How Game Studios Are Building In-Game Economies Like Central Banks

Game economies have grown larger than many real-world currencies. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore how studios like Blizzard and Valve manage virtual marketplaces using tools that would look familiar to a central banker — inflation targeting, money supply controls, and even quantitative tightening. They dig into the case of "Diablo III's" disastrous auction house, which taught the industry that virtual economies need monetary policy, not just game design. Then they look at "Path of Exile" and "EVE Online," which treat their in-game economies with the rigor of a small nation. Lucas explains why inflation in a game world can be just as destructive as in the real one — and why the best-run virtual economies now have their own data teams dedicated to tracking velocity of money and consumer price indices. The conversation closes on what happens when real-money trading blurs the line between play and work. #InGameEconomies #VirtualCurrency #Blizzard #Valve #DiabloIII #PathOfExile #EVEOnline #MonetaryPolicy #GameDesign #Inflation #VirtualGoods #RMT #Technology #Business #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #GamingTech #Podcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo