"There is 100 percent employment for all Neopets because everyone is allowed to play the games. This..."

“There is 100 percent employment for all Neopets because everyone is allowed to play the games. This is something we as Americans will never be able to achieve. And as graduation looms even closer and I begin my job search in earnest, I wish I had a guarantee of employment for the years ahead. But instead all I have is the possibility of escaping to the Neopian utopia for a couple of hours — the only problem with that is I seem to have forgotten my password.”

-

from Neopian Economics by Shara Azad

I’ll eventually write a thing discussing the anti-capitalist potential in creating alternative virtual spheres of interaction. I already wrote a thing on Team Fortress 2, but this is hilarious and great.

There are a few flaws in a Neopian economic model being translated to the real world. The main issue seems to be with the Neopets themselves. Because Neopets are seemingly immortal — mine always had a hunger level of “dying” but never actually died — productivity is never limited by the workers themselves. It also seems possible to win an infinite number of Neopoints; I like to think that the limiting factor for my “Ultimate Riches!” bank account was the fact that my parents wanted me off the computer by 9 p.m. every night.

How would this be transliterated into the world of mortal humans? I guess it would necessitate a configuration of socioeconomic relations that address incentivizing productivity by paying based on output and finally abandoning the abstract wage and capitalist temporality. Neopets is great.

(via maozedongisnotcool)

Neopian economic critiques of the capitalist superstructure: coming soon.

(via mohandasgandhi)

yeah, this is probably the best thing I could have ever read.

(via thisnewscandal)