0:00 In 2001, an economist from Indiana University named Edward Castronova decided to study a strange subject. Not oil, not the stock market, nor the economy of some developing nation. He studied Norrath. Norrath is a virtual kingdom, a fantasy world from the computer game EverQuest. Elves, orcs, and mages live there; there are forests , dungeons, and dragons. There is absolutely nothing real about it. For several months, Castronova studied
0:30 trade deals within this world, counted how many items were produced and consumed, and measured price levels, inflation, and the labor market. And when he calculated everything, he got a result he didn't expect. If Norrath were a real country, its GDP per capita would be on the level of Russia in 2001, higher than India, and higher than most countries in Africa and Latin America. An imaginary kingdom with elves and orcs —a real economy created by people working for free and voluntarily.
1:02 I ask you to pause for a second and feel the scale of this absurdity. Hundreds of thousands of people invested real time, real intelligence, and real emotions into a world that doesn't exist , while the real world waited patiently outside. And the first reaction is, well, that's just addiction. Hmm, understandable, explained, topic closed, but wait. Addiction is when a person cannot stop, even though they want to. But here, most players stopped perfectly fine.
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