Financial Cryptography

WoW crosses GP: get rich quick in World of Warcraft

SecretSquirrel writes:

it's a "get rich quick" guide for sale ... but actually for the virtual money inside the WoW game

Around a year or two ago I penned a series of rants called "GP" which predicted that the primary success signal of a new money was ... crime! The short summary is that in the battle for mindspace between issuers, users, critics & regulators, the press (who?) the offended and the otherwise religious ... there is no way for the external observer to figure out whether this is worthwhile or not.

But wait, there is one way: if a criminal is willing to put his time, his investment, indeed his very freedom on the line for something, it's got to be worth something! GP is undeniably crossed, I theorise, when criminals steal the value, and therefore provide a most valuable signal to the world that this stuff is worth something.

(it's not a parody!)

it's exactly following the format to the line, of any of the famous get-rich-quick newsletters.

(eg, http://www.landingpagecashmachine.com or hundreds of others) ... even the famous "three-line centered upper-lower case headline"

Call me cynical, but I have seen hundreds of digital cash systems live and die without meriting a second thought. There have been thousands I haven't seen! In my decade++ of time in this field, I've only seen one external signal that is reliable. Even this:

You know they say WoW is over $150 million per month in player fees now!

Is ... well, ya know, could be a fake. Did we see that Satyam, a huge audited IT outsourcing firm in India added some 13,000 jobs ... and nobody noticed?

If I am right, I'll also be blamed for the upsurge in fake crimes :)

Posted by iang at January 26, 2009 11:49 PM | TrackBack