[aasasd]

> Of course, nothing comparable to banking systems and general-purpose marketplaces

Rumor is, some MMO games have markets exceeding GDPs of plenty of first-world countries, and ingame items are used by gangs to move funds across borders. Both Cory Doctorow and Neil Stephenson wrote books featuring this phenomenon, and I'm pretty sure they both usually take their ideas from reality.

Since Steam is a Big Guy, and its market is dedicated to this very activity and sits on top of many games at once, I'd guess it to have a sizeable slice.

[Kaze404]

Wow, that sounds like an interesting read. I'll see if I can track one of those books down, thanks!

[aasasd]

Doctorow's book is “For The Win” (if I'm not mistaken—really need to get into the habit of writing some notes about the books I read, especially when marathoning through an author's bibliography).

Stephenson's book is “Reamde”, which is a weird, even for him, mix of realistic-sci-fi-about-computers with an adventure thriller.

I think I also found some articles about actual size of virtual economies and the use of them by crime. But those likely went into the Pile To Read, which is a rather sad fate in my case and the hope is thin.