.
However, some "core" gamers see these moves as greedy and invasive, dubbing in-game advertising software as spyware. Electronic Arts experienced a backlash when its strategy title, Battlefield 2142, garnered a blacklash when it was discovered to have displayed in-game advertisements from IGA Worldwide.
This did not stop traditional firms such as Nielsen Media Research branching out into the in-game advertising space, by announcing a new video games ratings service (similar to Nielsen ratings) called GamePlay Metrics to serve in-game advertisers.
The increasing potential of in-game advertising has also managed to attract several tech-titans to enter the field. Redmond-based Microsoft purchased Massive Incorporated, a previously private advertising company that creates software and provides services to dynamically host advertisements within video games to add to its online advertising offerings. Mountain View-based Google, on the other hand, purchased AdScape Media and has already announced plans for an online system known as AdSense for Games which will build on the advertising system it offers for Web sites. Other notable companies in the in-game advertising business also include IGA Worldwide and Double Fusion.
Early examples of in-game advertising were mostly static. Some of these consisted of virtual billboards, whereas others could be considered in-game product placement. These adverts were placed directly into the game by artists or programmers from game publishers which have agreements with advertisers. Its main disadvantage is that it cannot be changed after the game has been released.
The first notable example was seen in the 1978 computer game Adventureland by Scott Adams, who inserted an advertisement for his then forthcoming game Pirate Adventure. Examples of in-game advertising of third party products include the sponsorship of the Zool series by Chupa Chups, leading to various displays of the Chupa Chups product and brand in the game, including a series of levels set in a Sweet world. Another early example of in-game advertising could be found in the FIFA Football series of games (by Electronic Arts), with commercial billboard adverts featured in-game since 1994. Static adverts allow the advertiser and developers to have more influence on how the adverts are displayed in-game and can be worked to beyond the levels of a pure billboard. Years of experience have also allowed game developers to come up with more innovative use of advertising in games. In French game publisher, Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for example, a large glowing advert for AXE deodorant appears hard coded in the game, forming an obstacle to the player character. Not only did it allow the developers to experiment with dramatic lighting effects, it also drew the players' attention by providing them with a challenge in which to overcome.
Profiting from Casual Gaming
The term casual game is used to refer to a category of electronic or computer games targeted at a mass audience. Casual games usually have a few simple rules and an engaging game design, making it easy for a new player to begin playing the game in just minutes. They require no long-term time commitment or special skills to play, and there are comparatively low production and distribution costs for the producer.
The North American market for casual games is expected to grow from an estimated $281 million in sales this year to $1.15 billion in 2011, according to DFC Intelligence. Globally, because of the popularity of casual gaming in China and Korea, the market is already closing in on $1 billion in annual sales.
Several trends are helping push casual games out of the margins and into the forefront. Advertising has emerged as a key revenue opportunity for games, and hard-core games reach only one of many demographics that advertisers covet. Also, casual games tend to be small and have minimal processing needs, making them ideal for mobile devices, particularly cell phones. Casual games
As a result, some pretty significant tech companies have already become big players in the field, including the likes of Microsoft, RealNetworks and well-known international game publisher Electronic Arts, which has amassed more than a million subscribers to Pogo.com, its online casual-game service. Smaller firms that specialize in casual games have also managed to draw a significant base, including MiniClip and Big Fish Games.
After the dot-com bust caused many advertising-backed ventures to fold, casual games felt the effects. When advertising rates went through the floor, though, the survivors in the industry shifted to making money by selling games that could be downloaded to the PC, typically for $20 or less.
RealNetworks was one of the first companies to capitalize on the market. The company got into the market about six years ago as it was looking to expand beyond media software. Bits are bits, the company figured. Initially RealNetworks targeted hard-core gamers who played games like DOOM and QUAKE and tried to get them to pay to play games online. At the time, gamers were used to buying games, not paying monthly subscriptions to play online. Plus, the technology wasn't ready to provide the massive bandwidth that serious gaming would entail.
Almost on a whim, RealNetworks tried putting up a simple puzzle game, and it sold well. The company revamped its marketing, drafted a new business plan and scoured the market for all the little games it could find. In 2004, the company spent $36 million to acquire GameHouse, a developer specializing in puzzles and other small games. Last quarter, RealNetworks earned $18 million in revenue from casual games--more than 20 percent of the company's overall revenue.
