FFXI as a metaphor for the world internet economy

Classial
You grow up, apprentice a trade, take over the shop or move to a new location and open your own shop. Alternately you grow crops, or mine materials and sell them to the tradeskilled.

Industrial / Modern
You go to school, maybe more school, get a job at a company. You set up investments through other companies.

Internet Age
You go to school. You buy and sell some toys on E-bay. You buy and sell "real" stuff on e-bay. You manage your investments personally, via the internet.

FFXI
You level up, and learn a trade skill. You buy materials and sell completed goods on the Auction House. Alternately you gatehr drops, mine, harvest, etc and sell then via AH to the crafters.

Future Economy
Most go to school, but once you know how to use the internet and speak/read/write, school becomes useless. You buy and sell things on the internet. You start a company on the internet - this company may involve buying materials and crafting them into good to sell on the internet.

The internet provides a direct channel for individuals to buy and sell goods and services to everyone else in the world (everyone with access that is, and let's face it, those without access don't have anything you want anyway). The Auction House in FFXI functions the same way. Many crafters also go to regional vendors (farmers, in real life) to buy ingredients, use their skills to make something, and then sell it.

If you want to make money more efficently, in FFXI or the real world, you cut back on your costs. Put some solar panels on your roof, garden in you backyard or moghouse, get up extra early to scout out the garage sales or camp that NM. You can spend your time or a one-time investment to reduce your costs.

The other way is to make a better product. In real life you take classes, or go to college, even through trial and error you can acquire the skills to make a more advance product or provide a more elite service. Crafting is clearly similar, you pay time and money to increase your skill, often screwing up a lot in the process. In the end you can increase your profit margin by producing higher level goods or HQing them.

In real life the world marketplace is far more open and varied than in FFXI. There's even greater opportunity to create a novel product, improve the quality of an existing product, or provide newer or cheaper materials to others.

Of course there's also the link wherein FFXI characters and goods are sold through e-bay, I'd think this makes my point all the more clear.

I'm a bit past the stage where seeing this comparison would affect my career path. I know that I could, if I wanted to, start my own internet business, but I've already had the full standard education and some "regular" jobs. Plus I really enjoy my current job.

A great many of FFXI players are in their teens. If they translate their FFXI economy experience into real life they might plan an interent heavy career path. Start out with buying and selling on e-bay. Trading card games, for example, might be a good place to start, easy to acquire and sort out the valuable from the chaff. Just buy low and sell high. In doing so you will learn the ins and outs of e-bay (just like you learned to price your goods at 7,901 gil on the AH, and to sometimes check all 4 AH before buying something). You will also learn to interact with other buyers and sellers, have a couple of mishaps and maybe make a brilliant deal. After that you could learn a skill and apply it to make a product. Clearly art has already been successful in this department. Several webcomics have provided income and spawned a host of merchandise. The internet is practically drowning in small time success stories and most only take internet knowhow and a few product-oriented skills.

After a successful product or two more career paths open up for our little FFXI players gone irl internet moguls. They could expand their business by hiring employees, or merge with others to form new companies. They could just repeat the process with a new skill or products and take it further based on what they learned the first time. Overall the career possibilities are much more open and adaptable than the standard corporate shuffle.

Happy Crafting, both in FFXI and irl!