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Massively Multiplayer Sweat Shops

Posted by Zonk on from the not-a-fun-game dept.

Computer Games World, part of 1up.com, has done up a fantastic piece looking into the world of Massively Multiplayer Sweat Shops. More than just a look at how it's done, it painfully illustrates that not all farmers are farming by choice and not all farmers are from Asia. From the article: "How does it work? The macros for World of WarCraft, for example, control a high-level hunter and cleric. The hunter kills while the cleric automatically heals. Once they are fully loaded with gold and items, the 'farmer' who's monitoring their progress manually controls them out of the dungeon to go sell their goods. These automated agents are then returned to the dungeons to do their thing again. Sack's typical 12-hour sessions can earn his employers as much as $60,000 per month while he walks away with a measly $150."

3 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Few Things... by bbeebe · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's no "cleric" in WoW, they're probably referring to the priest class.

    I used to do this kind of stuff but you always get undercut by someone who will sell for much less. I don't know if these places really exist, but it would make sense. If I sold for how much they were selling for I'd be making less than minimum wage.

    The real money is in exploits. For some reason I have a knack for finding these holes, but they usually don't last long. I made $2000 in 2 weeks off an exploit in City of Heroes then it was patched, and I found a grouping bug in WoW that let me level insanely fast till they fixed it in this latest patch (still work but not as well).

    I usually jump on new games for a month or 2, find bugs and exploits, cash in, then quit. If nothing else I'll at least make enough to cover the game and subscription fees so there's no loss.

  2. Re:I dunno... by Nakago4 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, this sounds pretty true to me. I have a friend that farmed gold in FFXI for quite a while and he made a very impressive sum of money for it. He did it all himself and sold to IGE directly. I think he may have made as much money farming gold for FFXI for 3 months than I do in a year's salary.

    Still not sure why I didn't join in as well, it just made me feel a bit dirty.

  3. Tolerated? by redelm · · Score: 3, Informative
    Surely Blizzard can monitor unusual activity and terminate accounts. Farming must be detectible, perhaps by the large amounts of transfers out and very slow character progress. The cost of a terminated account is also fairly high.

    I can only assume that whatever it's protestations to the contrary, Blizzard likes farmers. They pay fees, and they attract players to want to pass others (even if they cheat). They might even farm themselves! The dire pronouncements and trophy busts are to quieten the rule-abiding masses.