Meanwhile, RealNetworks, like many in the casual-games space, is focusing much of its attention on moving beyond the PC into mobile games. Last year, the company paid $15 million for a mobile-game specialist, Mr. Goodliving.
Casual games are also starting to make an impact in the console arena. Though small downloadable games aren't the main incentive for most people to spend hundreds of dollars on an Xbox 360, Microsoft is touting them as a significant bonus to its next-generation console system.
Nintendo, too, has talked about tapping its stable of classic titles to help boost interest in its Wii console.
And now, with advertising making a big-time comeback, casual games are taking on growing importance. Traditional games appeal to a very lucrative segment for advertisers--young men--but a lot of advertisers want to reach other segments of the population. Most importantly, casual games allow advertisers to use the medium to reach women.
For example, two thirds of those playing at MSN Games are female, with RealNetworks drawing upwards of 60 percent women. Of course, there are also plenty of men who aren't into games. Indeed, while the current market for casual games has tended to draw more women, there are efforts to draw in more men as well.
For example, deodorant maker Degree antiperspirant has sponsored a free online Texas hold 'em game on MSN Games. In addition to the expected cadre of on-screen ads, the Degree for Men logo is prominently displayed on the game table and card-backs, as well as on-screen ads.
Microsoft has had a significant casual-games business for at least a decade, following its 1996 purchase of Zone.com. But with their newfound aim at the advertising business, casual games have become far more strategic. Casual games are also likely to figure prominently in the Live Anywhere strategy announced by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates previously. Gates touted a vision in which games can be started on a PC or Xbox and then picked up on a mobile phone. For now, though, such play would only be possible with casual games.
Casual games are another way to reach men who aren't hard-core gamers. Microsoft for instance, has already announced that it had struck deals with several game makers of yesteryear to bring titles like "Root Beer Tapper," "Paperboy" and "Pac-Man" onto the Xbox 360.
Emergence of Online Gaming
- Read here for a more-detailed History_Of_Multiplayer_Games
Online gaming marks a new chapter in the progress of video games. More and more video games start to include network capabilities and its growth has followed the general trajectory of the computer industry ¨C expansions of computer networks from small local networks to the internet. Another crucial factor that led to the rapid development of online gaming was the growth of the internet itself and the increasing adoption of broadband connections. Online games range from simple text-based games to games incorporating graphics to virtual worlds populated by thousands at any one time.
Text-Based Games
The 1980s saw a surge in the number of gamers who started playing MUDs ¨C simple networked text-based games that could handle multiple users at any one time. Based frequently on fantasy settings and generally inspired by the popular role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, the games have simliar rules and settings and thus were able to attract fans of the genre. Because internet access at that time were charged on a per-minute basis, MUDs eventually grew out of fashion.
First-Person Shooters
The standardization of LAN standards and protocols such as Novell¡¯s IPX and TCP/IP saw the emergence of online games. The likes of DOOM and QUAKE, both created by gaming pioneer John Carmack popularized the concept of head-to-head online games that featured first-person shooting.
Real-Time Strategy
Blizzard¡¯s StarCraft and WestWood Studios¡¯ (both very popular game studios back then) Red Alert series meant a lot of gamers were playing real-time strategy games over small home networks and the internet. The challenge of outwitting global opponents led to the creation of services that allowed players to automatically match another player.
Massively Multiplayer Online Game
The likes of South Korea and Japan with nation-wide broadband internet access and the adoption of broadband internet connections by the general public led to the emergence of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). MMOs allowed for hundreds of thousands of players to play the same game at any one time, the only restriction being the server¡¯s ability to handle network load.
The market for massively multiplayer online games is a fast-growing one, with no fewer than 80 current titles and many more under development, all targeted at a player population that totals around 30 million worldwide.
World of Warcraft, produced by Blizzard Entertainment, is one of the most profitable computer games in history, earning close to $1 billion a year in monthly subscriptions and other revenue.
