GT-Hey! Who took my money?

Yes - that's right. The GTA-like MMORPG called APB (All Points Bulletin) was presented at this year's Game Developer Conference. Besides imagining all of the interesting gameplay that will take place in this kind of open world, I'm especially interested in what's going to happen economically.

We all know that the in-game currency and important items will be sold for real cash (thank you internet!). So if probably way more than half of the players are going to be criminals as opposed to police, getting your loot jacked in the game *will* translate to real $ losses in the real world. I think the chats and boards are gonna get WAY heated up by angry victims and gloating perps. I can see the "hey I robbed your stuff and just sold it on ebay - take that loser" kinds of posts. This could breed frustration that boost sales of new keyboards and monitors. While the Softpedia article about this game didn't mention anything about a "lawyer" character class, real lawyers could get involved in disputes over player losses.

Tune in next time for a discussion of possible cash flow models for this game that's sure to attract a lot of attention and subscribers.