Author and economist Andrew Wagner’s new book, The Economics of Online Gaming, shares how economic decisions get made by players of online games. We discuss how reputations and player behaviors impact success in the game.

For instance, a very positive reputation could lead other players to work with you, but it also could lead them to take advantage of you. Andrew discovered, in this game, that while a bad reputation sets people against you, it also provided unforeseen benefits in the game, economically speaking, of course.

We agree with Andrew that economics can be intimidating because it is a math-heavy field. To some, economics is simply inaccessible. However, we all love the drama found in video games, so Andrew combined drama with economics in his book.

Also, if you’ve not checked out our new podcast channel, Weekly Grooves, please do so. Each weekly episode is short-commute ready (no more than 15 minutes long) and brings behavioral insights to the week’s headlines.