This was the article I mentioned in class. It was written in April 2008 but still very much relevant to our studies. It compares WoW's earnings in cyber commodity to that of large corporations and even the GDP of major nations (in per capita of course). Here's the link:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wow-inc-/1203104-2
There's one particular quote that's very interesting: "Back in 2001, economics researcher and author Edward Castronova (who's now a professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington) published an oft-cited paper that ranked the economy of Everquest, then the most popular online RPG around, as having a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita close to that of Russia, and a currency valued higher than the Yen."
Everquest, which is much "smaller" compared to WoW was compared to Russia's GDP per capita and its currency rivaled the Yen. It's amazing to see how much economic power these games really have. It makes you wonder if the line between cyberspace and reality has already begun to blur.
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