A colleague of mine has two teenage boys who live for nothing but video gaming, especially of the online kind.  Recently he caught them huddled above their console, whispering to each other (a sure sign that they were up to no good) and when he confronted them found out that the reason for their secretiveness was money rather than sex. 

They had been building up their characters in one of the better known MMORPGs and were now looking to flog some magical weapons online for cold, hard and very real cash.  My colleague (who is a digital strategist) found it hard to come up with a good line to take: "What you are doing is very, very wrong – but secretly I am quite proud of you..."

There is ample evidence that the trade in virtual goods for real money leads to unwanted behaviour such as for example gold farming or conflicts over rights to intellectual property / real estate.

However, as an incurable optimist and believer in technology I cannot help but think that buying and selling electrons is a good thing.  Consider the scenario: a child gets to decide how s/he spends £50 of Christmas money.  In one scenario, s/he buys a plastic toy (weight 0.5kg), with a carbon footprint of around 1kg of CO2 if you believe the data.

In the other, s/he buys a game or widget, with very little impact - with no transport costs and no material, it is merely the cost of the electricity to drive the app that comes into account.

Not only will the cost to our planet be lower, but in my experience from three kids, virtual goods (games, interactive toys) are generally played with longer and can even be more socially engaging than many “offline” toys thanks to social networking games.  And if it is connected to physical activity (Wii fit, Seek n' Spell) everyone wins - the environment, your mind and your body.

My key point is this - virtual goods are still not regarded as "real", and trade in them often gets comments such as "don’t these people have anything better to do with their lives?".

However, as apps become more useful and valuable to us, because our understanding of their ability to meet our needs improves, I would argue that people engaging in this kind of activity are doing exactly the right thing by refocusing our consumption from physical goods to virtual goods. And the boundary between real and virtual is dissolving a little each day.

Sony has a patent on (but probably has not developed) an interface able to send sensory data directly to the brain. If it feels like a rock and looks like a rock, why waste time debating with yourself whether it’s real or not – why not just enjoy it, with zero environmental guilt?

Image courtesy of Will Lion