Effects of Economy on Virtual World

In the real world, with our economy in shambles and people losing their jobs left and right, it is natural to wonder if the economy’s effect on real life businesses has a similar effect on a virtual one.

Second Life, for example, is a virtual world that mimics real life. It contains virtual businesses where users can buy, sell, rent or trade land, goods and services with other users. But, how are decreasing incomes in real life changing consumer’s spending habits online?

This question is not as simple as it seems, because it varies from user to user. Some may argue that the Second Life Economy is actually more stable because 1 U.S. dollar goes a lot farther in the game than in real life (1 USD = 228 Linden Dollars), and only people spending large amounts of money on the site are trying to cut back. However, the general consensus seems to be that the economy is definitely having a negative impact on Second life spending.

Since most people buy Linden Dollars on credit cards, whose interest rates are skyrocketing, everyone is thinking twice about purchasing them. If you travel through Second Life, you can see that many of the high-end clothing stores are almost completely empty, whereas the stores with the most bargains are continually packed.

From this, we can reasonably say it’s possible that the world’s economic problems are impacting the virtual one. However, since the number people actually playing Second Life is not decreasing, but the amount of money flowing into it is, another question that awaits us in the next few years is whether or not Second Life can continue to survive like this.