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Gold farming is the practice of playing a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) to acquire in-game currency, later selling it for real-world money. The business end of playing games bbc.com, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 14:55 GMTHeeks (2008). p. 2.For Chinese gold farmers, see
Gold farming is distinct from other practices in online multiplayer games, such as power leveling, as gold farming refers specifically to harvesting in-game currency, not rank or experience points. The actual labor mechanics of these practices may be similar, and those who hold employment as gold farmers may also work as power levelers.
While most game operators ban the practice of selling in-game currency for real-world cash, gold farming is lucrative because it takes advantage of economic inequality and the fact much time is needed to earn in-game currency. China's full-time computer gamers bbc.com, Friday, 13 October 2006, 19:20 GMT Rich players from developed countries, wishing to save many hours of playing time, are willing to pay substantial sums to gold farmers from developing countries. Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese nytimes.com, December 9, 2005 Gold farming has also been linked to credit card fraud, with game accounts used for gold farming being paid for with stolen credit cards.
The term has also been used to describe the wait times and chore-like activities players may perform in some freemium mobile phone games, allowing them to play without paying fees.
While in the past players used eBay and PayPal to sell each other items and gold from games like Ultima OnlineHeeks (2008). p. 4. and Lineage,Heeks (2008). p. 5. contemporary, commercialized gold farming may have its origins in South Korea. 2001 reports describe Korean being converted into gold farming operations to serve domestic demand. This model, with full-time gold farmers working long hours in cybercafes, was outsourcing to China and initially served demand from Korean players. Gold farming in China was experiencing swift growth . 2004. Cheap labor from inland provinces had washed into more cosmopolitan cities, and these real-life farmers were promptly pressed into service farming gold. In 2011, The Guardian reported that prisoners in some Chinese re-education camps were forced to engage in gold farming for the benefit of prison authorities.
Gold farming has also been linked to credit card fraud. According to the developers of World of Warcraft and Runescape, most gold-farming and botting accounts in those games were paid for using stolen credit card numbers. Dealing with these fraudulent accounts incurs costs for the game companies not only in terms of employee time, but also monetarily in the form of chargeback fees from credit card companies. In addition, this large-scale fraud can risk a developer's transactions being refused by credit card companies and banks, posing an existential risk to game studios.
Academic studies of gold farming have revealed that the social networks of gold farmers are similar to those of drug dealers.
Similar to gold farming, people may be hired to level up in-game avatars by harvesting . The term elo boosting may refer to a similar activity in games that feature the Elo rating system or some other competitive ladder system.
In 2005, The New York Times estimated that there were over 100,000 full-time gold farmers in China alone, and by 2009, the number had increased to one million. And in 2006–2007, the market for such virtual goods was thought to amount to somewhere between US$300 million The high cost of playing Warcraft bbc.com, 24 September 2007 and US$900 million.
Another estimate, drawn from 2005/2006 data, valued the market at not less than US$200 million per yearHeeks (2008), p. 10. and suggested that over 150,000 people were employed as gold farmers with average monthly earnings of US$145. This same report estimated that 80-85% of all gold farmers were from China, a fact which has led to prejudice towards Chinese players. Chinese WOW players speak out eurogamer.net, 17 January 2006 2008 figures from China valued the Chinese trade in virtual currency at over several billion Renminbi, nearly US$300 million. China Limits Use Of Virtual Currency informationweek.com, June 29, 2009
These ill effects can occur whether or not such practices are sanctioned by the game operator. Citing such concerns, Activision Blizzard shut down their real-money transaction system for Diablo III in 2014.
During the crisis in Venezuela, Venezuelans became gold-farmers and could be seen playing online video games such as RuneScape to sell in-game currency or characters for real currency. In many cases, these gamers made more money than salaried workers in Venezuela even though they were earning just a few dollars per day. So many Venezuelans began this practice that it increased inflation with multiple game currencies.
Jagex, the makers of RuneScape, have engaged in legal actions against several gold farmers and Internet bot programmers. Bot-Busting Update: Legal Proceedings Runescape.com, November 9, 2011
On February 1, 2008, Blizzard Entertainment, the makers of World of Warcraft, won a lawsuit against In Game Dollar, trading under the name Peons4Hire. The court ordered an injunction that immediately halted all business operations within said game.http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/02/01/peons4hire-blizzard-injunction/ Virtuallyblind.com, February 1, 2008
Cory Doctorow's 2004 short story "Anda's Game", 2010 novel For The Win, "Cory Doctorow's 'For the Win. creativecommons.org, May 11, 2010 and 2014 graphic novel In Real Life (based on his short story, "Anda's Game", and illustrated by Jen Wang) include references to gold farming.
Alan Harris's radio play The Gold Farmer was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 as part of The Wire series on February 6, 2010. "The Gold Farmer". bbc.co.uk It features a man who plays an online role-playing game and whose next door neighbour is a gold farmer.
A 2006 art project by Ubermorgen, Chinese Gold, used found video and machinima to document and explore the Chinese gold farming phenomenon. Space Invaders artists and works Netherlands Media Art Institute
Julian Dibbell's 2006 book Play Money: Or, How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot chronicles the author's efforts to earn so much virtual money playing online games that he could quit his day job.
