In-Game Gold Farming a $500M Industry 201
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.
More proof (Score:3, Insightful)
Just another example that I don't deserve my nice house and cushy job. Some people are pretty desperate for the spare change that falls from American (and euro, there does that make you happy...) tables.
They worked all day for the same money I made reading this article at work.
It's quite a paradox. (Score:5, Insightful)
When I was unemployed, I saw the gold farmers as a scourge, letting people pay to get stuff for nothing.
Now that I have a job, and next to no time to play the games I like, it pisses me off that I never have the in-game cash to get the stuff I'd need to play alongside my friends without letting them down.
It's a real shame on both ends of the spectrum. Them, for giving people the easy way out, and the game makers, for requiring so damn much of a time investment.
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Thanks China, for $5, you saved me two weeks of grinding!
Re:mmo's waste of time (Score:1, Insightful)
It's called Bind on Equip.
Also, if you're only playing for gear, and you don't actually *enjoy* grouping for instances, doing quests, etc., then I will tell you right off the bat that you shouldn't be playing MMOs anyway. Who cares what some twelve-year-old has?
Re:it shows you why happiness is fleeting (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason it seems odious is because the very act of farming highlights the paradox that threatens the very reason one plays: MMOs are work disguised as leisure.
Re:Growing problem that can't be fixed (Score:4, Insightful)
Gold farming is in some ways comparable to illegal immigration in the US. It is technically against the law, but covertly tolerated, because things would break down if it didn't happen.
The day that players start getting banned en-masse for buying gold is the day that Blizzard gets tired of making money.
News flash! (Score:5, Insightful)
This just in! People get paid to do work others don't want to do! Details at 11.
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post (Score:5, Insightful)
As far as WoW goes, the content doesn't suck but going through it multiple times is undoubtedly boring. Some measures have been taken to correct the situation, but they can't make it too easy for the players.
The only thing that really needs to go away is reputation grinding. WoW is a grinding game but there's a difference between running instances, leveling up and grinding one spot for a week straight (or longer) for reputation points.
More power to them (Score:2, Insightful)
Fashion designers, Dry cleaners, Professional Athletes, Nail salons, and now, virtual gold miners.
Bless you all - as long as you are earning money and keeping off the welfare roles, I applaud you.
Re:Wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:it shows you why happiness is fleeting (Score:2, Insightful)
The reason it seems odious is because the very act of farming highlights the paradox that threatens the very reason one plays: MMOs are work disguised as leisure.
This. Farming gold is boring. I occasionally farm gold/rep/items when I have nothing else to do in-game, but I would much rather spend my time doing something with more challenge (such as pvp).
I have limited time per week to devote to video games (I play around 6-8 hours a week).
The formula is simple:
if (gold farmed per hour < gold bought with 1 hour of wage)
{
work_1_extra_hour();
buy_gold();
}
else
{
farm_baby_farm();
}
I am a well paid techie and I consider the cost of gold to be way less than my per-hour work rate. Since I rate my free time at an even higher premium than my work-time, I chose to buy gold so that my free time can be better spent doing something that I enjoy.
The people complaining about gold farming are the people who have more time than money.
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post (Score:5, Insightful)
Agreed.
I played fanatically 1-55. Loved it, and then got above 55 and started having to grind for MC and all that stuff. Getting together huge Raid groups sucked too. It became a real job, and the differences between characters vanished. Hunters had to be spec'd and armored like this. Warriors like this. Etc etc.
So I went and created a new player, and it was a BLAST doing it all over again.
Gold farming exists to address the desire for an easy out. It's not so much the low levels (where a small amount will get you totally set) but the high levels where it takes 20 hours a week just to keep up.
Re:mmo's waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:mmo's waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)
Because grinding isn't playing. Why pay to not play?
Well the thing is (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people LIKE to grind. Don't ask me why, I'll never get it but I know a number of WoW players that enjoy grinding. So WoW provides grinding for them to do, and rewards for it. Blizzard's theory seems to be that whatever you like to do, they are going to give you plenty of it to do and rewards for doing it. You want to do 5-mans? Go to it. Want to PvP? Sure. Whatever you like, you can do it.
The problem comes from people who aren't playing the game for fun, but playing because they want to be better than other people. The want to have the best gear, most stuff, etc. Thus they run in to things that are grind rewards. They don't want to do those, so they buy gold instead.
The grind isn't the problem, the people who don't play to have fun are.
Goldfarming? Accounthacking is THE big problem. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Well the thing is (Score:4, Insightful)
The folks that like showing off and have and their egos at stake are a minor problem and easily avoidable - that's what guilds are for. The thing that made me leave WoW was the fact that the economy never really got easier despite getting epic gear. After playing the game for well over a year, it got really tiresome to constantly HAVE to grind, grind and grind some more just to pay for repairs, potions, etc.. I can understand making players do it when leveling up for the first time but not forever. That was a major aspect of the game I just never enjoyed and it was not possible for me to simply focus those aspects of the game I DID enjoy - raiding and group play with friends.
