Gold Farming is Big Business

Terry Olaes

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
Anyone that’s played an MMOG should be very familiar with the constant barrage of gold/game currency sellers in the hub areas of the game. According to the BBC, gold farming is a lucrative business and a “significant economic sector in many developing nations.” Still annoying as hell though.

Prof Heeks said very accurate figures for the size of the gold farming sector were hard to come by but his work suggested that in 2008 it employs 400,000 people who earn an average of $145 (£77) per month creating a global market worth about $500m.
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There are a few documentaries on YouTube about gold farmers in Asia.

Pretty interesting stuff to say the least.
 
Gold farmers don't bother me much in WoW. You don't really see them much unless you're specifically looking for them. Gold farmers can be great additions to PUG groups where they'll roll on something just like everyone else.

It's not gold farmers I dislike. It's people exploiting the AFK systems in battleground with macros that make them run in circle and spamming spells to make them appear they're not AFK to the server. You and I would know because he/she'll be running aimlessly into hills and rivers and against walls.
 
$77 a month, wow, some people really do know how to milk the economically deprived ones.
 
Gott said:
There are a few documentaries on YouTube about gold farmers in Asia.

Pretty interesting stuff to say the least.
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That's really quite pathetic. I remember when people started selling excess gold and houses in UO. They made more for 100gold (300$) much less consumables like ingots, reagents, specials, and finally, houses. I couldn't believe what some people would pay for a house pre-Trammel. I actually sold a couple of my houses because I figured if some moron wanted to pay 800$ (or more) for it, more power to the idiot. Lack of patience.

WoW has really undercut the gold farmers with the money daily quest. There might be inflation, but, nowhere near what UO ended up with.
 
A blatant Goldfarmer to report said:
I have evidence that a character named MichaelPhelps has been farming gold. I also have proof that he is doing this in China. He's been doing it for about a week and clearly intends to keep doing it. Can anything be done to stop him?

Update After relay 1:
It seems some folks have reported seeing him with 3 other characters, farming gold as a team. It is suspected that they're botting, as they all move back and forth along the same path.

Update After number 7:
As indicated earlier, the character MichaelPhelps has now been witnessed Ninja-Looting gold, getting to it 0.01 seconds faster than the intended recipient. Just one more crime to add to his list of heinous offenses.

Final Update 8/8 full TierPhelps set:
Your inaction has allowed MichaelPhelps to have more gold than anyone. After all that gold he farmed from China... he'll probably wind up with a Million dollars... I have it on good authority he'll be dealing with another character named Speedo to get paid.
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heh. Just saw this recently. made me :D - http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8765585510&sid=1&pageNo=1
 
Azhar said:
Gold farmers don't bother me much in WoW. You don't really see them much unless you're specifically looking for them. Gold farmers can be great additions to PUG groups where they'll roll on something just like everyone else.

It's not gold farmers I dislike. It's people exploiting the AFK systems in battleground with macros that make them run in circle and spamming spells to make them appear they're not AFK to the server. You and I would know because he/she'll be running aimlessly into hills and rivers and against walls.
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With pirox bot its alot harder to find them, it's easy to see if it's the default profile but if someone makes advanced paths then it's pratically impossible.
 
The people that run the Diablo2 sites make alot more than $77 a month. The guys of www.d2items.com used to (IDK...been a few years) make enough money to do it full time.
 
I don't get why MMO games don't just IP ban Asia and India if they want to get rid of Gold Farmers. Or make an Asia only server, bunch of gold farmers with no one to sell it to...
 
Oh yeah lets make a Great Firewall of America and be just like China. :rolleyes:
 
Nanan said:
I don't get why MMO games don't just IP ban Asia and India if they want to get rid of Gold Farmers. Or make an Asia only server, bunch of gold farmers with no one to sell it to...
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IMO, MMO games should encourage this, as it adds realistic value to the game. If they did this and only some people farmed, these businesses would be shot.
 
Gold spammers are starting early today, I wouldn't consider Friday morning a peek time to play, but in the 15min I went on to do stuff I put 2 spammers on my ignore list in LOTRO.
 
I didn't really mind them in general. However when they are farming quest mobs or rolling on everything in PUGs then it got a little annoying.

But hey this is just a function of capitalism. People want in game gold without spending the time. If the demand exists a market will present itself.
 
Nearly 500,000 people in developing nations earn a wage making virtual goods in online games to sell to players, a study has found.
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Meh. Prisoners stampnig out motor vehicle license plates also earn a wage. Seems to me they were quite careful not to say "earn a living wage".
 
Old news, it's already very lucrative in the d2 era with item/SoJ/Runes farmers. I know what I'm talking about since I have a foot in the farming industry in the past.

 
It would be hard to compete with developing nations if you were trying to be a gold farmer in the US even with a botting program or something. I'm not sure if Blizzard would go out of their way to prosecute a US gold farmer.
 
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