Economics of Online Gaming
Virtual Economics
Virtual economies have long been observed in MMOs. Some of the largest virtual economies can be found in the likes of
- Final Fantasy XI,
- The Sims Online,
- Entropia Universe,
- EverQuest,
- Ultima Online,
- Dark Age of Camelot,
- World of Warcraft,
- Lineage,
- Industryplayer,
- Miniconomy,
- RuneScape,
- EVE Online,
- Gaia Online,
- Second Life,
- and Weblo.
Economics in games have more often shared the following traits.
- Persistence The software maintains a record of the state of the world and the resource possessions of the players, regardless of whether or not the game is "in session" for any user.
- Scarcity Users must expend "real" resources such as time and money to obtain goods and/or services in the synthetic world.
- Specialization Availability to players of the resources must vary. For example, a participant whose character has metalsmithing skills could have the ability to make swords, while other players would have to purchase them. Because this results in comparative advantage, complex trade relationships and a division of labor result.
- Trade Users must be able to transfer goods and services to and from other users.
- Property Rights The world must record which goods and services belong to which user identity, and the code must allow that user to dispose of the good or service according to whim.
These conditions of scarcity, specialization, and comparative advantage create an economic system with properties similar to those seen in contemporary economies. So more often than not, economic theory are used to study these virtual worlds.
Within the virtual worlds they inhabit, these economies allow in-game items to be priced according to the economic theories of supply and demand rather than by the developer's estimate of the item's utility. These emergent economies are considered by most players to be an asset of the game, giving an extra dimension of reality to play.
Gold Farming
A farmer is a general term for a MMO player who attempts to acquire ("farm") items of value within a game, usually by exploiting repetitive elements of the game's mechanics often accomplished by carrying out in-game actions (such as killing an important creature) repeatedly to maximize gains.
According to the New York Times, around 100,000 people in China are currently employed as gold farmers. The numbers represents about 0.4% of all online gamers in China. Chinese gold farmers typically work twelve hour shifts, and sometimes up to eighteen hour shifts. Wages depend heavily on location and the size of the gold farming company. One gold farming operation in Chongqing in central China with 23 gold farmers was reported to pay its employees the equivalent of about 120 U.S. dollars per month, while workers at a larger gold farm in Fuzhou earn the equivalent of about 250 U.S. dollars per month.
Such trends raised the issue of worker exploitation and because such an industry is not regulated, there is no way authorities can put a stop the issue and no union or wage council exist to impose a minimum wage or to help worker welfare.
Of course, this is due to change soon if South Korea has its way (as of July 17 2007). South Korea is also notable for the level of gold farming. So much so, that the country is currently considering legislation to regulate the exchange of virtual currency.
Many gaming companies have noticed such a trend and have attempted to block the use of 'gold farming' services by specifically stating in their End User License Agreements and Terms of Service that any and all game assets (from the player's characters themselves, to any items that they may be carrying) remain the sole property of the company itself. There have been reports of aggressive action to close the accounts of any that are found to be using gold-farming (or similar) services.
Gold farming's economic impact, especially its outsourcing use, has even inspired online retailer, Amazon, to come up with a non-game use named Amazon Mechanical Turk. For fees ranging from dollars to cents per task, workers complete tasks that may be rote, like matching a color to a photograph, but which can confound a computer. Conceived to help Amazon improve its own sites, Amazon's Mechanical Turk is now a marketplace where many companies have solicited workers to do everything from transcribing podcasts to writing blog posts. Amazon takes a cut from every task performed.
The Move Towards Mini-Transactions
Game publishers have consistenly been struggling to find a business model somewhere between the current extremes of free online play and games that require monthly subscriptions.
These game publishers believe that their answer lies in mini-transactions, small purchases that would allow game players to pay a few cents to download a slick new piece of armour for a role-playing game or a new map for a shooting title.
Rather than the regular fees many publishers had hoped for from online gaming, financial success will depend on offering little extras. The likes of both Sony and Microsoft are already working on payment and billing systems to allow such transactions.
The subscription-based model is inherently self-limiting which explains the shift in trend towards a model based on downloadable content and mini-transactions.
