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

An Introduction to Parallelization – Multithreading and Multiprocessing in Python

One of my hobbies include developing data analytics workflows. More specifically, I like to acquire and process market data from MMORPGs in order to generate useful and concise reports to guide speculation in in-game markets. Historically, my creations have always operated serially. While the function and speed of my scripts has never really posed any … Read more