The BBC has a fascinating story about a new exchange that permits one to exchance currencies among some of the various massively-multiplayer online games that are out there. A little light on details, especially the most fascinating detail -- how are the rates set? Is it somehow based on the amount of work it takes in Star Wars: Galaxies to earn one credit versus the amount it takes in The Sims Online to earn one Simoleon? With enough currency exchanges out there, maybe these currencies could "float," but with just one it seems terribly inaccurate.
[Side note: The exchange doesn't permit one to buy currency in Dark Age of Camelot or Everquest. Which is too bad, from an academic point of view -- Everquest is not only the biggest MMOG, it's the only one whose economy has actually been measured -- and is apparently comparable to that of Russia.]
Right now, the idea of these exchanges is kind of a curiosity for most, since game items don't look much like "property." Gaining money (or goods) in these games is mostly an exercise in time spent or mouseclicks clicked -- numbers of rats killed, or bricks made, or whatever -- but that's not so very different from numbers of burgers flipped. The bigger obstacle is that the universe of potential goods, services, and resources is limited by the designers' priorities and abilities, making the whole thing look like a highly controlled (and therefore uninteresting) economy. But designers are constantly thinking about creative new ways for users to create items. And users are constantly coming up with new services (for better or for worse). The fruits of such labor start to look a lot more like property, don't it? (Via Terra Nova.)