The whole farming industry would disappear overnight if they would just sell gold as part of the game. They can't get rid of it, they can't even really make a dent in it, so why not control it? In one fell swoop you rid the game of thousands of non-players AND open a huge stream of revenue for the company. Know why they won't do it? Farmers pay for accounts and it lets Blizzard pad out the numbers.
The hamster wheel gets rusty after a while, especially when watching gold farmers scoop up the resources you are forced to need just to play the game.
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post (Score:2, Insightful)
This is not a 'mistake' Blizzard is making. It's part of their business model.
They make it look like they want to stop gold selling as much as Microsoft pretends to try to stop piracy, or as Hollywood pretends to avoid spoilers of their yet-unreleased movies.
When you are able to turn your product into a whole industry, the biggest the economy around your product, the better for you.
Microsoft sells windows, and around windows we see a lot of other new industries: anti-virus, reg-cleaners, optimizers, more and more powerful hardware, etc, etc. And, specially, MILLIONS of IT Jobs.
So, It's the billions of dollars that other millions of people make on windows dependent industries that keeps windows on the market.
Quid pro quo.
The same goes for the Hollywood example, it's free advertising. People release spoilers, and suddenly you have everyone talking about the upcoming movie. It doesn't matter if it's 'BAD' press. It still helps!
If people weren't complaining so much about Vista, everyone would have just forgotten that it ever existed. Nobody would be using it. When you have one article saying it sucks, you are dead. When you have 50 articles around the world debating over how much it sucks or how much it rules, in the end, you have everyone talking about it, Suddenly a shitty product became very popular. People doesn't forget about it, and with a little push from m$ and the industry that makes a buck thanks to windows, everyone will eventually upgrade. When 50% of the people bitches about something, eventually, there will be a 25% of assholes and trolls that will love it just to get a good flamewar.
But, off course, in order to protect their business, they pretend to fight against all of this.
If the game were easier, there wouldn't be a place for gold selling, and people would get bored of the game eventually. If it were hard and they prevented gold selling (they can do it) people would get bored also and stop playing.
By having this model, they have 400.000 hardcore supporters of the game (money talks) and people is investing money on the game, those that spent their dollars on virtual gold will surely continue to play the game for a loooong time to get the most out of their investment, eventually getting other people to play it to.
People is paying for the game, for the service, and they they are paying for a PR department of 400.000 employees.
Re:It's quite a paradox. (Score:2, Insightful)
When I was unemployed, I saw the gold farmers as a scourge, letting people pay to get stuff for nothing.
So you were broke but you're too good to allow someone to pay you for something they want to pay you for and you don't need? When you quit playing the game for the rest of your life and have a level 70 character decked out in epic items, are you going to miss out on the opportunity to turn that into money too, just because you think it's a scourge?
Personally, when I was broke I found selling in-game currency to be a relatively fun way to pay the rent (this was in EverQuest 1).
Also, it's no more of "the easy way out" than when you buy any other service. When I order pizza, I like it delivered so that I don't have to drive up to Papa John's. It's a real shame that they're giving me the easy way out, allowing me to pay my hard earned dollars to someone else to simply bring me the pizza. And shame on me, for not wanting to invest the time to *walk* to the pizza store, because that's what they would have done in the "good old days" before all these gold farming "scourges".
Re:More proof (Score:3, Insightful)
On the other hand, they're playing computer games for a job whilst we slave away to make money to come home and do the same.
Re:mmo's waste of time (Score:3, Insightful)
I dunno - I'm 32 and I've never bought any gold, but I've managed to buy 4 epic mounts/training on 4 characters (thats 20,000~g for those who don't play - and one of the main reasons I'm sure people buy).
Its the 12 year olds who always ask me how I make so much money - its really simple actually (and I don't grind for the most part) - do quests and don't spend it on crap. You'll never make money selling stuff in WoW - typically the materials for making anything are worth more than the items usually sell for.
There are grinds in WoW but most of them can be combined with quests, dungeons and raids - which I enjoy doing.
Re:Obligatory Penny Arcade post (Score:3, Insightful)
"As far as WoW goes, the content doesn't suck but going through it multiple times is undoubtedly boring."
Games are based on repetition (that is cycling), almost every action you do in the real world is cyclical (thinking, moving, navigating, etc).
Just think of you day and compare it to the next day, there's good repetition (fighting games, etc) and there's bad repetition. How many of us here watched really good movies more then once? If something is good we will constantly repeat it, like sex, it's all based on the kinds of psychological rewards we get from the activity.
The idea that repetitive "is bad" totally misunderstand what we are really talking about -- cycles, there are good ones, you fill up, then you get bored and move on, and bad ones, they suck and you don't want to do them.