By Sonny Mosquito

 Ones and zeros.


How much of our lives are dictated by the ones and zeros floating around someplace "out there" in cyber space?

More than we appreciate I am sure. Everything is changing, and we are all a part of it whether we like it or not.

There are new worlds out there where everyone can be anything that you can imagine, and a few things that we would never have had the imagination for.

We get to these new worlds the same way we have become accustomed to doing our banking, shopping and communicating - the internet.

In these new worlds, we can commune with other adventurers like our selves, who are weary of the uninteresting, day-in day-out of our actual existences and crave only to feel the exhilaration of looting a different dungeon, gaining the next level, forging a new weapon.

What drives human beings to long for escape from our lives? People can be blissfully lost for days in a story, hours in a film, minutes in a song. Why?

It is understandable that world can be a unpleasant place, but I believe it has to more to do with our imaginations joined with our desire to be unbound.

These escapes present reprieve from the constraints of reality. The last thing going through the head of a level 56 mage in the midst of a raging contest with a fire breathing dragon is the detail that the trash has to go out and the rent is payable tomorrow.

In Winterspring there are no irritating land lords - and if there was you could probably just lob a fireball at them and bang - crisis solved.

The interesting thing about the new "worlds" being produced online is that the lines between reality and fantasy are growing increasingly blurry. Some of these virtual communities have evolved into real world economies, with all the risk and reward associated with real markets.

It was to be expected, when ever you have demand for anything, you will eventually have some one who will be willing to supply what is demanded, and some one else willing to pay for it.

Multi-billion dollar real-world industries have emerged as a result of satifysing virtual world demands. If you don't want to spend the time to build your character, you can pay out the funds to acquire one - all leveled up, all geared up and ready to go!

How many times have you heard of a weapon or something for a game being sold at an online auction for major money?

Just lately a man was arrested for hacking into hundreds of online accounts for one specific game and pinching weapons and other gear valued at tens of thousands of dollars - actual change!

Everyone has heard stories like this, they are not new - but the basic idea is intriguing.

In many cases, online games provide you with the opportunity to acquire the in-game virtual coins with your money. And, if you did the mathematics, I would be prepared to bet huge that a number of of these game world currencies are doing better than some of the real world currencies right now! This thought of a feasible trading market in a virtual world challenges the notion that the only commodity being traded is time (some spends "x" number of hours to build an asset that someone else buys for "x" amount of money). The invention of a practical currency market contained by these fantasy worlds raises some interesting questions. What kind of opportunities does that create? Who eventually profits? Who deserves to benefit? Who in fact owns the ones and zeros that generate these virtual property? How different, essentially, are those ones and zeros than the binary that runs our actual money?

All through history, technology has created fresh markets and new opportunities to generate industry. From the first sea faring ships that brought back spices, to continent crossing rail roads that combined the new world, technology has constantly motivated commerce. What individuals need in no way changes, but what people want will forever be determined by what there is to obtain!

So by the capacity of the internet we have been creating new worlds, and new economies have been birthed out of them. New companies are establishing claims, staking out territories and making mammoth earnings in these virtual worlds. We as humans have continually possessed the aptitude to produce fantasies and from the earliest paid legend teller on we have exploited selling opportunities for diversion. The difference is now it appears that the fantasies have begun constructing the opportunities for commerce.
You can acquire virtual "gold" with your real change. You can also sell your virtual resources for real money.

It has become increasingly difficult to distiguish the line between reality and fantasy. Is that warrior really just a fantasy when you could sell it for enough to pay the rent? Nevertheless, several people are finding that they favor a little bit fantasy once in a while. It makes it a little easierto be a labourer most of the time when you can be a level 80 Rogue the rest of the time.


Here we are, in the midst of a new world order that is floating in the air around us. It is made of ones and zeros and populated by a world that needs to escape.

WoW Mage || Leveling Mage Wow Noob

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