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Noted Virtual Economist Vili Lehdonvirta Joins Live Gamer Advisory Board
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Respected 'Virtual Consumerism' Researcher Joins Real Money Trading Marketplace Provider to Help Define and Shape the Impact of Virtual Economies
NEW YORK, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Live Gamer, the premier operator of a
publisher-supported marketplace for real money trading (RMT) of virtual items,
today announced the addition of preeminent virtual economy authority, Vili
Lehdonvirta, to the company's advisory board. Lehdonvirta is a respected
expert on virtual consumerism, defined as the phenomenon where people spend
significant sums of real money on virtual property, such as game items.
Live Gamer, through its publisher-supported marketplace platform, is the
leader in real money trading for virtual assets within MMORPGs and virtual
worlds. The addition of Vili Lehdonvirta's vast expertise and knowledge to
Live Gamer's veteran staff of gaming, entertainment and finance experts
expands the company's ability to help guide the growth and impact of virtual
economies on game design, player experiences and online communities, in close
partnership with publishers and developers.
"I was extremely impressed by Live Gamer's resolve to take control of the
RMT phenomenon in a way that respects the nature of each MMO and benefits both
players and publishers, and I believe it is the company best poised to do so,"
said Lehdonvirta. "As member of the advisory board, I will help Live Gamer
leverage academic research on virtual economies, player motivations and
virtual item market dynamics to best meet this objective. Some of the leading
research in the area is conducted at our institute, HIIT."
Lehdonvirta is a researcher at Helsinki Institute for Information
Technology (HIIT), a joint research institution of Helsinki University of
Technology TKK and the University of Helsinki, which conducts world class
research in future information technologies. Since 2004, HIIT has carried on a
multi-disciplinary research effort into virtual economies and is today
recognized as one of the leading institutions in the area. Lehdonvirta's
research focuses on what motivates virtual consumerism and to what extent it
can substitute physical forms of consumption in the future. A former game
developer, Lehdonvirta is currently also a doctoral student of economic
sociology at Turku School of Economics and a visiting researcher at Waseda
University, Tokyo.
"We're honored to have Vili Lehdonvirta, a pioneering thought leader in
virtual economics contribute to Live Gamer's efforts in developing a safe and
secure marketplace for the real money trading of virtual assets," said Andrew
Schneider, president and co-founder of Live Gamer. "Vili's experience in
virtual consumerism adds a new dimension to our knowledge and skill in this
area to the benefit of our publisher partners and gamers."
About Live Gamer
Live Gamer is the leading provider for publisher-supported virtual item
trading. Live Gamer's Wall Street-developed platform combined with Sony Online
Entertainment's Station Exchange technology is trusted by top publishers
worldwide and offers a turnkey solution for MMOG and virtual world operators
to provide legitimate real money trading of virtual assets within their titles
or via the Web, facilitating a safe and fair online environment for all
participants. Based in New York, NY, the company was founded by industry
veterans and backed with $24 million in venture funding from Charles River
Ventures, Kodiak Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital. (www.livegamer.com)
Media Contact:
Corie Pierce Visa Noronen
SutherlandGold Group Helsinki Institute for Information
318-402-3654 Technology HIIT
corie@sutherlandgold.com +358 45 120 3506
communications@hiit.fi
SOURCE Live Gamer
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