The readings thus far provide a look at how the digital world is changing our world.  From John Battelle’s book The Search, where we learned how Google has impacted everything we do, to the concept of public journalism and the influence of blogs on all forms of communication as described by Dan Gillmor and Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, there has been a clear evolution showing how digital technologies are changing how we work, communicate and live.   

Wikinomics took all of these concepts, tied them up in a nice bow, and demonstrated how these technologies are leading to a world that fosters mass collaboration. Virtual worlds, as described by Julian Dibbell in Play Money, have the potential of taking mass collaboration to a whole new level, one that could possibly have a viable and sustainable economy that maybe one day is looked at as a good investment option.    

This week’s reading, Play Money, looks at how gamers are making money in virtual worlds such as Ultima Online and Second Life.  The book is narrated by Julian Dibbell and describes in detail how he moved from freelance writer to viral loot broker.  Not being much of a gamer, I had a hard time fathoming how someone sets out to make money buying and selling fake goods. Additionally, I was floored that someone would even think of creating an offshore sweatshop employing people as professional gamers.  

I was intrigued at how these gamers got so into the virtual world.  Buying, selling and stealing to get whatever they needed. The world played much like the real word.  People wanted to do whatever they could to be the best and have the best.  This is demonstrated when Dibbell talks about the status symbols of the different houses saying “I remembered John Dugger looking at the biggest houses in the game, the towers and castles, and wondering about the people who lived in them—who are they? How do they live? How do they get their money?,” ( p. 69).  I also found it interesting how they took it upon themselves to start selling fake money for real money.  But when you think about it is the money fake after all if you are buying something with it maybe it is real. 

Dibbell takes his readers through a first hand account of what it is like to be living in two worlds at the same time.  In reality Dibbell is a writer trying a little experiment, while his alter ego is looking to become a millionaire selling items that in reality do not exist.  I found myself glued to certain chapters of the book almost believing the world he played in was real.  

In a time when more and more people are communicating via social networking sites and through text messages I wonder if there will come a day when virtual worlds are where and how we communicate.  Take for instance a person who works at home.  He or she could participate in meet-ups via a virtual world, really taking part in the world of mass collaboration as described in Wikinomics.  Companies can create virtual stores with virtual sales associates that can answer questions in real time, people can invest there savings in virtual economies with the expectation of making money.  

I wonder what economic implications virtual worlds will have on the real economy. Will the future be one of businesses operating in both the real world and Second Life, a virtual world created by those who live there?  Will financial analysts be reporting on how the Linden dollar, Second Life’s currency, is doing in comparison to the U.S. dollar?  The thought is somewhat weird but is it that off from reality?  I guess only time will tell.  In the meantime, a lot can be learned from those paying online games.  While the idea of being walled up in a small room doing nothing but playing on a computer may seem strange to some these gamers, with their business instincts, could one day be the next Donald Trumps of the world.