#unit response

[cmclmedia2013]

It's like they're trying to apply the manifest destiny or gold rush mentality to cyberspace. This relates both to the Imagining Cyberspace reading (though this goes a step beyond, in aiming to realize cyberspace) and also presents a largely technological deterministic utopia. 

[cmclmedia2013]

Gives Cash for Gold a whole meaning. So does this mean online gamers aren't lazy, but are in fact working all the time? They should probably unionize, their wages have got to be terrible...

[cmclmedia2013]

#1.The Ultimate Investment Scam (EVE) Player "Cally" won at EVE Online despite it being a massively multiplayer game with no victory condition. Other players earn ISK (game currency) by mining, completing quests or killing each other. Cally, on the other hand, simply asked for it. And it worked, and there was nothing they could do about it. Because while the other losers went into the economy as honest workers, or corporations, he realized he could go in as a bank. He spent months running the "EVE Intergalactic Bank (EIB)." This offered loans for start-up EVE corporations and miners who wanted to buy tools, with interest rates and repayment plans and yes, we're still talking about a game people apparently play for fun. Cally certainly had fun: He fulfilled the secret fantasy of every bank manager in history, when one day, he walked in and just took all the money. All the money was 790 billion ISK, about $170,000 in real dollars, which he used to become the greatest video game villain of all time. He spent a huge chunk of the money to buy a ridiculously powerful warship, another chunk posting a huge bounty on his own head, then sailed off into space just daring people to kill him. Something like this -- the biggest middle finger in history. The ultimate dickery? He posted a 15-minute video bragging about how he got away with it, mocking his loyal employees at EIB, enemies who failed to stop him and the suckers who basically paid for a second job -- essentially paying for the right to have their money stolen. Understand: Cally is now officially smarter than every Bond villain put together, because he found a way to give an expository monologue without getting killed. Read more: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-biggest-dick-moves-in-history-online-gaming_p2/#ixzz2JSTHktIh

From a great Cracked.com article about the "7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming," I bring you number one, an example of a man who basically stole $170,000 and didn't even break a law. This relates to my topic by showing an example of some of the implications of virtual money cyberspace and online games.

This relates to the end of my response where I discuss the danger in mistaking virtual economies for real-world economies. Here the issue is equating a virtual bank with a real one, and forgetting that it's legitimacy is based as much offline as online.

[cmclmedia2013]

First off, PBS Ideas Channel is the coolest and you can expect to post it whenever it's even close to relevant. Second, this relates to my topic by discussing how online game money may in fact just be real money.