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Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot Audiobook
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(3.09) - 152 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
Play Money explores a remarkable new phenomenon that's just beginning to enter public consciousness: MMPORGs, or Massively MultiPlayer Online Role-Playing Games, in which hundreds of thousands of players operate fantasy characters in virtual environments the size of continents. With city-sized populations of nearly full-time players, these games generate their own cultures, governments, and social systems and, inevitably, their own economies, which spill over into the real world. The desire for virtual goods - magic swords, enchanted breastplates, and special, hard-to-get elixirs - has spawned a cottage industry of "virtual loot farmers": people who play the games just to obtain fantasy goods that they can sell in the real world. The best loot farmers can make between six figures a year and six figures a month. Play Money is an extended walk on the weird side: a vivid snapshot of a subculture whose denizens were once the stuff of mere sociological spectacle but now, with computer gaming poised to eclipse all other entertainments in dollar volume, and with the lines between play and work, virtual and real increasingly blurred, look more and more like the future.
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"This book might have passed its best before since the online game scene has developed in recent years, but as it is well written, it is still an interesting read, inducing thoughts about technological virtuality, technological optimism and what not..."
— Daniel (4 out of 5 stars)
Play Money Listener Reviews
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" Very Interesting book on the history and economy of virtual worlds. There's actually a monetary "exchange rate" between real money and everquest2 money. I really liked this one. "
— Chip, 5/31/2013 -
" I found this book really fascinating. I had no idea this type of thing existed. "
— Maria, 2/10/2013 -
" A pretty astounding book that introduced me to virtual worlds and the people and economy that can crop up around them "
— Bryan, 1/11/2013 -
" nice, anecdotal story "
— Christian, 11/25/2012 -
" How to live as a gold farmer and not-quite make it, but along the way provide a bunch of anecdotal validation for how much virtual worlds matter. Good if you believe in 'em, also good for someone who doesn't understand people who believe in 'em. "
— Peter, 3/9/2012 -
" this is a pretty interesting little read about RMT (real money trading) on MMORPGS (Massively multiplayer online role playing games.) "
— Mike, 11/12/2011 -
" Cool account of the underground world of virtual economies in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. Supposedly the total GDP of the virtual world is slightly larger than Russia's "
— Carlo, 11/12/2010 -
" Another interesting book by Julian Dibbell. Disarmingly personal. Excellent literature review. Misleading subtitle - he earns millions of plat or something, not dollars. You leave somewhat disappointed that he wasn't wildly successful. "
— Tommy, 11/9/2010 -
" Interesting discussion of the economics of online games, and the dichotomy between work and play. "
— Chris, 9/9/2010 -
" An interesting read, but ultimately it seemed like a really long magazine feature stretched into a book... too repetitive, and focused on just one game "
— malika, 10/14/2009 -
" this is a pretty interesting little read about RMT (real money trading) on MMORPGS (Massively multiplayer online role playing games.) "
— Mike, 9/17/2009 -
" A pretty astounding book that introduced me to virtual worlds and the people and economy that can crop up around them "
— Bryan, 2/1/2009 -
" How to live as a gold farmer and not-quite make it, but along the way provide a bunch of anecdotal validation for how much virtual worlds matter. Good if you believe in 'em, also good for someone who doesn't understand people who believe in 'em. "
— Peter, 1/31/2009 -
" Another interesting book by Julian Dibbell. Disarmingly personal. Excellent literature review. Misleading subtitle - he earns millions of plat or something, not dollars. You leave somewhat disappointed that he wasn't wildly successful. "
— Tommy, 12/22/2008 -
" Very Interesting book on the history and economy of virtual worlds. There's actually a monetary "exchange rate" between real money and everquest2 money. I really liked this one. "
— Chip, 5/13/2008 -
" Interesting discussion of the economics of online games, and the dichotomy between work and play. "
— Chris, 1/17/2008 -
" Cool account of the underground world of virtual economies in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. Supposedly the total GDP of the virtual world is slightly larger than Russia's "
— Carlo, 12/27/2007 -
" An interesting read, but ultimately it seemed like a really long magazine feature stretched into a book... too repetitive, and focused on just one game "
— malika, 4/19/2007
About Grover Gardner
Grover Gardner (a.k.a. Tom Parker) is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.