Misplaced Pages

Gold farming: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 19:00, 1 December 2006 edit74.232.97.217 (talk) →Publicity← Previous edit Latest revision as of 09:47, 13 December 2024 edit undoCitation bot (talk | contribs)Bots5,439,911 edits Altered template type. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Pancho507 | Linked from User:Pancho507/sandbox/2 | #UCB_webform_linked 813/3850 
Line 1: Line 1:
{{Short description|Practice of professional video game players}}
A '''farmer''' is a general term for a ] player who attempts to acquire ("farm") items of value within a game, usually in order to exploit the game's ]. This is usually accomplished by carrying out in-game actions (such as killing an important creature) repeatedly to maximize income. More broadly, the term could refer to a player of any type of game who repeats mundane actions over and over in order to collect in-game items.
{{distinguish|gold mining}}
{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=August 2022}}
'''Gold farming''' is the practice of playing a ] (MMO) to acquire ], later selling it for real-world ].<ref name=beeb2> bbc.com, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 14:55 GMT</ref><ref>Heeks (2008). p. 2.</ref><ref>For Chinese gold farmers, see {{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/mar/05/virtual-world-china | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Welcome to the new gold mines | first=Rowenna | last=Davis | date=March 5, 2009 | access-date=May 3, 2010 }}


*For non-Chinese gold farmers, see {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090715143758/http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2006/07/589687/ |date=2009-07-15 }} vietnamnet.vn, 12:30' 10/07/2006 (GMT+7)</ref>


Gold farming is distinct from other practices in online multiplayer games, such as ], 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.
==Professional organizations==
In the beginning of online gaming, most gold farmers worked independently, but as the market for their services has increased, a greater number of gold farmers are becoming affiliated with a gold farming organization of some sort. The largest gold farming organizations operate like real life industrial producers, with low-ranking employees performing the actual production work, supervised by managers, and delivering their products to centralized repositories where they are then sold either directly to the customer or to a gold reseller like IGE and OffGamers. {{fact}} Some organizations even impose quotas on their employees or tie wages to production. In addition several of the more prominent gold retail sites are actually owned and operated by the same company, and share customer service staff, tech support staff, and managment, though if they share the same ground level employees doing the actual 'farming' is open to debate as such information isn't required for them to make publically avaliable and their is currently no way to verify it through outside means. {{fact}}


While most game operators ban the practice of selling in-game currency for real-world cash,<ref name=beeb2/> gold farming is lucrative because it takes advantage of ] and the fact much time is needed to earn in-game currency.<ref name=beeb1> bbc.com, Friday, 13 October 2006, 19:20 GMT</ref> Rich players from ], wishing to save many hours of playing time, are willing to pay substantial sums to gold farmers from ].<ref name=NYT> nytimes.com, December 9, 2005</ref> Gold farming has also been linked to ], with game accounts used for gold farming being paid for with stolen credit cards.<ref name="eurogamer-exposed"/><ref name="eurogamer-wowtoken"/>
A great primer on this issue is here: http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?name=news&id=1545907


The term has also been used to describe the wait times and chore-like activities players may perform in some ] mobile phone games, allowing them to play without paying fees.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/gold-farming-in-heroes-of-the-storm-is-my-new-part.html|title=Gold-farming in Heroes of the Storm is My New Part-Time Job|author=Myers, Maddy|date=9 July 2015|work=pastemagazine.com|publisher=Paste Media Group|access-date=13 April 2016}}</ref>
==Gold farming in China==
==History==
According to estimates, around 100,000 people in ] are employed as gold farmers, ]. <!-- NOTE: apparent url cruft is actually required to pull up full article instead of paid-access gateway --> This represents about 0.4% of all online gamers in China. Chinese gold farmers typically work twelve hour shifts, and sometimes up to eighteen hour shifts. Wages depend heavily on location and the size of the gold farming company. One gold farming operation in ] in central China with 23 gold farmers was reported to pay its employees the equivalent of about 75 ]s per month, while workers at a larger gold farm in ] earn the equivalent of about 250 U.S. dollars per month. The rising prevalence of gold farming has led to the creation of gold farm brokerages, such as UCdao.
What began as a ] in the late 1990s became increasingly more commercialized in the 2000s with the growing popularity of ]s.<ref name=eurogamer1> eurogamer.net, 19 March 2009</ref>


