Very pointed article in Wired 14.04: Geekonomics – Why abundance sucks.
Looking at the development of multiplayer games, one can observe the move from utopian worlds where all is free – and therefore everything can be done, but this starts to get boring – to worlds where scarcity plays a role – and where the players again have a goal. Players seem to find that more interesting – but as virtual worlds have no inherent scarcity (as our poor old real world), it has do be designed in …
So, are players only looking for scarcity because all of us are so used to it and take it for granted?
Or would we also be bored in a real world where everything is free (like in the utopia where machines do all the dirty work for us)?
Anyway – one resource remains scarce for all players currently: time – and that is where the competition between the games lies mainly.