• Valve's economist is Greece's new finance minister
    32 replies, posted
[QUOTE]Valve is pretty much an unknowable obelisk: giant, powerful and unfeelingly silent. Due to this absence of communication, the few voices that do emerge from the studio are amplified ten-fold. Hence why you may recognise the name Yanis Varoufakis. During his time as Valve's economist-in-residence, he ran a blog dedicated to analysing and explaining the studio's virtual economies. Now, Varoufakis has a new job. He's today been named Greece's finance minister. Varoufakis was at Valve from 2012-2013. Despite not playing games, he said in his introductory post that he was fascinated by the virtual economy Valve had built—specifically that it was an economy with hard data for every transaction. "Think of it: An economy where every action leaves a digital trail, every transaction is recorded;" he wrote at the time. "Indeed, an economy where we do not need statistics since we have all the data!"[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.pcgamer.com/valves-former-economist-is-now-greeces-finance-minister/[/url]
[QUOTE=Medevila;47021268]Hats and crates will bring Greece out of recession[/QUOTE] Summer sale on government buildings and pieces of land. "Flash Sale: Patras only 930.000 Euro!"
did he actually become the minister now? [highlight](User was banned for this post ("Didn't read the article" - Big Dumb American))[/highlight]
Greece should be a piece of cake after dealing with people from the Internet.
This makes me so happy. It's one of those things that is so obscure it's amazing.
[QUOTE=NitronikALT;47021284]did he actually become the minister now?[/QUOTE] C'mon, at the very least read the snippet in the OP before asking that stuff.
Anyone else really surprised their prime minister is atheist? It makes me want to go there now
illumivalvi
Wow what a hell of a step up!
Incoming Steam sale and Team Fortress 2 hats jokes.....
The Valve marketplace probably has a greater GDP than Greece. I think this dude's looking for a challenge.
I heard Greece is getting split into smaller and more manageable states from now on because it's a more efficient format through which to run a country
[QUOTE=Yanis Varoufakis]"Indeed, an economy where we do not need statistics since we have all the data!"[/QUOTE] I share this fascination with him. The idea of not needing statistics/research is very incredible. Data when it comes to internet marketing is inherently precious.
[QUOTE] "Think of it: An economy where every action leaves a digital trail, every transaction is recorded;" he wrote at the time. "Indeed, an economy where we do not need statistics since we have all the data!"[/QUOTE] /g/ must be having a shitfit over this. Imagine him putting up some kinda credit-stick based economy in place, though. A country where every transaction gets logged, even small ones. Anything remotely criminal would work via barter.
[QUOTE=Maloof?;47021756]I heard Greece is getting split into smaller and more manageable states from now on because it's a more efficient format through which to run a country[/QUOTE] The hellenian federation
[QUOTE=proch;47022042]The hellenian federation[/QUOTE] That would be a very interesting scenario.
How the hell did he go from economist for an american video game company to finance minister of a entire country? I hope he can drag them out of the hole the country has fallen into, best of luck to him.
[QUOTE=LtKyle2;47022182]How the hell did he go from economist for an american video game company to finance minister of a entire country? I hope he can drag them out of the hole the country has fallen into, best of luck to him.[/QUOTE] Valve chose him as a consultant because of his prior qualifications. It's not like he's made himself a name by working through Valve and that's why he's now working for the Greek government.
[QUOTE=shingda;47021844]I share this fascination with him. The idea of not needing statistics/research is very incredible. Data when it comes to internet marketing is inherently precious.[/QUOTE] The predictability of user actions from this is actually frightening me and it's probably what got us the worse and worse sale events with next to no meta stuff and the changes in Dotas drop system as well as the "limited to 4 drops" trading card system which isn't even trying to hide what it's made for.
[QUOTE=Killuah;47022651]The predictability of user actions from this is actually frightening me and it's probably what got us the worse and worse sale events with next to no meta stuff and the changes in Dotas drop system as well as the "limited to 4 drops" trading card system which isn't even trying to hide what it's made for.[/QUOTE] Not sure how these examples are tied to having such a large data pool at hand, the underlying principles seem pretty basic to me: CSGO has trade-up-contracts, TF2 has a crafting system, Steam has Gems, but Dota's equivalent - crafting recipes - never caught on and I think have been discontinued for some time now. So there's only been currency created, none of it destroyed, so Valve pulled the brakes. Ingame economies going bonkers because players aren't destroying the currency magically created when monsters die for example is a pretty old and common problem in games involving some sort of player trading, like MMOs for example. Trading cards are just free starting capital to create an initial supply & demand to kickstart the Steam economy, it's pretty standard behavior when a digital platform creates its own currency/market. For example, when deviantART introduced its internal token system, users were given the ability to grant other users 1 "llama" token each, and the more llamas you had, the cooler your llama badge, just like with Steam badges. You could also access an automated system that paid people some of the new internal currency and people would give you a llama token in return. So with minimal effort - using that exchange system, or playing games in Steam's case - people could acquire currency and get used to trading with one another.
"We'll have the budget balanced this year!" Budget doesn't get balanced until May of next year.
"germany, i will give you an unusual gyro hat with orbiting zach galifinakises if you loan us a shitload of money." "I dunno Greece. You'd have to throw in sweets."
[QUOTE=Medevila;47021268]Hats and crates will bring Greece out of recession[/QUOTE] if they get knives almost every other time they unbox then they will be probably bring their economy up to speed
[QUOTE=latin_geek;47021935]A country where every transaction gets logged, even small ones. Anything remotely criminal would work via barter.[/QUOTE] I don't think so. You could attach criminal goods and services to legal transactions, or falsify data required for a transaction. [editline]29th January 2015[/editline] Also, bitcoins exist.
I love explaining to people now why he is so great. Good stuff
[QUOTE=LaTrefle;47021524]Anyone else really surprised their prime minister is atheist? It makes me want to go there now[/QUOTE] I... don't think you understand what a prime minister is. It's not a Church position. It's a high-ranking political position, like a president. It's not exactly uncommon for them to be atheist/agnostic.
[QUOTE=woolio1;47039762]I... don't think you understand what a prime minister is. It's not a Church position. It's a high-ranking political position, like a president.[/QUOTE] yet obama had to insist he was christian
[QUOTE=Toyhobo;47039767]yet obama had to insist he was christian[/QUOTE] When Christianities cover 80% of US citizens, it's important to appeal to that voter base.
I can't wait for Greece's Arms Deal update!
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