Digital Economy

• By a digital economy I mean an economy in a virtual world that is mostly distinct from the real world.
• As I understand it, Secondlife and a lot of other multi-user games are free.
• So how do they make money?
• They have an economy in the virtual world, and you can pay real money to get virtual money, or virtual things.
• The company that runs the game makes its money from this.
• So, if you're playing Secondlife and want to buy a house or an island, you send the company some money, and there you go.
• For role playing games you might buy a magic sword.
• You might also be able to earn virtual money in the game.
• Apparently, in Secondlife you can also convert virtual money back to real money.