History
What began as a cottage industry in the late 1990s became increasingly more commercialized in the 2000s with the growing popularity of massively multiplayer online games. Gold Trading Exposed: Introduction eurogamer.net, 19 March 2009
Figures
While reliable figures for gold farming are hard to come by, Poor earning virtual gaming gold bbc.com, 22 August 2008 there are some estimates of the market for in-game currency.
Rules and enforcement
Many game developers expressly ban gold farming in their game's EULA or terms of service. Gold Trading Exposed: The Developers eurogamer.net, 9 April 2009 In order to combat this, game developers such as Blizzard and ArenaNet are attempting to discourage third-party gold farming by implementing official real-money transaction systems within their games. Auction House Services Diablo III us.battle.net 12 June 2012 Mike O'Brien on Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 arena.net, 3 March 2012 For example, in 2015, Blizzard implemented in-game items and tokens that cost players real money to purchase. These can then be auctioned off to other players for in-game currencies. WoW Token us.battle.net 12 April 2016
Secondary effects on in-game economy
Gold farming and power leveling can affect a game's economy by causing inflation. They may degrade the game experience for users as was noted in a legal case against IGE. It is often a source of annoyance for players who can find themselves being "Messaging spam" by sellers via the game's messaging system.
Law, regulation and taxation
Some governments, perhaps recognizing that current regulatory systems may be ill-suited to address activities such as gold farming, have made statements concerning the sale of virtual goods.
Australia
In 2006, a spokesperson for the Government stated normal earned income rules also apply to income from the sale of virtual goods. Virtual world: tax man cometh theage.com.au, October 31, 2006
China
Gold farming in China is more pervasive than in any other country, as 80% of all gold farmers are in mainland China as of 2011, with a total of 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country as of 2005. Gold farming in China is done in , abandoned , small offices, private homes and even "Laogai" camps. When organized as an actual informal business, they are known as "gaming workshops" (Simplified Chinese: ; Pinyin: Yóuxì gōngzuòshì) or "play-money workshops" (打钱工作室 Dǎqián gōngzuò shì). The abbreviation is 打G, where the G stands for "gold". Prisoners in Laogai camps have been forced to engage in gold farming for the financial benefit of prison authorities. A popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game subject to gold farming in China is World of Warcraft.
The Chinese government banned using Digital currency to buy real-world items in 2009 but not the reverse. China bars use of virtual money for trading in real goods PRC Ministry of Commerce, Monday, June 29, 2009 2100 GMT
Japan
In response to increases in gold farming, in 2006, the Japanese Government urged the computer game industry to self-regulate as well as vowing to investigate this species of fraud. Japanese gov't looks into gold farming gamespot.com, Jul 19, 2006 5:48 am AEST
South Korea
A Korean high court's 2010 ruling meant that exchanging Digital currency for real money was legal in this country although subject to taxation. Play money is real money, says high court moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com, January 22, 2010 However, in 2012, this practice was set to be banned alongside a raft of other means to cheat in games, and gold farmers could face stiff penalties—up to $45,000 in fines and five years in jail.
United States
A United States Congressional committee investigated taxation of virtual assets and incomes derived from them in 2006,
and the IRS has, in its National Taxpayer Advocate's 2008 Annual Report to Congress, expressed concern that virtual worlds are a growing source of tax noncompliance. IRS Getting Closer to a Virtual Goods Tax insidesocialgames.com, January 20th, 2009
Venezuela
Due to hyperinflation in Venezuela and the devalued Venezuelan currency, popular MMOs like Runescape and Tibia have been subject to mass gold mining. In Reddit, a user published a racially abusive guide on how to kill Venezuelans in the “player-v-player” places where the gold farming takes place; the guide was followed by intemperate comments. The moderators removed the post and the comments afterwards. Considering many gold farmers utilize Bitcoin as an intermediate currency, regulation or taxation isn't feasible at the moment. During the 2019 Venezuelan blackouts, RuneScape's trading market suffered an "economic crisis" due to the reduced number of goods, as Venezuelans could not access the game.
Lawsuits by game companies
Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, filed a lawsuit to stop online sales of its in-game currency. The lawsuit never went to trial.
Game sweatshop
A business producing avatars and in-game currency in is sometimes labelled a game sweatshop. Workers employed by these companies either collect in-game currency (known as gold farming) or generate high-level avatars (known as power leveling). Such organizations are referred to as sweatshops because the gold farmers are usually paid very low wages.
Development potential
Gold farming has been discussed as a tool for socioeconomic development by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development and University of Manchester professor Richard Heeks.Heeks (2008). The money involved is small enough to flow easily from many first-world players but large enough to make a difference to the people doing the work. Gold farmers receive a higher percentage of sale revenue from their work than do farmers of fair trade coffee. Fair Trade Gold arstechnica.com
In the media
Neal Stephenson's 2011 novel Reamde has a plot centered on an online game that encourages gold farming.
Discourse
In the game World of Warcraft, friction resulted from U.S. players of the 2004 release finding themselves competing with Chinese-based players who were employed to generate in-game resources to be sold on trading sites. In addition to these differences in play style, the game had no translation features for in-game chat and therefore there was little communication between English-speaking and non-English speaking players. In her analysis of gold farming, media scholar Lisa Nakamura wrote that although "players cannot see each other's body while playing, specific forms of game labor, such as gold farming and selling, as well as specific styles of play, have become racialized as Chinese, producing new forms of networked racism that are particularly easy for players to disavow."
See also
General
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