While in the past players used ] and ] to sell each other ]s and gold from games like ]<ref name="Heeksp 2008 p4">Heeks (2008). p. 4.</ref> and ],<ref name="Heeks 2008 p5">Heeks (2008). p. 5.</ref> contemporary, commercialized gold farming may have its origins in South Korea. 2001 reports describe Korean ]s being converted into gold farming operations to serve domestic demand.<ref name="Heeks 2008 p5"/> This model, with full-time gold farmers working long hours in cybercafes, was ] to China and initially served demand from Korean players.<ref name=NYT/> Gold farming in China was experiencing swift growth ]. 2004.<ref name="Heeks 2008 p5"/> Cheap labor from inland provinces had washed into more cosmopolitan cities, and these real-life farmers were promptly pressed into service farming gold.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games|last=Dyer-Witheford|first=Nick|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2009|pages=133}}</ref> In 2011, '']'' reported that prisoners in some Chinese re-education camps were forced to engage in gold farming for the benefit of prison authorities.<ref>{{cite news|last=Vincent|first=Danny|title=China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam|access-date=25 May 2011|newspaper=]|date=25 May 2011}}</ref>
Because of reports indicating many gold farmers are located in China they are sometimes referred to as "Chinese farmers" or "China farmers".


Gold farming has also been linked to ]. According to the developers of ] and ], most gold-farming and ] 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 ] fees from credit card companies.<ref name="eurogamer-exposed">{{cite web |last1=Ryan |first1=Nick |title=Gold Trading Exposed: The Developers |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/gold-trading-exposed-the-developers-article?page=2 |website=Eurogamer |access-date=19 October 2023 |date=April 9, 2009}}</ref><ref name="eurogamer-wowtoken">{{cite web |last1=Purchese |first1=Robert |title=World of Warcraft and the battle against black market gold |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/world-of-warcraft-and-the-battle-against-black-market-gold |website=Eurogamer |access-date=19 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221003103111/https://www.eurogamer.net/world-of-warcraft-and-the-battle-against-black-market-gold |archive-date=3 October 2022 |date=29 April 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref name="runescape-documentary">{{cite web |title=The RuneScape Documentary - 15 Years of Adventure |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RNK0YBdwko&t=49m23s |website=YouTube |publisher=] |access-date=19 October 2023 |date=9 April 2017 |quote=It was getting to the stage where the credit card companies themselves were saying "We're not gonna accept your credit cards 'cause you're getting so many people charging back 'cause of stolen credit cards}}</ref><ref name="eurogamer-exposed"/><ref name="theregister-wowban">{{cite news |last1=Leyden |first1=John |title=UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban |url=https://www.theregister.com/2008/02/15/halifax_blizzard_block/ |website=The Register |publisher=Situation Publishing |access-date=19 October 2023 |date=15 February 2008}}</ref>
There are "gold farmers" or "gold farms" in other countries as well such as Romania, the Philippines, Indonesia and Mexico. However, they do not approach the scope and scale of the Chinese farm industry. China's abundant labor, availability of high-speed Internet connections and cheap computers have made it a powerhouse in collecting virtual assets for online games, fueling the market among the 30 million or so online gamers worldwide.


Academic studies of gold farming have revealed that the social networks of gold farmers are similar to those of drug dealers.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://kotaku.com/5594424/gold-farming-research-digs-up-similarities-between-drug-dealers|title=Gold Farming Research Digs Up Similarities With Drug Dealers|work=Kotaku Daily|access-date=July 23, 2010}}</ref>
China is in fact dominant in this industry and Jin Ge, a 30-year-old Shanghai native has done a documentary on "gold farms" in China as part of his doctoral research at the University of California at San Diego.:


Similar to gold farming, people may be hired to '']'' in-game avatars by harvesting ]s. The term ''elo boosting'' may refer to a similar activity in games that features ] or some other competitive ladder system.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/league-of-legends-pro-suspended-for-allegedly-leveling-1719653415|title= League Of Legends Pro Suspended For Allegedly Leveling Accounts For Cash|first=Yannick|last= LeJacq|website=]|date=July 22, 2015|access-date=October 29, 2015}}</ref>
He is one of the many researchers who has invested his time in investigating how farm owners manage their production and distribution of virtual commodities across the border between the virtual and the real as well as the border between nations. His main aim in his research was also to delve into the background and lives of these workers "I also tried to find out what this job, combining work and play, means to Chinese gold farmers and how it feels like to live at this peculiar intersection of the virtual and the real."


