Really? It's that easy to just start a college course? Just like that?

Hmmm, seems like Mr. Friedman didn't think things through.

First of all, he's acting like he can just walk up, make a proposal, and see it available on the academic curriculum by the next semester. But life isn't that simple, and he sure wants it to be. These types of proposals (even if they had any chance at all) need to go through ENDLESS amounts of approvals through various committees, councils and boards, and then have to be recognized by the state education board as a valid course for school credit.

Okay, now lets be realistic. How much longer does everyone think WoW has left in it? Maybe another expansion pack? Two if we're really feeling like pushing it? The game is already over 5 years old now and as much as I love the game, my drive has waned and so has most everyone else's. Already people are starting to feel "ho-hum" about the same old grind present in WotLK and showing signs of WoW burnout, admitting that they still play WoW almost out of habit, but the joy just isn't there. My girlfriend made a good analogy. Say you ate Cheerios every morning and loved them. Then after a few years, you gave Honey Nut Cheerios a shot and said, 'Wow! a different type of Cheerios. Awesome." And then a couple of years later, you switch over to Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and though, "You know, this is good and different and all, but I'm kinda starting to want to try something other than Cheerios soon."

Blizzard knows their game has a half-life, which is why they were smart enough to have already started working on their next MMO. It was a really smart move on their part, because they knew that if WoW was going to lose it's appeal eventually, why let another company steal away their fanbase, when they can just transfer their fanbase over to one of their own new MMOs instead? It's actually pretty smart. In essence, they are trying to ensure that they are only competing with themselves and their own products.

Now get back on topic, lets say this guy's proposal had ANY chance of happening, doesn't he realize that by the time anything actually came of it, people would read the course curriculum and say to themselves, "World of WarCraft? That game is soooooo 2006. Who plays that old game anymore?"
Essentially, he's proposing a course that will cost lots of money to implement (in the middle of an economic crisis, to boot) and is guaranteed to become obsolete, perhaps even the moment it would be implemented.

I would have bought his argument more if it was say, a game economics course for a school like "The Art Institute," "Gnomon," or "Full Sail" where they have programs geared for Bachelors Degrees in Game Art and Development, but not as a general economics course at a University where games have no relation to anything. Even then, I would say that it would need to be a general game economics course, that maybe has a special portion that discusses the WoW economy. I've had a game development course that had a section discussing game economy, starting with board games (remember Monopoly has an economy system too), but it was only a piece of a bigger pie.

Don't get me wrong, if your focus is to become a game developer, then I think the study of game economies is important, in fact, should be required study. This guy's proposal is beyond that, and really seems more focused on his personal desire to see WoW integrated into more of his facets of real life.

And if Mr. Friedman reads these responses (and he may very well do so) I hope he considers some of these issues, because if that wasn't enough I would like to hear his explanation of how he plans to deal with another critical flaw in the WoW economy (and game economy in general). I have seen him discuss the economics in WoW in relation to the AH and supply and demand but he's completely forgetting about the generation and destruction of money in the game entirely. In a real world economy, the dollar, or legal tender, is circulated. How many transactions has a quarter, minted in 1976, been involved in, up to this point. In WoW, outside of a personal transaction, or the AH, where does it go? WoW's economy has too many black holes where the money is either created or destryed. In the real world, for example, we can't kill Kobolds and take their money. We have to find some way to earn it through work or trade. But in WoW, when a mob is killed, money is generated, in essence, "appears out of thin air", and of course, where does the money go when you buy a flying mount from an NPC, lets say? Nowhere. The money is destroyed. Lost in a black hole. The money in WoW is initially generated by random number generation. A real economy doesn't work this way. Compound this with the fact that a real economy fluctuates. I've never heard of a recession in an MMO economy. Only inflation. That's because when money is easily and randomly "generated" or "created" in WoW or any other MMO, there's little room for any type of recession. Sure, on the AH, a recent patch can drop the price of an items demand on the AH, but this doesn't affect the overall economy of the game, just the market for that particular item. Of course, in real life, if you are all keeping up with the economic issue, we should all be aware that the idea of simply generating and "injecting" money into an economy doesn't work so smoothly, and opens a huge can of worms.

My overall point is, a WoW economy is so vastly different from the mechanics of a real world economy that I can't see any way you could possibly argue that it can be taught as an alternative to, or equal credit to a real-world economy course. With all do respect Mr. Friedman, you really didn't think this idea through.

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