10,000 gold for 20 dollars: an exploratory study of World of Warcraft gold buyers

Authors:
Thomas Debeauvais;Bonnie A. Nardi;Cristina V. Lopes;Nicholas Yee;Nicolas Ducheneaut
Affiliations:
University of California, Irvine, CA;University of California, Irvine, CA;University of California, Irvine, CA;Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA;Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto, CA
Venue:
Proceedings of the International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games
Year:
2012

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Abstract

Buying virtual currencies with real money from a third-party often violates the terms of use of online games. This study quantitatively investigates players who buy in-game gold from a third-party in World of Warcraft. A cross-cultural survey dataset of 2865 players reveals that differences between Asian and Western players are negligible compared to differences across genders, job categories, and play motivations. Our findings have implications for the design and study of interactions between players and virtual currencies.