Undercover Economist

I recently wrote about migration to virtual worlds. Now the BBC interviews an economist whose job is to analyse the economy of Eve Online:

Dr Eyjo Gudmundsson is the lead economist, a virtual Alan Greenspan, who works to make sense of all the data.
He said: “Within the game I supply players with economic information so they can make decisions about their own production, what they are going to produce and how they are going to produce it.
“It’s basically the same economic questions as in real life. It’s about strategy and an important part about strategic decisions is logistics and having access to the resources you need to win your war.
“It’s like a real war in the sense you have to plan ahead. It’s about long-term planning and long-term strategy.”
Every quarter Dr Gudmundsson and his team produce an economic newsletter analysing trends inside the game.
“We are looking at markets, at production and long-term trends that show the movements of the players.”