Reading Comprehension

PT140 · S4 · P2 · Q9 Online Game Currencies

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Passage A is from a source published in 2004 and passage B is from a source published in 2007.

Topic

The real-world economic implications of virtual items and currency in multiplayer online games, and how they relate to taxation.

Framework

Present Debate (Passage B) / Highlight Noteworthy (Passage A)

Main Point

Passage A highlights how virtual economies in online games have real-world value and mimic economic systems. Passage B delves into the legal and policy debate about whether—and how—virtual wealth and transactions should be taxed, ultimately arguing for taxing only real-world cash exchanges, not in-game accumulation or trades.

P1 (A): Introduction to Multiplayer Online Games

Online games let players take on fantasy roles like warriors and quest together, creating a lively digital world where their avatars interact.

P2 (A): Discovery of In-Game Economies

An economist, Edward Castronova, discovered that these games feature complex economies where players generate and trade virtual goods, gaining wealth over time.

P3 (A): Player Auctions

Castronova noticed players sometimes sold their virtual items for real money in online auctions when they got tired of the game.

9.

With regard to their respective attitudes toward commerce in virtual items, passage A differs from passage B in that passage A is more

  1. critical and apprehensive

    Out of Scope: critical / apprehensive

    The author of A isn't critical about anything or worried about anything.

    1% picked this

  2. academic and dismissive

    Out of Scope: dismissive

    The author of A is describing someone else's wonderment, so in a sense the author is just reporting / presenting someone else's experience, but it would still be weird to say "academic" is a good way to differentiate A's attitude from B's, since B's attitude seems even more academic. And passage A was not dismissive of anything.

    1% picked this

  3. Correct

    intrigued and excited

    Why this is right

    Both of these adjectives would apply to A. Whereas passage B was talking about virtual trade to discuss the boring tax implications, passage A was using exclamation points and saying thinks like "recognized with a shock what he was looking at" and "got even more interesting".

    Skill tested: Author's Attitude · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    88% picked this

  4. undecided but curious

    Contradicted: undecided

    This one is somewhat tempting since Passage B seems to already have a decisive answer about the tax implications of virtual commerce, whereas Passage A is just finding out about this strange new world. However, while passage A is undoubtedly curious about virtual commerce, it's not a great differentiator from passage B. Passage B also seems curious about how we should treat this weird form of income. Most importantly, though, it's hard for us to say that Passage A's attitude toward commerce in virtual items is more undecided, when the author says definitive stuff like, "It was a form of currency trading! ... That meant the virtual currency was worth something in real currency."

    8% picked this

  5. enthusiastic but skeptical

    Out of Scope: skeptical

    We can't point to any part of Passage A that sounds like the author is skeptical of commerce in virtual items. She seems very convinced in her final paragraph that it is a form of currency trading; that virtual currency is worth something in real currency; that players are in effect creating wealth.

    2% picked this

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