A report from the World Bank reckons that, across China and Vietnam, “up to 100,000 people” are toiling away in online gold farms. Interestingly, these human farmers only account for around 30% of the global market in virtual goods, with the remainder split between “bots” that play games automatically and revenue gained from the theft of legitimate accounts.
As the report states, that kind of money of that kind of scale means that, while gold farming is a pain in the arse for the developers of online games, it can actually have a beneficial effect on the development in certain regions by bringing in cash.
Russell Martin
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 6:40 PMIt doesn’t change the fact that trade of virtual goods is against the EULA on most MMORPGs and is therefore a breach of contract
David Winston
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 9:24 PMA breach of the EULA which at worst…could end in account closure or having to buy a new licence/CD-key for <$50. Quite the deterrent…. =|
Jed
Monday, April 11, 2011 at 11:36 PMThe problem is, most gold farmers actually use stolen credit cards to pay to play, normally resulting in costing the company more, rather than bringing in money.
Matt
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 12:06 AMHmm, where’s the evidence for this?
Don
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 9:00 AMThis sounds interesting. Link please.
Jason Padgett
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 3:51 PMThey all need a punch in the face