Play Money
By Julian Dibbell
Reviewed By Katherine Kay
(ISBN 13–978–0–465–01535–1)
In his book, Play Money, Julian Dibbelltracks his year–long adventuremaking a living as a virtual gamer in UltimaOnline, where he earns his livingcrafting swords and armor, vanquishinglizard men, and farming for gold. Unbeknownstto many in the “real” world—the game world is a place where peoplework, play and live for many hours a daythrough mouse clicks.
Dibbell wrote about games forWired magazine, and his curiosity andinterest led him to a yearlong fellowship position at Stanford University’sLaw School Center for Internet and Society where theidea for his book first took root.
He discovered that the virtual game world had an economythat rivaled those of some nations. In this world could also befound the movers, shakers and low men on the totem pole thatvied for power and prestige. Gamers worked long hours and madesacrifices for their virtual lives. For gamer wannabes with littletime or game skill, all of the accouterments of the game life couldbe bought online with real money.
On March 11, 2003, Dibbell announced to all reading his blogthat he was going to make a career out of selling virtual goods,and he was going to get rich doing it. His goal: To make as muchmoney at Ultima Online in one year as he did in his best year ofwriting.
Throughout Play Money Dibbell engages in a rather Socraticdialogue with the reader about play, work and moral issues of gaming.After a year of selling his virtual commodities on eBay andgame sites, he concluded it was definitely work rather than play.As for the moral issues, he saw cheaters nearly shut down the entireoperation with their manipulation, heard sweatshop talk, andheard dangerous conversations between and about other players.This was serious business to some. Dibbell concluded that thisworld definitely had a level of reality to it where very real ethicalissues were inescapable.
You have to like and admire Dibbell for his diligent recordkeeping and reporting about the game world. He kept the worldinformed step–by–step throughout the year on his Blog, whicheven gave him a little fame. The BBC Online ran a brief article onhis project, Jornal do Brasil ran a longer feature, and National PublicRadio invited him to speak.
