Is GW a good way to teach kids about money?

One thing what GW or other online games teach is that you can do whatever you want if you are anonymous. It also tells that how people will behave when there is no law enforcements.

Well as soon as I saw the price of those tickets vs. how many points I needed for those silly Lucky titles I realized that the event was a thinly veiled 'gold sink' weekend, as this past weekend was. But that might be good too, the kids should know when a 'sale' is really a 'sale'.

Man you got that right. There's more would-be thieves running around in the game than I ever would have imagined. No dignity, no scruples, very sad thing.

I gotta say I kindof agree with milias on this one... This same idealogy also accured to me a few weeks back when reading another forum topic on getting rich and staying rich in GW. The principles used in the topic were much the same as I see in many economics and business classes in college. Basically, sell and save when the demand and price is high, hold and buy when the demand and price is low. Basic economic principles apply to this game and I think kids DO learn some great money leasons.
Whenever I see someone asking me for money, whether its 100g or 10k, I always say "go out and make it yourself, just like the rest of us did." Sure you see lots of noobs pouting about money issues, as many lazy people in real life do, and you know what? In the game, almost every person out there who has the money earned it themselves with a lot of effort and time (and saving) and those who don't have the money are just too lazy to get it themselves (or spend it all).
...That sounds like real life to me...

Well, maybe 'kids' will learn a little bit about money in game trading skills, in game only (ie. how to spend their gold wisely, what to buy and what not to buy etc etc). But still it is easy making money in game comparing to real life (if you play more, you get more - cause of addiction). They may not learn about the importance of money in real life (if they do, they will not be fooling around in GW, and keep buying the new chapters).

In some circumstances, due to their 'immaturity', they come out with some 'smart' ideas of making money by scamming other people's money off, not excluding those who lack of in game courtesy. Well, that's 1 of money making skills, applies in real life too. But still having gg (getting banned) in game is much more better than gg in real life .

Thought?

Hahahaha! This thread is a joke. Guild Wars teaching kids about money is like 'Grand Theft Auto' teaching you how to live a successful life. Or 'Super Mario' teaching you about mushroom poisoning. Or 'Singles' teaching you how to have sex.

Seriously, if a game is teaching kids what to do in real life, then where the hell are their parents? Guild Wars is the WORST game to have a kid learn from. This game encourages scamming, rudeness and harrassment because of the absence of enforcement. If this hypothetical kid were to apply all of this in real life, he'd have his ass sent to juvenile hall.

Guild Wars is a fictional game, not an educational supplement.

You want education? Go to school.

I don't think kids can learning anything from Guild Wars Economy other than buy low and sell high!

It's not about replacing parents by a game, but if a game could actually be educative.

Working together in a team? Starting a Guild? Trying to get a Guildhall with your Guildmembers? FarmFaction so you can own a city with your alliance and everyone can buy things cheap?
Sounds pretty communist to me....

I dont think GW does teach kids about money....
I've found single player games with a better way of using money.
No offense Anet
:P

This game is no where no near the real worlds economy as there is really no stock exchange,interest rates,the value of currency and then there is the energy costs.That is what drives the economy is energy cost when it goes up everything goes up.The only thing it teachs them is if they want something in life is to save up for it instead of bugging daddy or mommy for it.

I love playing GW. my kids will be homeschooled and one of their subjects will be GW.

"I'm sorry Honey, you'll have to go kill someone and take their money to get thr car you want..."

J/K

There's a rudimentary economy, true, but there's no taxes, no service charges, no maintenance... Once you earn money, it stays with you forever - until you spend it. Money is also continually being created in-game. That happens in real life but not as blatantly. Working doesn't just earn you money - it earns you somebody else's money.

What it is good for, though, is providing an interesting view on social and psychological matters.

I wrote a paper on online game economies for my graduate economics course with a well-respected and well-known professor. He thought the paper was interesting and relevant. Don't mean to sound condescending, but everyone I've spoken to who has a solid background in economics can see a lot of parallels between GW and real world economies. The differences between the two economies also help to highlight some of the effects of going under a different economic plan. There are major differences to be sure, but they can be identified in economic terms, for example: low performance ceiling on goods, absence of necessary commodities (except maybe ID and Salvage kits), infinite durability of goods, lack of innovation/technological progression (no one is working on increasing max dmg on staves or axes), group membership is changeable rather quickly, lack of clearly identifiable chains of suppliers and consumers, lack of brand loyalty, etc.

However, supply and demand laws apply pretty well. Informational goods (status goods like crystallines, mursaats, FoW armor, etc.) have a high value above their pure utility value. Fame and social standing play a role in the game. Organized groups such as guilds and alliances may act as personal and business networks in achieving one's goals. The gap between the rich and poor exists. Satisficing is extremely common in purchasing decisions. New or limited period goods occassion high levels of impulse buying. Trends and tastes affect the market a great deal (e.g., sundering mod vs. vamp or furious).

Anyway, if you know enough about economics you could certainly teach a kid a great deal about it using GW as an example. GW could be simply seen as another culture/country/planet with a different system of economics. A kid could also try to make predictions about prices in GW and then learn about why they're predictions were correct or not. GW is a fairly simple, simulated economy with some unpredictability that can be used pretty well as teaching tool. For example, how many of us saw the price drop in Sup Absorption coming? How might you explain this via economic principles?

Hey, they might learn advertising. Example:

Toyota Corolla for sale - $2,000

***~TOYOTA~***one of a kind***~COROLLA~***|||||||yours for JUST 3K!!!~****

Creativity might get the extra 1K. Ah, how sad.

If GW was used as an educational tool, the agricultural sector would get a huge boost. I see the farming population increasing exponentially, while everyone flees the other areas of commerce. It would be counterproductive to introduce this game in particular to young people as a form of education.

Also...

I think too many poeple here are taking this too literaly. They're not saying that it is exactly like the real world economy. There are certain "metaphors" that you may see.

Money drops from monsters = working at a job

Ebay gold = fake money, Con people, dishonest sales people, etc.

There are more, but I just can't think of more good examples.

As well, they aren't saying that Guild Wars should REPLACE schools, they're saying it could ASSIST them to teach.

Hehe, if I used my knowledge from GW in rl.. I'd be farming for fuel by aggroing all my work colleagues and killing them in the usual farming method then using their loot for petrol, walk into the building again, hope they ressed and that they have plenty of loot on them

.. sometimes... that would be REALLY nice to do.

It's sad really. I overhear people talking in local chat, and sometimes I hear the occasional, "I dropped out of school... my parents don't care... I play GuildWars all day!"

Also, if today's kids aren't learning about how an economy works in school, the last thing they need to be doing is playing PC and video games.

I told my son he can't play till he learns to read... and then I am killing all the chat channels and setting the filters to uber high and only letting him farm charr >_>

unfortunately...over half of those 'kids' do not know how to haggle.

Really this game should be played with the spirit for which it was intended. When I kill a member of the Jade Brotherhood, or an Ice Imp, or an Undergrowth, let alone how human the appearence it still doesn't feel like I'm actually "killing someone"...they're pixels after all. I personally have never killed a pixellated character on a PC screen and thought to myself "I must .... go......kill someone ....... noooooowwww". So I can see the potential for kids to learn the value of money...but the game can be manipulated so that you don't get the "educational money" experience, Such as "mummy, can I have your card to go on ebay with", or "can someone give me 50g for storage and a perfect gold weapon to start me off?". As with everything, this sort of thing can get corrupted but these sort of games have NEVER made me want to go kill people.