==Figures==
Ge Jin's research is also documented in his periodical online news articles which can be found at .
While reliable figures for gold farming are hard to come by,<ref name=beeb> bbc.com, 22 August 2008</ref> there are some estimates of the market for in-game currency.<ref name="wired.com">{{cite magazine| last=Dibbell|first=Julian|url=https://www.wired.com/2008/11/ff-ige/ | magazine=Wired | title=The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire | date=24 November 2008|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201054738/https://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/16-12/ff_ige?currentPage=all|archivedate=1 February 2009|url-status=live|url-access=limited|accessdate=21 April 2024}}</ref>


In 2005, ] estimated that there were over 100,000 full-time gold farmers in ] alone, and by 2009 the number had increased to one million.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games|last=Dyer-Witheford|first=Nick|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|year=2009|isbn=9780816666102|location=Minneapolis|pages=142}}</ref><ref name=NYT/> And in 2006–2007, the market for such ] was thought to amount to somewhere between US$300 million<ref> bbc.com, 24 September 2007</ref> and US$900 million.<ref name=beeb1/>


Another estimate, drawn from 2005/2006 data, valued the market at not less than US$200 million per year<ref name="Heeks 2008 p10">Heeks (2008), p. 10.</ref> and suggested that over 150,000 people were employed as gold farmers with average monthly earnings of US$145.<ref name="Heeks 2008 p10"/> This same report estimated that 80-85% of all gold farmers were from China,<ref name=beeb/> a fact which has led to prejudice towards Chinese players.<ref> eurogamer.net, 17 January 2006</ref> 2008 figures from China valued the Chinese trade in virtual currency at over several billion ], nearly US$300 million.<ref> informationweek.com, June 29, 2009</ref>
==Public opinion==
Gold farming is a very controversial subject in the MMORPG community. Supporters argue that the practice brings jobs and money to those who might otherwise not have them, that it levels the playing field for those who have less time to play or who joined the game later than others. {{fact}} Those who oppose the practice usually do so because they feel it violates the spirit of the game as an enclosed virtual world or that it is unfair to those who are unable or unwilling to purchase gold, not only because they are at a disadvantage in relation to players who do buy gold, but also because greater availability of gold causes a rapid increase in prices, or ]. {{fact}} Players are also vocally against gold farming, but the continuing health of the in-game currency market indicates there is a large segment of the players who are willing to purchase gold. PC Gamer, a popular pc gaming magazine, recently decided to deny all advertisements of gold farming in their magazine , and other companies have joined them in their boycott. {{fact}}


==Game economy impact== ==Rules and enforcement==
Many game developers expressly ban gold farming in their game's ] or ].<ref name=eurogamer2> eurogamer.net, 9 April 2009</ref> 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.<ref name=Blizzard> us.battle.net 12 June 2012</ref><ref name=ArenaNet> arena.net, 3 March 2012</ref> 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.<ref name=WoWToken> {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413095121/http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/18141101/introducing-the-wow-token-3-2-2015 |date=April 13, 2016 }} us.battle.net 12 April 2016</ref>
Gold farming by definition entails the harvesting of gold or gold equivalents such as items desired by the community to be sold for gold. As the vast majority of gold farming takes place as a solo activity, the range of gold equivalents that may be acquired by the gold farmer is limited. Items such as materials utilized in crafting professions, quests, and low to mid-range equipment makes up the bulk of gold equivalents introduced by the farmer. Equilibrium value of crafting materials, quest items, and low to mid-range equipment is reduced due to the extra supply. Player crafted equipment may be produced at cheaper rates as a direct result of reduced costs from additional supply and greater availability. Once gold accumulated by the farmer changes hand to a second party the primary visible impact is increased demand for items perceived to be at the top-end of what is available in the game.


==Secondary effects on in-game economy==
The common perception by the community is that gold farming is somehow damaging to the economy as a whole. For those interested in manually laboring to farm gold via solo activity or when purchasing top-end items this can be true. On the other hand activities tailored to take advantage of excess supply created by the gold farmer, such as crafting from materials they increase available supply of, tend to be more profitable as a result of farming activity. Sale of top-end items also allows for those who choose not to purchase in-game currency with real world funds to leverage the impact of farmers to their own benefit.
Gold farming and ] can affect a game's economy by causing inflation.<ref name=uiuc/> They may degrade the game experience for users as was noted in a legal case against ].<ref>{{cite news | last =Chalk | first =Andy | title =IGE Sued By World Of Warcraft Player | newspaper =The Escapis | publisher =Themis Media | date =1 June 2007 | url =http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/72346-IGE-Sued-By-World-Of-Warcraft-Player | access-date =March 10, 2012 | archive-date =9 December 2019 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20191209233901/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/72346-IGE-Sued-By-World-Of-Warcraft-Player | url-status =dead }}</ref> It is often a source of annoyance for players who can find themselves being "]" by sellers via the game's messaging system.


