Edward "Ted" Castronova is a professor of media at

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, or simply Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana University and, with ...

. He is known in particular for his work on the economies of

synthetic world A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a Computer simulation, computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal Avatar (computing), avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virt ...

Biography

Castronova obtained a BS in international affairs from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1985 and a PhD in economics from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1991. In between, he spent 18 months studying German postwar reconstruction and social policy at universities and research institutes in

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. From 1991 to 2000, he worked as an assistant and then associate professor of public policy and political science at

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

, after which he became an associate professor of economics in the College of Business and Economics at

California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton (CSUF or Cal State Fullerton) is a public university in Fullerton, California. With a total enrollment of more than 41,000, it has the largest student body of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) ...

. In the fall 2004, he joined the faculty of

as an associate professor of telecommunication and cognitive science, later becoming a full professor and also the director of graduate studies in the department.Edward Castronova homepage
/ref> His works on synthetic worlds and their economies, and on ''

EverQuest ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Americ ...

'' in particular, have attracted considerable attention. His paper on

Norrath ''EverQuest'' is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) originally developed by Verant Interactive and 989 Studios for Windows PCs. It was released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999 in North Americ ...

, a fictional planet in the EverQuest universe,
Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier (2001)
' is available on

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. It claims, for example, that Norrath has a

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per capita somewhere between that of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and

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, higher than that of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and that a unit of ''EverQuest'' currency is worth more than the

Yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

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. He is one of four founders (along with

Julian Dibbell Julian Dibbell (; born February 23, 1963) is an American author and technology journalist with a focus on social systems within online communities.Leonard, Andrew (January 22, 1999)The unbearable realness of virtual being. Salon.com Life and ca ...

, Dan Hunter and Greg Lastowka) of the game research blog Terra Nova. He also created the

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

Ludium game conferences which were built on the structure of a collaborative game environment. In 2008, he and his team finished work on a

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

-supported academic experiment in massively multiplayer online gaming, '' Arden: The World of Shakespeare''. They documented that people in fantasy games act in an economically normal way, purchasing less of a product when prices are higher, all other things being equal. This finding may open the way for future study in synthetic worlds of real economic behavior. Castronova said of the results, "Being an elf doesn't make you turn off the rational economic calculator part of your brain.".Final results for Arden project
In 2014, he co-authored a book with economic sociologist,

Vili Lehdonvirta Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. He is also a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, an associate member of the Department of Sociolog ...

, "BBC: Taste, Size, and Shape", which consisted of information regarding research, design, and the creation of virtual economies, published by MIT Press.

Papers

* * Castronova, Edward. "Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier,
''CESifo Working Paper No. 618''
December 2001. * Castronova, Edward. "On Virtual Economies,
''CESifo Working Paper Series No. 752''
July 2002. * Castronova, Edward. "The Price of 'Man' and 'Woman': A Hedonic Pricing Model of Avatar Attributes in a Synthethic World,
''CESifo Working Paper Series No. 957''
June 2003.

Media

BBC News - Virtual gaming worlds overtake Namibia

Norrath Economic Report Now Available - Slashdot.org on Castronova's report

* ttp://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxBloomington-Edward-Castrono Video "Be A Gamer" TEDx (2011)

Books

* Edward Castronova. ''Synthetic Worlds'', University of Chicago Press (2005). * Edward Castronova. ''Exodus to the Virtual World''
Palgrave Macmillan
(2007). * Edward Castronova. ''Wildcat Currency''. Yale University Press (2014). * Edward Castronova. ''Virtual Economies'': Design and Analysis. (2014), With Vili Lehdonvirta ISBN 0262535068

References

External links