This was the paper that started the ongoing growth of academic and business interest in the virtual economics and real-money trading on virtual, game property:
Castronova, Edward (2001) ‘Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier’. CESifo Working Paper No. 618, December 2001. Online: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=294828
This is the classic paper that is often quoted in studies into online player typologies, online sociology and player psychology:
Bartle, Richard (1996) ‘Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: Players Who Suit MUDs’. The Journal of Virtual Environments, 1(1). Online:
 | Bernie DeKoven on The Well Played Game |
 | imcarelli on Toward a Critical Vocabulary f… |
 | hasserved on What Video Games Have To Teach… |
 | frans on Game Studies Journal |
 | martinpi on Game Studies Journal |
An Introduction to Game Studies 