Game thinking from Adam Clare

Tag: EconomicsPage 2 of 3

Valve Hires Economist, Starts a New Blog

Valve has hired an economist to help them balance their inter-game economies (and intra-game too I suppose). Valve Economics is written by Yanis Varoufakis who seems to have some really nifty thoughts on the global economy and how screwed up it is. His first post on how he came to work at Valve through a strange email.

I’ll definitely be following this blog, if anybody knows of any other blogs/sites that discuss game economies please leave a link in the comments!

The real question of course is what’s the conversion rate between TF2 hats and dollars?

The first article that had me think really seriously about game economies was this one from The Walrus which was published way back in 2004.

Paul Krugman on SciFi and Economics

A recent Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast interviewed Paul Krugman about the connections between science fiction and economics. It’s a fascinating half hour interview that you can listen to or read at Wired.

If you’re interested in SciFi and/or economics this is worth looking at.

Krugman isn’t the only economist who’s into science fiction. He also counts Brad DeLong at Berkeley and many of the contributors to the Crooked Timber blog among fans of the genre.

“I have friends, political scientists, sociologists, who all share an interest at least in certain kinds of science fiction,” says Krugman. “It’s speculative, we’re thinking about what society could be like.”

Krugman’s involvement in the science fiction world peaked in 2009 when he attended the World Science Fiction convention in Montreal and joined author Charles Stross for a free-wheeling, hour-long discussion.

Beware though, one of the hosts of Geek’s Guide does that annoying up-talking thing with his voice.

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