Virtual Economists

About Us

Dr Vili Lehdonvirta is one of the world's leading scholars in virtual goods and currencies. He is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Turku, and the principal author of the World Bank report on virtual economies. He has advised leading interactive entertainment companies including Rovio (Angry Birds), Sulake (Habbo), CCP Games (EVE Online), Digital Chocolate, Gameforge and Live Gamer. He has lectured at Game Developers Conference, Game Developers Conference China, Online and Social Games Summit, Virtual Goods Summit and numerous other industry events. Before his academic career, Lehdonvirta worked as a game developer, creating some of the web's first real-time multiplayer games with a micropayment revenue model. His book on virtual economy design will be published by MIT Press in summer 2013. Twitter Homepage

Eino Joas is an experienced virtual economy designer with a degree in economics. Since 2009, he works at CCP Games (EVE Online), where his responsibilities include designing a microtransaction system for CCP’s upcoming MMO-FPS DUST 514 – a groundbreaking concept that introduces a new virtual currency model to the Sony PlayStation network and brings console and PC gamers within the same virtual economy. Previously Joas worked in virtual economy consulting projects. Together with Lehdonvirta, he designed the monetization strategy for Avatars United, a social networking startup that was acquired by Linden Lab (Second Life) in 2010. Twitter