Social Currency & Power In Virtual Worlds

We received an interesting comment on an older post about Gaia Online from ‘Ceravis’ – a player in the virtual world. They talk about the correlation between money and popularity:

I’ve been on Gaia since 2003, and I’d have to say that the main thing that deters me from the site is that most people there are gold oriented and make friends based on their wealth in gold (so they can get their expensive items) or popularity.

In addition, I dislike the social elitism associated with being an oldbie, having a lot of gold, or being popular in certain forums or in Gaia Towns.

Right, so you think that an oldbie like me who has expensive stuff should shutup and be grateful to Gaia? Well, I am grateful and glad that Gaia’ grown to be successful. What I don’t like is the community of users- until people there stop being obsessed with gold and ‘social capital’, I won’t really be involved in the community that much.

Gaia