3. 8 million users worldwide Spawned novels, card & board games and movie planned Ushered in the āAge of WoWā Ubiquitous mainstream media coverage Open to commerce ā Real Lifeā brands opened up shop in game Featured on Radio 4 Featured in an episode of South Park
39. Station Exchange ā official marketplace for Everquest II players For buying and selling in game coins, items and characters Handled transactions of $1.87 million in its first year
40. Edward Castranova, Economist, Indiana University 1/5 of the players interviewed considered the in-game world as their main place of residence in 2005, the collective volume of annual trade in MMORPGs exceeded $1 billion Norrath, the game world in Everquest, had a GNP about the same as Bulgariaās By 2020 the total population of MMORPGs is expected to be in excess of 100 million Author of Synthetic Worlds: the business and culture of online games Average time spent in MMORPG ā 20 hours a week