The BBC has suddenly caught on to the growing industry of gold-farming, where MMO players pay others, often located in a call-center type of operation in a developing nation, to level-up characters for them, earning virtual world currency along the way.
In China, two World of Warcraft gold farmers were arrested this spring for "unfair revenue distribution." In seven months, with a staff of 20, the two had made over 1.6 million RMB (equivalent to about $200,000 USD). In 2007, the New York Times profiled individuals in the gold farming industry, and estimated that gold farming was responsible for the majority of the goods traded in the $1.8 billion per year virtual goods market.
In the gaming world, working your way through the lower levels can be tedious and boring. Paying someone else to do it for you, accumulating currency and objects along the way, is against most games' end-user license agreements, but the temptation is always going to be there. The underground industry, especially as described in the Times' article, is a modern, voluntary version of feudalism, where workers make next to nothing for those who own the gold farms, and the entire system is held up by the money of the players in developed countries. Rather than continue attempting to ban the practice, it might make more sense for the gaming companies to regulate the industry, creating a more equitable arrangement for those doing the actual work.
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