Microsoft for instance has more than 800,000 subscribers paying $50 a year for the service, which allows access to online portions of more than 100 games. The company believes steady growth in subscribers and strong subscription renewal rate shows gamers will pay for content.
The company will take a step toward mini-transactions with Xbox Live Arcade, an upcoming service that will allow customers to download arcade-style games for a typical price of $10 or less. Beyond that, smaller chunks of downloadable content will require tweaking the Xbox Live transaction system to allow efficient processing of small transactions.
Some of the most popular games in Asia are already being given away for free and charge no subscription dues, but collect micropayments for custom avatars and other items. Social networking is a key feature of the games, and it turns out players are quick to fork over yen and yuan to tweak their appearance to their liking.
At Hangame, Japan's number one internet game portal, customers wind up spending between 30 cents and $10 an item to customize the look of their avatar, visible during social interactions and in the otherwise free games.
Games range from Flash games that are easy to play with just a mouse key or arrow, to more complex sports and RPG games. Social features include a chat window, web pages and blogs. Player profile pages, showing avatars in their customizable virtual rooms, produce 200 million page views a day and around 200,000 customers send e-mail to each other every day.
Real-Money Theory
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Virtual Property
The online massively multiplayer game Second Game has been a prime example of how people has been profiting from virtual property. In Second Life, users customize digital alter-egos called "avatars" that can walk down streets, gamble in casinos, do distance learning for university degrees, cavort in strip clubs, fly over Second Life's varied landscapes.
There are a few ways to acquire land in Second Life:
- One can purchase land from another resident.
- One can purchase land at an auction, using real or Linden dollars (the exchange rate hovers at about 270 to 1 U.S. dollar).
- Or, if you want a big spread, either for yourself or to divide and later resell as smaller parcels, you can buy a customizable, 16-acre island of land known as a "sim" from Linden Lab, Second Life's creator. A sim costs $1,675 U.S., plus a $295 monthly fee, called a "tier." (Linden Lab makes most of its money off such land sales.)
The number of users making smallish amounts - just $10 to $50 monthly --with a Second Life virtual business was about 9,500 in April, or nearly triple that of November (according to Linden Lab's statistics). Meanwhile, the number of "in-world" business owners who are making more than $5,000 per month was only 139 as of April, estimates Linden Lab. Though that's up from an estimated 58 in November, it's still a tiny fraction of the more than 7 million total users. No one can say for sure how many of those are in virtual real estate. But the common concensus that big-time real-estate players number maybe a half dozen.
There are of course huge differences between virtual real-estate and real real estate.
- Realtors undercutting For Sale by Owner (FSBOs). There's not such an obvious role for real-estate agents in Second Life in large part because the users have free access to all the search tools.
- No housing bubble. In contrast to real-world real estate, prices in Second Life have been relatively stable for the past nine months or so, a long time in Second Life's short life span, says a Linden Lab spokesman. But when price jumps come, they are more abrupt and, at least with sims, are generally at the whim of Linden Lab. Linden increased the price for a sim several months ago from $1,600 to $1,675 -- almost 5% -- and the monthly tier for new purchasers rose a much steeper 51%, from $195 per month to $295 per month.
- Land is virtually in endless supply: As Second Life's popularity increases (today, it has 7.2 million registered users), Linden Lab simply grows the land size of its virtual world. Were it laid out in real life, Second Life would cover nearly 600 square kilometers -- a tripling in the past six months. That's nearly seven times the size of Manhattan and which basically means that the economic law of demand and supply does not exist.
- The eternal mortgage. In Second Life, you never actually own a piece of land, free and clear. Though you may pay an initial fee to gain control of a piece of land, you forever have to pay that monthly bill.
- Eviction? You could be barred from accessing your land until you do pay -- or have your land taken from you entirely if you stop paying rent. (A Pennsylvania man recently brought a real-world lawsuit against Linden when his Second Life land holdings were confiscated.)
- Virtual lending. As yet, there don't seem to be virtual banks in Second Life to fund real-estate purchases, so money is needed up front.
- You can't escape real-world taxes. Real-world money made in the virtual world is taxable. And now the U.S. government is even mulling whether online money made, and kept, in online currency like Linden dollars is also taxable. A U.S. congressional committee is starting to look at the issue.
