PrepTest 140, Section 4, Question 13

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This has the transaction backward. B discusses selling virtual items for real money. A instead allows someone to sell a real item for virtual currency, like exchanging an actual water bottle for game coins. That isn't the arrangement described.

• B

  Trading avatars doesn't establish that the game encourages real-world commerce. Players might exchange characters or appearances entirely within the game. We need the commercial feature B identifies, not just permission to swap something.

• C

  Growing wealthier through play can describe ordinary in-game accumulation. A even says that players acquire more wealth the longer they play. That doesn't distinguish games deliberately encouraging commerce, which is the category this question asks about. Accumulating virtual possessions and enabling their commercial sale are different features.

• D
  Correct

  B says some games encourage real-world trade by giving players legal ownership of what they make (Passage B, paragraph 1). Granting players those rights is a deliberate step that supports commerce in what they create. The opening example therefore supplies the characteristic of some intentionally commodified games mentioned later.

• E

  Exchanging one virtual currency for another is not identified as a feature of these games. Don't substitute a general idea of currency trading for B's specific evidence about how a game encourages real-world commerce.