Kill Ten Rats

“Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.” Milton Friedman, the most important and second most influential economist of the last century, died last week. You can see the fundamental truth of his work every day in some of the oldest and most popular online games.

Most online games print currency the way that third-world kleptocracies do: whenever it is convenient and in demand, with little thought for long-run consequences. This works in the extreme short run and leads quickly to ridiculous inflation.

Continue reading MMORPG Monetarism

Good news: The California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court have both held that, under federal law, actively reposting defamatory material does not make you liable for the defamation. That is you may not libel someone, but you can freely repost others’ libel, even if you know the claims are false and tortious. If this interpretation carries in Florida, you are free say anything you like about The Lawyer Who Shall Not Be Named, as long as someone else said it first. (H/T: Volokh)

Bad news: Universal has sued to threatened to sue Myspace, along with fans who they asked to help promote the film Serenity. Maybe I’m confused and Universal Pictures is not connected to Universal Music Group, but if any MMO you write about is connected to any Universal intellectual property, now could be a good time to start deleting those screenshots and reviews.

: Zubon

The mayor of Boston plans to bill Sony for public security costs related to the PlayStation 3 release. Meanwhile, a city councilor is trying to have Grand Theft Auto ads removed from city buses. No plans have been announced yet about forming a lynch mob and storming the nearby offices of Turbine.

In a nearby state, the Senator who was promoting video game censorship as part of her re-election campaign won by a rather large margin. In yet another nearby state, her co-sponsor on the “Family Entertainment Protection Act” was re-elected by a somewhat smaller margin.

If you did manage to acquire a PlayStation 3 or Wii, you may want to put it in your car and start driving west.

: Zubon

hat tip: Hit & Run and Overlawyered.

[City of Heroes] I have been editing some things on the Paragon Wiki recently (because I am a nerd). It is a useful guide to City of Heroes and Villains, although I am still supplementing it with Vidiot Maps at present.

My favorite thing on the wiki so far is the page of City of Villains accolade badges. These are the ones that give you powers, and the page is a convenient guide to which powers there are, which badges get you there, and what you need to get those badges. I now have a text file for each of my main villains, where badges get deleted as I get closer to having my accolades. If you have not looked at your accolade needs, it can be nice to realize that you can get a permanent +5% endurance for reading a plaque (given what you did without trying).

I liked it so much, I made another for City of Heroes. More text file checklists may be in my future (because I am a nerd). I now have another thing to keep me occupied while waiting for people to get ready for missions.

: Zubon

I’ve been putting in 60+ hour weeks lately, so playing and/or posting has been on an as-needed basis, but apparently I’m completely missed the boat on this PS3 thing. I say this since I swung by the local Wal-Mart on the way home for some supplies to find people on their beds on the sidewalk. Yes, on their beds. I didn’t get any pictures, but I’m considering swinging by before work tomorrow. I had to ask someone inside what the fuss was (I thought they were panhandlers). Funny thing is there was a good 40+ people outside, and the place expects to get 10, at most, with 0 a more likely quantity.

Even when I was single, sleeping outside of a store for days waiting for a gaming system never made my list of stuff to do. Going to assume that’s a good thing. Looking for your PS3 camping/camper stories!

[Second Life] My wife has been asked to make a presentation for librarians at Second Life’s Information Island next year. Yes, real professional organizations have meetings in Second Life. She has been logging time to practice and not be a total noob. Also, she has been shopping for cute hair and dresses, though she does not plan to give her presentation as a fairy or in her new Wonder Woman costume.

Information Island is a fun place to network with other librarians. One had a grant to bring public health information online, so they were discussing information architecture and ways to deliver public health resources. Then one librarian said something about her tattoo and nipple piercings. “Sorry, wrong channel.”

I was surprised that was as risqué as it got, not just because Second Life is a cyber-brothel, but because these are librarians we are talking about. If that does not make sense to you, you need to hang out with more librarians.

: Zubon

I was getting ready to take another forced break from all monthly-fee games and spend more time doing other things, like watching Battlestar Gallactica on DVD, when I opened my email to find another beta invitation. I’m interested in the development of this one, so I guess I’ll have nothing to say here for a while. I’ll continue playing Guild Wars, even when it tells me I’ve played for 2 hours and should take a break. I love that.

Zubon, you have the bridge.

– Ethic