
Why do People Buy Virtual Goods? - peter123
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123395867963658435.html
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teej
A lot of the fuss about Virtual Goods in the past week has been stirred up by
a paper released by Vili Lehdonvirta.([http://virtual-
economy.org/blog/why_do_people_buy_virtual_go...](http://virtual-
economy.org/blog/why_do_people_buy_virtual_good) | PDF -
[http://www.hiit.fi/~vlehdonv/documents/Virtual%20item%20purc...](http://www.hiit.fi/~vlehdonv/documents/Virtual%20item%20purchase%20drivers.pdf))
Quickly put, the paper does a great job breaking down the attributes people
find valuable in virtual goods. Jeremy Liew's only real expansion on the paper
is the addition of "Building relationships", the use of virtual goods for
gifting.

I have to give credit to Jeremy Liew [1] for this article, he understands
virtual goods probably more than any Sand Hill Rd VC does, and he puts it in
laymens terms well. To get a little more in-depth on the topic, check out Vili
Lehdonvirta's contributions, that's where Jeremy got a lot of the content for
this article.

[1] - Disclaimer: Jeremy Liew has said nice things about my apps before.

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jacquesm
For the life of me, I don't know why. I have never bought anybody a 'digital
gift', and I probably never will.

I'll be at your door at 3am in the morning with a bunch of flowers or a cake
if the mood catches me but to express myself digitally by spending money on
something that you can not even use other than to know that 'I spent money on
you' is pointless.

I remember the time when there was that court case about virtual goods being
stolen and I thought that was the greatest abuse of the legal system. That
some idiot pays money for something does not mean it has value.

~~~
olefoo
> I'll be at your door at 3am in the morning with a bunch of flowers or a cake

I think I would have a problem with that. I don't know you and I'm fairly sure
you're not my type. ;-)

> That some idiot pays money for something does not mean it has value.

Au Contraire. The value of anything is precisely determined by what you can
get some idiot to pay for it.

The category mistake that everyone seems to make in this case is to regard
virtual goods as 'goods' when in fact what is being provided is a service. The
persistence storage and access rights to manipulate the object in question are
services that cost some money to provide; and they are what is being provided.

~~~
jacquesm
Good points. So, no cake for you then ;)

