In Play Money- Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Millions Trading Virtual Loot, Julian Dibbell explores the world of virtual reality gaming. Julian starts out as a technology writer who is curious to learn more about the Ultima gaming world. As he uncovers the secret lives various interviewees he is intrigued to give the game a chance. The book takes you on a wild journey as Julian is slowly sucked into the gaming lifestyle. He finds himself spending more and more time online late at night growing his characters and developing their skills. It is this growing addiction that leads him to create the Play Money proposition:
THE PROPOSITION
On April 15, 2004, I will truthfully report to the IRS that my primary source of income is the sale of imaginary goods — and that I earn more from it, on a monthly basis, than I have ever earned as a professional writer. –Julian Dibbell
As the book plays out the reader goes through the emotions of possible failure and success. You find yourself both feeling sorry for Julian and excited for him to fruitfully complete his next virtual business venture/alliance. In the end, Julian ends up coming very close to reaching his goal but falls just short. His project reads as an obsession with destructive tendencies– neglecting his family and doing business in truck stops in order to complete his goal.
I found myself engaged by the text and struggled at first to understand the addictive nature of investing so much time and energy into a computer game. It becomes a second life for many of its users. I was troubled by one conversation Julian has with a teen who is selling virtual gold to buy drugs for his birthday. It was situations like these that made me think of Dibbell as an addict struggling to hit bottom. Not to say that understanding the intricacies of this world were not interesting but at the same time I began to feel sorry for him. Other readers of his blog noted a shift in his personality and a change in his demeanor. He even notes that when the project was over he was depressed and needed to take Zoloft. You read of stock brokers being addicted to the rush of the job and I guess for Dibbell being a virtual wares trader provided this rush.
It was interesting to me that Dibbell sought out the IRS at the end of the project. It was as if he were searching for validation. He had spent a year trying to make a career out of a game. A game that the government does not recognize as a profitable profession. In the end convincing Mrs. Clardy and her team of the value of his gaming work seemed to validate Dibbell enough to let the dream go.
Another aspect of the book that caught my eye was the notion that their are factories of gaming schemers in China and Mexico, just full of people trying to beat the system. This strange under world is puzzling to me, but then again I don’t think I will ever be sucked into the Ultima or Second Life craze.