In-Game Advertising
Increasing Internet connectivity (especially in the area of broadband) has resulted in the rapid growth of dynamic in-game advertising. Unlike the fixed advertisements found in static in-game ads, dynamic advertisements can be altered remotely by the advertising agency.
Such advertisement can be tailored according to geographical location or time of day, allowing for the delivery of time-critical advertising campaigns, such as a movie launch. Information can be sent back from the player's machine regarding advert performance; data such as time spent looking at adverts, type of advert and viewing angle may be used to better formulate future campaigns and also allows the advertising agency to offer more flexible advertising campaigns to their clients.
Because dynamic advertising campaigns do not have to be hard-coded into the game by artists and programmers, the need for advertisers to formulate and insert campaigns months in advance of a games launch is negated.
Examples of dynamic in-game advertising include the 2005 computer game SWAT 4 by Irrational Games. Version 1.1 of the game featured dynamic in-game adverts delivered by Massive Incorporated, these adverts were used to publicize forthcoming television shows targeted at a US audience. These time and location sensitive adverts would not have been effective if delivered through a static in-game advertising campaign.
Virtual worlds and MMORPGs are able host persistent online adverts, with marketers purchasing virtual real estate with which to give brands a constant online presence in-game. Aside from establishing a brand presence, it also enables companies to use these virtual spaces as an online testbed. For example, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide established the aloft Hotel within Second Life, although the real world version of the aloft Hotel is not scheduled to open doors until 2008, the online presence allows for designers to get early feedback from prospective guests.
Starwood is not alone in establishing an online presence within Second Life, many brands and products have pitched up stores and attractions within the virtual world, including American Apparel, IBM, Reuters and others. Other persistent online worlds which have hosted advertising campaigns include There.com, which featured a Nike campaign in 2003, and Everquest 2, which even included an in-game command line function to order from Pizza Hut in-game.
Reaction to in-game advertising from the advertising industry has generally been positive. Advertisers are keen to reach the 18-34 male demographic, and in-game advertising is seen to be a new medium in which to do so, especially given that TV viewing figures for this audience is falling. Indeed, a study by Yankee Group in 2003, showed that a 7 percent decline in TV viewing figures in the target 18-34 male demographic could be directly attributed to computer games. This enthusiasm, along with the new possibilities offered by dynamic adverts has prompted a growth in the in-game advertising industry, which generated USD$56 million in revenue in 2005, but could grow up to as much as $1.8 billion in 2010 according to Massive Incorporated.
The in-game advertising industry hosts several advertising agencies dedicated to the delivery of in-game advertising, including companies such as Double Fusion, IGA Worldwide, NeoEdge Networks and Massive Incorporated. The growth and potential of the market has enticed more traditional advertising agencies into exploring the concept of in-game advertising; Starcom MediaVestGroup worked with 2K Games to partner advertisers with game developers, whereas Ogilvy & Mather worked with Massive Incorporated to develop a series of in-game adverts to promote the Ford Motor Company.
Electronic Arts Teams Up With Microsoft
While the article is being written, Electronic Arts, the world's biggest game publisher and developer announced they have signed an agreement with Massive, a wholly-owned subsidy of Microsoft Corporation. Massive, acting on behalf of its parent company, Microsoft, will deliver real-time in-game advertisement to Electronic Art's upcoming sports titles. The titles include the Xbox 360 and/or PC versions of the biggest sports video games coming this fall including Madden NFL 08, NASCAR 08, NHL 08, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 and Skate. Although Electronic Arts is just one of 41 game publishers using Massive's ad technology, the announcement is seen as the biggest endorsement for in-game advertising as yet. It is worthy to note that Peter Moore has recently relinquished his position as Corporate Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division to take over the EA Sports division of Electronic Arts.
See Also
- Gaming_consoles
- RMT case study : Singapore Granado Espada
- Cyber bullying in e-gaming, an emerging social threat.
Video Sources
- Chinese Gold Farmers Preview by Ge Jin, YouTube, Uploaded 8 March, 2006
- Glimpse Inside a Metaverse: The Virtual World of Second Life, Google Video, Uploaded 1 March, 2006
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