Edward Castronova, at the Indiana University Bloomington, has published a paper on how Avatars are valued, priced, and auctioned in virtual world. Some of the trends make very interesting reading for those developing online games.
The abstract states that in virtual worlds “users can visit by piloting a computer-generated body, known as an avatar. Avatars can have an asset value, in that users can spend time to increase their skills; these asset values can be directly observed in online markets. Auction data for avatars from the synthetic fantasy world of EverQuest are used here to explore a number of questions, especially those involving the relative value of male and female avatars. In EverQuest, about 20 percent of the avatar population is female, and there are no gender-based differences in avatar capabilities.
Many avatars (20-25%) are cross-gendered. Hedonic analysis of the auction price data suggests that gender labels are a less important determinant of avatar values than the “level,” a game-design metric that indicates the overall capabilities of the avatar. Nonetheless, among comparable avatars, females do sell at a significant price discount.
His research shows that:
- The average Avatar price is 333 dollar
- The price discount for females is 40 to 55 dollar, depending on methods.
He also shows that, “The discount may stem from a number of causes, including discrimination in Earth society, the maleness of the EverQuest player base, or differences in well-being related to male and female courtship roles. We do know, however, that these differences cannot be caused by gender-based differences in the abilities of the body, since in the fantasy world of Norrath there are none.”
Link: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=415043
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