3-14-11
So, I'm taking a night Economics class, and as an exercise for myself, I wanted to share some terms that I've learned, and how they can relate to WoW. The first definition is the textbook one, the second is the Warcraft equivalent.
Scarcity -
1. The limited nature of society's resources.
2. The limit of a server's materials.
Economics -
1. The study of how society manages its scarce resources.
2. The study of how servers use or sell the materials that are farmed.
Efficiency -
1. The property of society getting the most it can from its scarce resources.
2. This is shown by the "invisible hand" of the Auction House regulating prices. If materials are easy to get, the price will steadily drop from the initially high price. If the material is rare, but the AH price gets too high from gold-gouging Goblins, players won't buy it, and the price will fall to a lower equilibrium so the seller doesn't keep wasting deposit fees.
Equality -
1. The property of distributing economic property uniformly among members of society.
2. No WoW equivalent.
Opportunity Cost -
1. Whatever must be given up to obtain some item.
2. Grinding rep, gold, winning battlegrounds.....mainly it equals time.
Rational People -
1. People who systematically and purposefully do the best they can to achieve their objectives.
2. Playing the Auction House, doing dailies every day to get rep with a faction, and those who research to find the best rotation/spec/gems/glyphs/equipment for playing. Players who aren't Morons & Slackers, as Gevlon would say.
