Game Economist Cast
What does the new wave of open economies mean for monetization? Will negative externalities overcome cosmetics economies in the long run? What exactly does a game economist do?
Game Economist Cast is a roundtable discussion of the latest developments in mobile, HD, and crypto games through a bunch of people figuring it out using the economic tool kit.
Podcasting since 2022 • 41 episodes
Game Economist Cast
Latest Episodes
E38: Economics of Game Innovation & AI's Now Proof
What is the GDP-maximizing set of copyright protections? 10 years? 5 years? None at all? Chris, Eric, and I debate the relevance of patents and copyright protections and the gains to network effects of knowledge. Does the "gentlemen's ...
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39:25
GEC BONUS EP: What's up at GDC 2025 (w/Charlie Hsu)
Phillip & Eric navigate the strangely subdued landscape of GDC 2025, pondering if there really is such a thing as a free lunch. Chris dials in, wondering if his absence is secretly the key to Eric's roundtable success. They diss...
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36:06
E37: Is Gaming Better Than Everyone at Experimentation? (w/Dr.Julian Runge)
The best tech firm experimentation seems to offer thousands of button color experiments. Dr.Runge has a better approach, which changes at every game development stage. We debate gaming's broken relationship with science, the proper experimentat...
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1:11:34
E36: Pokémon Pocket's Gimped Trading and Matthew Ball's State of Gaming
Pokémon TCG Pocket is one of a handful of games to implement P2P trading on mobile. Yet it sucks. On purpose. As @Eric explains, their game economy needs high sinks to combat hourly sourcing of card packs. Without the nearly 80% trading tax, pr...
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1:13:44
E35: In Defense of Loot Boxes (w/Dr. Matthew McCaffrey)
Loot boxes have all the markings of a moral panic. Dr.McCaffrey reviewed the emerging literature, and like the research on video game violence, it's destined for methodological malfunction. We discuss why everything isn't a loot box, th...
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1:22:32
