A writer on virtual worlds and virtual real estate. I publish on Medium.com and place drafts and snippets on here for my patrons.
Virtual Economies are Nearly Impossible to Maintain
$3 Trillion!³ $8 Trillion!² $13 Trillion!¹ I've read all sorts of estimates on the value that will be present in the Metaverse over the years to come. They are all informed guesses - but guesses nonetheless. Importantly, though, it seems to me they're based on assumptions that even the analysts don't realize they're making. One of the biggest assumptions that go unquestioned in such estimates is that the economies of virtual worlds "work." There is actually very little evi...
Virtual Economies are Nearly Impossible to Maintain
$3 Trillion!³ $8 Trillion!² $13 Trillion!¹ I've read all sorts of estimates on the value that will be present in the Metaverse over the years to come. They are all informed guesses - but guesses nonetheless. Importantly, though, it seems to me they're based on assumptions that even the analysts don't realize they're making. One of the biggest assumptions that go unquestioned in such estimates is that the economies of virtual worlds "work." There is actually very little evi...
Virtual Real Estate is Real Real Estate (a first draft)
“So you’re telling me people are spending thousands of dollars on imaginary land?!” This has become one of those jokes. Everyone seems to think they’re clever when they drop it on me. The tone always suggests they half expect me to stammer, “Oh my God… I… I never thought of it that way…” Instead, I tend to just reply, “Yep.” Why argue? The people who ask it don’t want to understand anything. They just want to make a point about how dumb they think buyers of virtual real estate are. It was an ...
Virtual Real Estate is Real Real Estate (a first draft)
“So you’re telling me people are spending thousands of dollars on imaginary land?!” This has become one of those jokes. Everyone seems to think they’re clever when they drop it on me. The tone always suggests they half expect me to stammer, “Oh my God… I… I never thought of it that way…” Instead, I tend to just reply, “Yep.” Why argue? The people who ask it don’t want to understand anything. They just want to make a point about how dumb they think buyers of virtual real estate are. It was an ...
Here Come the Metaverse Cartels (a first draft)
Author and journalist Julian Dibbell recorded the following statement from a cartel informant in a book he published in 2006: “That’s the ugly side of [the game]… a side I prefer not to get involved with. Those guys are serious people… I would love nothing more than to see them all rot in prison, but I would fear for the safety of my family if they found out I told anyone.” It seems like standard mafia fare, but “those guys” referred to here weren’t managing construction rackets or laundering...
Here Come the Metaverse Cartels (a first draft)
Author and journalist Julian Dibbell recorded the following statement from a cartel informant in a book he published in 2006: “That’s the ugly side of [the game]… a side I prefer not to get involved with. Those guys are serious people… I would love nothing more than to see them all rot in prison, but I would fear for the safety of my family if they found out I told anyone.” It seems like standard mafia fare, but “those guys” referred to here weren’t managing construction rackets or laundering...
Welding Together the Metaverse (a first draft)
Key points:I talk about the potential of virtual reality and virtual worlds to improve language teaching.That application requires software tailored to it, and it’s unreasonable to expect the same virtual world that runs games and provides for shopping to do that as well.I argue that, if the Metaverse comes together, it will be as a cluster — a soldered-together mass of many virtual worlds.I received my master’s degree from a Korean women’s university. I’m neither Korean nor a woman. It’s a l...
Welding Together the Metaverse (a first draft)
Key points:I talk about the potential of virtual reality and virtual worlds to improve language teaching.That application requires software tailored to it, and it’s unreasonable to expect the same virtual world that runs games and provides for shopping to do that as well.I argue that, if the Metaverse comes together, it will be as a cluster — a soldered-together mass of many virtual worlds.I received my master’s degree from a Korean women’s university. I’m neither Korean nor a woman. It’s a l...
Nifty Island and the Case for Scarcity (a first draft)
It's an interesting statement about the age in which we live that announcements of new "metaverses" are prosaic and quickly ignored. I spend a large portion of my day scrolling Twitter and checking other sites to see what new developments there are in this space. I still can't keep up. Every hour of every day, it seems, there's something new to be made aware of. One of the projects that fell off my radar was Nifty Island. It only reregistered when a friend brought to my attenti...
Nifty Island and the Case for Scarcity (a first draft)
It's an interesting statement about the age in which we live that announcements of new "metaverses" are prosaic and quickly ignored. I spend a large portion of my day scrolling Twitter and checking other sites to see what new developments there are in this space. I still can't keep up. Every hour of every day, it seems, there's something new to be made aware of. One of the projects that fell off my radar was Nifty Island. It only reregistered when a friend brought to my attenti...
