BBC: VIRTUAL KINGDOM RICHER THAN BULGARIA

Views on BG | March 31, 2002, Sunday // 00:00

Abridged from BBC

By Ania Lichtarowicz

BBC Science Reporter

A virtual country has entered into the world economy. Norrath, the setting for the online game Everquest, has been found to be the 77th richest country in the world, sandwiched between Russia and Bulgaria.

Online gaming has attracted millions of players and their rise in popularity in recent years is mainly down to improved graphics and more players to interact with.

Research carried out in the United States shows that virtual internal markets, combined with illegal online trading on auction websites, mean that Norrath has a gross national product per capita of $2,266, bigger than China and India.

Many computer games designers predict that as computer processing powers improve virtual economies will play a bigger part in the real world stakes.

Millions of players

Virtual worlds exist in which people play games like Everquest, Ultima Online and Lineage.

It is estimated that about 2.5 million people play Lineage in Korea alone and millions subscribe to other games worldwide.

Each player pays a subscription fee, usually about $10-15 per month, to be able to take part in the game.

Online games differ from traditional computer games as life in the virtual world continues all the time, even when a player switches off the computer or console.

And if you want your character to do well players need to invest time and effort into literally improving themselves.

Some people spend so much time online that they end up with too many skills and so can trade them in the real world.

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