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From even his first developer blog, Dr. EyjóG has shown that he has an amazing way of presenting knowledge and numbers that he has garnered from the EVE archives in a fashion that is relatively accessible to those individuals who are looking for these types of numbers. But are there economic areas or specializations that Dr. EyjóG is looking for in particular?

"We're looking for the general economic indicators that everyone is interested in," Dr. EyjóG said. "Many people see economic information as merely being entertainment. Everybody's waiting for the latest numbers on the stock market, on unemployment, etc. The same goes for the people that are playing EVE."

"One of the things that I was most interested in when I started looking at the game was the basic concept of specialization," Dr. EyjóG continued. "It seems to have been something that happened immediately. Now these specializers are getting really really good at extracting things like extra tritanium during their operations. We even have people that are specialized in hauling goods for other individuals, as time is a resource that is very very important in the EVE Online space. Then there are our PvP specialists that are the real economic engine, since they always need bigger, better weapons and newer vessels."    

CCP has always kept a laissez-faire attitude towards players and the decisions they make.

"I think people jumped into these specialist roles early on because it was human natures," Dr. EyjóG said. "You excel at what you're good at. That's what we do in real life. We find a path and we try to be the best in that particular area."

The Ten Ton Hammer team was also curious on the degree of intricacy that Dr. EyjóG analyzed the statistics that he pulled from the EVE logs. Using world economies as an example, economists are often just as concerned with individual segments of the economy - state economies and even personal budgets - as much as they are concerned about the global outlook of the entire world. However, we wondered if this sort of micro-inspection translated well to EVE and if Dr. EyjóG was going so far as to analyze the economics within a corporation or an alliance. "Right now we're really looking at it from a broad perspective," he said. "But as we get more universities and people that want to do research on the EVE economy, the more greater the level of focus on particular player groups in the game."

Luckily, Valerie Massey, the PR and communications director for CCP, informed us that they weren't lacking for people that were interested in doing research on the EVE universe. "We've had so many inquiries that we have been sorting through them and picking the universities that seem more appropriate," she said.

Despite the intense analysis that Dr. EyjóG has been giving the economics in EVE, he wasn't particularly interested in immediately jumping into the game world and adjusting resources and good prices artificially. Like the rest of the EVE development, he's taking the laissez-faire approach and letting the players drive the economy. "We try to keep our hands off of things from A to Z," Dr. EyjóG said. " We wanted to stay out of it as much as we possibly can. What I'm looking at right now is more in terms of future planning."

"For example, the players have been discussing advanced financial systems," Dr. EyjóG continued. "They've been starting things like banks all by themselves. The problem is, however, that there's a lack of trust in the current arrangement." And that distrust is rightfully there, as the last person to set up a really prolific banking system ran off with 790 BILLION ISK. News agencies like Cnet picked up on the story and ran it with the rest of their tech news, which shows just how unique the EVE Online world is compared to other games of a similar nature.

One of the many graphs located in the first EVE Online economist dev blog.

But even with that bank theft, the CCP team is totally understanding to that particular player's desire to run off with a HUGE stash of money. "In a way, that's part of the game,"  Dr. EyjóG said. "There's nothing built into the game that punishes the player for breaking that trust. There are banks in the game world now, but players have to put up collateral that is 1.5 times larger than the money that they take out. In the real world, it'd be like putting up a house and a half to buy one house. That doesn't really work out in the long-term. So the question is, 'Should we be creating advanced financial institutions in EVE?' If the answer is yes, we need to find some way to build that trust."

"In the end, we may have to develop a system that builds trust," Dr. EyjóG said. "Look at the federal reserve system in the United States. They exist simply to create trust. When the stock markets or bond markets are having a bit of trouble, the federal reserve is there to back it up."

From an academic standpoint, I can only imagine how interested I would have been in a class that did all of its research in an online gaming world. Even to be a part of that sort of scenario would have been an amazing experience for me. Luckily, it sounds like even schools outside of Iceland are approaching Dr. EyjóG for a chance to take a look at the game. "Actually, they are more or less foreign universities that are approaching us, at this point," Dr. EyjóG said. "But we are also working with the University of Iceland."

"At the University of Iceland," Dr. EyjóG continued, "we are looking at democracy and how we can extend to the community in more democratic ways. That's a long term project."

Finally, we asked Dr. EyjóG to try to explain, in simple terms, what's in his latest blog. If you haven't checked out the blog yet, make sure you click here and give it a read.  It's a phenomenal look into an online world that is incredibly complex but can be broken down into something that's readable to the even a hard-headed guy like myself. In any case, Dr. EyjóG was more than happy to give us an explanation.

As EVE continues to grow, the need for Dr. EyjoG will become even greater.

"This first blog that I put up is a historical overview of the mineral markets," Dr. EyjóG said. "The mineral market is made up of six basic minerals and we looked at how things have developed over time, particularly in production and trade. What is interesting to see is that there has been a general price decline over the past four years of our operation. This tells us that people are getting more efficient at what they're doing. The economy is growing, demand is growing, trade is increasing, and its still fulfilling what the basic gameplayer needs. Though prices have been declining, those prices still fluctuate where we have areas of high inflation and deflation. It was interesting to see how - in the beginning - there were price fluctuations of up to 20% inflation and deflation, which is enormous. Since then, it has been stabilizing, especially this last year as the mineral trade has been increasing. This is the same sort of development that we've seen in the real world, where better technology and production efficiency help drive prices down, even when demand is higher."

Ten Ton Hammer readers, I'd like to thank you for attending EVE Economics 101 with Dr. EyjóG, transcribed by Cody "Micajah" Bye. Just like the rest of the EVE universe, the economics of EVE Online will only continue to become more and more intricate as the game expands and develops. However, I'm certain that with Dr. EyjóG on the CCP team, EVE Online will never face the sort of rampant inflation issues or any of the other economic nastiness that other MMOGs have had to deal with. With each new development in the realm of online economics, the Ten Ton Hammer staff will make sure to chat with Dr. EyjóG and gain his amazing insight into online economies.

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