Virtual Markets, Part Eleven: Interregional Trade

In our previous article, we established a strong case for interregional trade in EvE Online after conducting a study on macroeconomic trade dynamics and reviewing relevant game mechanics. In this article, we will incorporate everything we’ve learned so far in-order to: Setting Goals The main takeaway from our last article is that while prices outside … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Eight: Station Trading

With our database now accruing EvE Online market data from ESI, it’s time to start putting it to work. In this article, we will: Assessing Past Techniques So far, we’ve applied a handful of different reporting strategies against OSRS market data. Let’s run through and assess how they might apply to EvE Online: Bid-Ask Spread … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Seven: Populating our Database

In our last article, we validated that the MMORPG EvE Online fulfills all of our prerequisites for data analytics and modeling. In this article, we will: ESI Overview At first glance, ESI can be a bit daunting; at the time of this writing ESI provides 206 unique endpoints, which is a far cry from the … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Six: An Introduction to Jita

In the past five articles, we took a deep-dive into the economy of the MMORPG Old School Runescape. Using market data provided by a public API, we developed and published various reporting workflows through the application of data analytics techniques. In the next few articles, we will build-upon what we have learned and apply our … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Five: Low-Effort Processing

In our last article we discussed market shocks and reporting strategies centered around detecting price dips. In this article we will investigate the concepts of intermediate and final goods in Old School Runescape, with the end-goal of developing a reporting strategy allowing us to capitalize on the difference in price between intermediate and final goods … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Four: Shocks and Dip Detection

In our last article we took an in-depth look at price floors and other related phenomenon in Old School Runescape, including the opportunity costs of botting, capital controls, real-world trading, and more. In this article we will investigate market shocks, how they manifest in OSRS, and how we can develop reporting strategies to accurately detect … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Three: Price Floors (and more!)

In our last article we discussed market fundamentals and reporting strategies centered around the “High-Low spread”. In this article we will investigate price floor mechanics present in Old School Runescape. In-addition to covering reporting strategies, will also cover a range of related topics, including: Disclaimer: This article is strictly academic in-nature and does not constitute … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part Two: Market Fundamentals and the High-Low Spread

In our first article in this series, we covered all of our prerequesites for modeling market behavior in the MMORPG Old School Runescape (OSRS). Equipped with transaction data for the in-game Grand Exchange, we can now get started analyzing the in-game economy. In this article, we will: Disclaimer: This article is strictly academic in-nature and … Read more

Virtual Markets, Part One: An Introduction to the Grand Exchange

I have always been drawn to online games which feature player-run economies. Virtual marketplaces with their various nuances and constraints provide us with a microcosm of human behavior to study and apply economic models against. An old favorite of mine is an MMORPG published by Jagex called Old School Runescape, also known as OSRS. With … Read more

An Introduction to Parallelization – The Importance of Refactoring Code

In my previous post, we demonstrated when and how parallelization techniques can used to improve code performance without modiying core functions. As we seek greater performance in our code, we will run into situations where applying these techniques alone will not yield the result that we want. If better hardware is not available, our only … Read more