V-conomy's Effect on Economy

There is a mostly overlooked article on GamePolitics story on China trying to ban in-game currency on MMOs.  China has a valid point, rhetorically speaking.  Virtual economies that translate to real-world money could have a negative effect on the global market.  The problem with virtual money and virtual items is that at some point, they will suddenly become useless.  This is typically when the MMO servers are shut down, as in Asheron's Call.  If you held onto anything in the game and require the servers to play, the software and in-game stuff becomes valueless.

Take this concept and run with it.  Someday, Lineage will shut down.  That's equivalent to a small country declaring bankruptcy, the coffers are empty!  All real money invested to buy gold/characters/items is immediately lost.  I'm not including the subscription fees because they run the servers and the company.  Consider this:  let's play a game where cherry tree blossoms are currency.  Come springtime, all of the blossoms are stripped for playing this game and the trees eventually die.  Then the game has to end because someone has hoarded all the blossoms in a large warehouse in New Jersey.

This story also illustrates that humans have certain psychological needs that are fulfilled by these games.  In China, in-game free enterprise is fairly novel.  Unfortunately, like physics, economy is much simpler in a game and doesn't teach much more than the basics.  Still, it could induce independent thought!  The game would certainly be less fun if you had to barter everything, but if you eliminate currency, anything that can be transferred becomes money.  China will lose this fight.

The best way to protect yourself from economic backlash is to simply play the game.  Don't buy an experienced character.  The initial development are some of the most challenging parts of MMOs.  Don't buy gold as it trivializes it's in-game worth.  I hate to admit it, but I'm looking forward to the day where it's impossible to transfer items.  Still, it shows how the group can low-tech and circumvent game rules.  Maybe there should be better rules?