Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

In-Game Gold Farming a $500M Industry

Posted by Soulskill on from the blizzard-wins-in-that-market-too dept.

SpuriousLogic brings us this excerpt from a BBC report: "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. ... Already, he said, gold farming was comparable in size to India's outsourcing industry. 'The Indian software employment figure probably crossed the 400,000 mark in 2004 and is now closer to 900,000,' said Prof Heeks. 'Nonetheless, the two are still comparable in employment size, yet not at all in terms of profile.' Prof Heeks suspects gold-farming might be an early example of the 'virtual offshoring' likely to become more prevalent as people spend more time working and playing in cyberspace. " We discussed the life of a gold farmer last year.

12 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Penny Arcade post by Das+Modell · · Score: 5, Funny

    Might as well get it out of the way.

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/02/16/
    http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/4/14/

    1. Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      > Game creators work so hard to stop these guys... Maybe they should realize their content sucks if people are willing to pay to skip it.

      You sir, just summed up the root cause of RMT in one sentence.

      Unfortunately, solving the "how to keep people engaged for hundreds of hours without grinding" problem seems insurmountable with the current crop of game designers.

      No silly, grinding is part of the plan. Look at how pasty, spotty and overweight a Wow player is after a few months grinding. His lifeforce has been sapped. Now lifeforce is conserved globally so that means someone else has gained it. Look at photos with Blizzard executives if you can find them. They look 20-30 years younger than their chronological age.

      It's like The Picture of Dorian Grey. The only reason Blizzard charges is to increase the degradation of the players, the real money they make comes from rich people buying lifeforce from them.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  2. Oblig... by Tmack · · Score: 3, Funny
    Link

    I think they have stopped now, or got kicked out, I havent seen any more similar activity from the bunch....

    Tm

    --
    Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
  3. Re:More proof by timmarhy · · Score: 3, Funny

    if you feel so bad about it you can send me the contents of your bank account to relieve that guilt. anything else is hypocritical

    --
    If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
  4. At it again by FST · · Score: 2, Funny

    What is this? A reverse-psychology 419 scam in action?

    --
    46487 466780 252994 376409 96920 39622 205366 244315 622115 512361 668040 63608 259203 955314 811176 652718 166330 23922
  5. THAT'S NOTHING by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    THAT'S NOTHING... I farm Karma on Slashdot for $0.12/hour

    1. Re:THAT'S NOTHING by Mesa+MIke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Not as an AC, you don't.

    2. Re:THAT'S NOTHING by comp.sci · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't believe this man! After paying him almost $1 for his services the account "Anonymous Coward" he gave me still posts with a score of zero. Don't be fooled by Slashdot karma farming!

  6. Imagine a Beowulf Cluster of Gold Farmers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Why don't anyone hire them as NPC. You could pay for dynamic quests.

  7. Here's the solution. by Cathoderoytube · · Score: 1, Funny

    If they want to quell gold farming they need to introduce Postal worker as a profession. All mail from that point on is handled by an in-game post office. As an added perk, all Postal workers are always in PVP while making deliveries, and if they're killed while doing their route their mail can be stolen by whoever killed them. That'd add a new fun element to the game at least.

    Then when it comes to other players physically transferring farmed gold to one another in game, Blizzard could just make some sort of verification key system. For example if a player wanted to accept a 10 0000g transfer the verification would be they'd have to throw a Kara run and say 'We wiped because I'm a noob'.

    Problem solved.

    --
    I have nothing compelling to say
  8. Re:Well the thing is by Hoi+Polloi · · Score: 2, Funny

    I wonder what people who like grinding are like in real life?

    Normal Person: "Where do you want to go for dinner"
    Grinder: "Eh, same old place as before is fine with me"
    NP: "How about a movie after?"
    G: "Sure, let's see Batman"
    NP: "But you've seen it 50 times already"
    G: "Yah, but I want to see it again, and again, and again..."
    NP: "Arrrrrgghh!!!"

    --
    It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
  9. Easy solution... by curiuz · · Score: 4, Funny

    put the words "free tibet" somewhere in the game.