Duping refers to the practice of using a bug in a video game to illegitimately create duplicates of unique items or currency in a persistent online game, such as an MMOG. Duping can vastly destabilize a virtual economy or even the gameplay itself, depending on the item duplicated and the rate at which duplication occurs. Modern persistent world games include automated detection of duping. Duping is usually considered to be a game cheat. Effects The effect of duping on a game's economy depends on whether an item or currency was being duplicated and to what degree the duping took place. Currency dupes cause inflation and conversely item dupes cause the item to lose value. On 7 November 2003 in the MMORPG RuneScape, an extremely rare item, the Magenta Party hat (now the Purple Party hat) was duped well over 2 million times; the effects are still seen today in the game's economy. While Jagex, the game's owners, did everything they could to ban the duping users, the duped party hats are still circulating. Due to the fact that the discontinued items, party-hats, were no longer available, the purple party-hat being duped caused it to become the cheapest hat. While its price is still high for an item, it is considered "the noob's party-hat". When currency is duplicated, it increases the overall amount of money in the virtual economy and increases prices in player-to-player transactions. In a 2005 case of currency duping in EverQuest II, the game's developers noticed an unexpected 20% rise in the total money found in the economy over a 24-hour period following the dissemination of the dupe. A significant currency dupe in Star Wars Galaxies was found after the designers compared how much money was created versus how much money was destroyed and noted that, despite more money leaving the system than entering, they observed no shortage of money in the virtual world. Item dupes generally have the opposite effect, causing the price of the duped items to drop as the supply of that item increases. In addition to the effects on the game economy, the sudden influx of currency or items also affects players involved in real-money trading. In the EverQuest II case, the dupers attempted to sell the illegitimate currency on Station Exchange for real money and supposedly made over US$70,000 from online auctions. Dupes are highly prized among those involved in real-money trading, and