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Measuring virtual wealth in virtual worlds

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Abstract

This article presents pioneering research on measuring virtual wealth in an open virtual world for diagnosing the health of virtual worlds. It proved the existence of an open virtual world by proving the existence of a free choice of virtual currencies for virtual goods between distinct virtual worlds. By discussing the features of open virtual world in a circled networked organization, the article devised a virtual wealth measuring scheme, called Gross Virtual Product (GVP), for any virtual world. Based on this scheme, it suggested an accountability matrix to account for a changing virtual world regarding its total virtual wealth, profitability, user participation and happiness. To demonstrate the suitability of GVP scheme and accountability matrix, the article has conducted a case study on SecondLife.com, which showed the appropriateness of the proposed scheme and matrix. The research made in this article is very important. The proposed measuring scheme and matrix help virtual world participants perceive the possible risks of the participated virtual worlds in advance to make better decisions on virtual business.

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Acknowledgments

The work reported in this article has been partially supported by University of Macau Research Committee under the grant numbers RG055/08-09S/GJZ/FST and RG055/08-09S/10R/GJZ/FST.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Information Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Macau, Av. Padre Tomás, Pereira, S.J., Taipa, Macau

    Jingzhi Guo & Zhiguo Gong

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  1. Jingzhi Guo
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  2. Zhiguo Gong
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Correspondence to Jingzhi Guo.

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Guo, J., Gong, Z. Measuring virtual wealth in virtual worlds. Inf Technol Manag 12, 121–135 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10799-011-0082-9

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