What economists are doing with EVE is one of the most fascinating concepts I've seen in a while. EVE, a gamer's dream created by CCP Gaming, is an imaginary place set 20,000 years into the future in a galaxy known as New Eden. There, imaginary citizens of five different imaginary empires fight imaginary wars in a bid for imaginary domination over each other. 350,000 real world subscribers to EVE Online from all over the world.
These people’s actions, economists say, offer a treasure trove of information to study and analyze, primarily because each one of their decisions leaves a trail, creating a vast database that economists can only dream of in the real world.
In effect, it creates a giant laboratory within which to study human behavior, dramatically scaling up the kind of classroom-based experimental economics that were pioneered by 2002 Nobel Prize winner Vernon Smith.
Some people scoff at the viability of EVE's data, but CCP Chief Executive Officer Hilmar Petursson, who could be thought of as EVE’s head of government, disagrees.
“People say the real world in a casual way, where it sounds like something fundamental,” he said. “But people tend to forget that the world we live in is just a game designed by our governments. Our economic systems are just a game.”
