I take it that the OP has never been in a serious (read: obsessed) raiding guild. Talk about a command economy. If you want the best progression in the fastest time, being socialist isn't enough. You have to be Borg.

My old guild was much more relaxed, but we did redistribute 'wealth.' The winners in our system didn't always put in the most effort, and sometimes veterans were asked to make sacrifices so newcomers could gear up.

Like I said, in a perfect world, your efforts would be rewarded the same, so one person could never own all the food.

Like in WoW, if 4 million people, or 4 people play, the reward for the quests your doing are the same. No one can take it from you.

What your talking about is the player dynamic, and when you involve people, you take away from the perfect system.

Like I said, in real life we could never get there due to the human element. But the point is we should be trying.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. If you want to truly compare the economy to a game, choose Runescape. It's the perfect example of a capitalist economy (well, you are given some crummy weapons and a bit of money to start, but that only happened because everyone started complaining).

I personaly prefer Keynes, dont know how a game would make that work, or should I say Im just too lazy to think, anyway, videogames and real life are different.

socialism is one of those things that is theoretically the best way to go, but in practice it would never work.

WoW's capitalist execution isn't perfect: that invalidates the entire premise of the topic. Hell, like famousringo said, at the highest tier it's very much a socialist experiment.

And as for Sports, I'd think that to be pretty socialist in itself. In a sports team game, everyone contributes what they can, and in the end, they hopefully get rewarded with the same result; a win.

Socialist RTS would be awesome. You have to buy two of everything to give one to your opponent.

Capitalism is obviously a very powerful tool. There's a reason why nearly all modern socialism is layered on top of capitalism. It's a supplement that helps correct the problems capitalism has dealing with those pesky human dynamics.

So it is in WoW. The foundation of the system is very capitalist and designed to empower the individual, but ultimate progress relies on individuals banding together and sacrificing individual freedom for the good of the whole group. The best player gets the same DKP for a boss kill as the worst. Even the raid leadership, who co-ordinate a large group of people, enforce attendance, plan boss fights, train raiders, and manage loot distribution get the same DKP as some shmuck who just logs in for the raid, follows orders, and disappears until the next raid. And even though the reward is equal and the price is not, the group prospers by accessing rewards that the individual couldn't hope to achieve alone.

I agree that a perfect system is impossible, and I agree that it's still worth pursuing. That's why I support using a diverse set of tools including both free markets and a socialist safety net, rather than trying to make just one tool perform every task in the system.