3pointD.com

Kaneva, the social media virtual world, will be “launching” its economy in May, according to a press release. Members can already use Credits to purchase things like furniture, but a slightly more complex system seems to be going into place, one that attempts to guard against “real-money trade” — the out-of-game cash economy that parallels most virtual economies. Unfortunately, Kaneva seems to be missing an opportunity to make their world a more engaging place.

Kaneva members can already user “credits” to purchase things like furniture within the world, but an upcoming feature will let them purchase credits with real-world cash. No word yet on what the exchange rate will be, or whether it will be fixed or floating.

Members will also receive something called “reward credits.” It’s not entirely clear from the press release whether there are normal credits that are awarded for things like participating in “Stress Tests, special events, and contests,” or whether they’re a separate currency altogether. Their features are interesting:

• Reward credits are “tied to each member” — which I take to mean they can’t be transfered from one member to another
• They can’t be used to buy items from another member, but only from in-world stores
• The items they’re used to buy can’t be traded or sold to other members. The press release doesn’t mention whether you can make a gift of them, but I’m assuming that’s covered under “traded.”

Again, there’s a big question as to whether there are two separate currencies here. It sounds like there are, that they’re both worth the same, but that one is more freely tradable than the other.

I’m not sure why reward credits should be insulated against RMT while normal credits are not. If I’m reading the press release right, reward credits are not really acting as currency here, but only as scrip in an incentive system, one that’s linked to a centrally produced system of goods. Why is this desirable? Frankly, I’m not sure. If normal credits are to be freely tradeable, reward credits will probably not have much of an impact on the bigger economic picture. Why not just let them float as well?

The changes in the economy will have other effects, Kaneva says. Many goods will be repriced, “your credit balance will reflect the new exchange rate” (i.e., your balance will change), all the credits now in your account will become reward credits, and all your inventory items will suddenly become non-transferrable. It almost sounds like Kaneva is trying to incentivize the purchase of normal credits by making reward credits less desirable, but I still don’t see why they need to be there at all.

I’m puzzled. I’ll get back to you if I can learn more.