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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24152225 | title=Diablo 3 auction houses are doomed by developer Blizzard | publisher=BBC | work=BBC News | date=18 September 2013 | access-date=21 September 2013 | author=Kelion, Leo}}</ref>
Ultimately the influx and outflux of game currency is controlled by small quantities of raw currency collected from dispatching ]s or completion of game tasks, and money-sinks such as travel or repair costs. Gold farming activity skews the cost of a variety of game items by increasing supply of those easy to acquire while increasing demand for the more difficult however otherwise the overall impact is typically negligible. By focusing on activities that take advantage of cheap labor the regular player may turn the farmers efforts to their own benefit.


During the ], Venezuelans became gold-farmers and could be seen playing online video games such as '']'' 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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Rosati|first1=Andrew|title=Desperate Venezuelans Turn to Video Games to Survive|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-05/desperate-venezuelans-turn-to-video-games-to-survive|access-date=6 December 2017|work=]|date=5 December 2017}}</ref>
However, it can also be said that by doing so, gold farmers make the game more difficult for less frequent players who do not spend as much time in-game. By increasing the supply of these cheaper items, the gold farmers make it more difficult for amateur players to "grind" their way to in-game wealth.


==Law, regulation and taxation==
==Discrimination==
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.
The prevalence of gold farming has also led to claims of discrimination against players with poor English on English speaking servers. There have been complaints, especially from Chinese players on English-speaking servers, on how they have been groundlessly labelled "Chinese farmers" and treated with contempt.


===Australia===
==eBay and auction sites==
In 2006, a spokesperson for the ]n Government stated normal earned income rules also apply to income from the sale of virtual goods.<ref> theage.com.au, October 31, 2006</ref>
Although buying gold in an online game is often referred to as "eBaying", most farmers do not actually make sales through online auction services. More commonly, sites such as ] are used as a system of advertisement for gold sellers who manage their own websites. {{fact}}


===China===
==Price comparison and other tools==
Gold farming in China is more pervasive than in any other country, as 80% of all gold farmers are in ] as of 2011,<ref name="used prisoners" /> with a total of 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country as of 2005.<ref name="DAVID BARBOZA">{{cite news | last= BARBOZA
Tools for the comparison of this secondary market have recently become more numerous. (Online since December 2005, source . Also created in 2005 was . See also this October 2005 ), was the first site to tackle comparison of Gold sellers, however 2006 has seen similar sites appear - for example ] (Online since mid-2006, source ), and .
| first= DAVID | url= https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/technology/09gaming.html| title= Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese| work= ]| date= 9 December 2005| access-date= 21 April 2024 }}</ref> Gold farming in China is done in ]s, abandoned ]s, small offices, private homes and even "]" camps.<ref name="DAVID BARBOZA" /> When organized as an actual informal business, they are known as "gaming workshops" (]: {{linktext|游戏|工作室}}; ]: Yóuxì gōngzuòshì)<ref name="JULIAN DIBBELL" /> or "play-money workshops" (打钱工作室 Dǎqián gōngzuò shì). The abbreviation is 打G, where the G stands for "]". Prisoners in ] camps have been forced to engage in gold farming for the financial benefit of prison authorities.<ref name="used prisoners">{{cite news |last=Vincent|first=Danny |title=China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam |access-date=25 May 2011 |newspaper=]|date=25 May 2011}}</ref> A popular ] subject to gold farming in China is '']''.<ref name="JULIAN DIBBELL">{{cite news | last= Dibbell | first= Julian | url= https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html
| title= The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer| work= ] | date= 17 June 2007| access-date= 21 April 2024}}</ref>
The Chinese government banned using ] to buy real-world items in 2009 but not the reverse.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131129184312/http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/newsrelease/commonnews/200906/20090606364208.html |date=2013-11-29 }} PRC Ministry of Commerce, Monday, June 29, 2009 2100 GMT</ref>


===Japan===
also provides an interesting vantage on this market and shows an interpretation of the exchange rate between virtual currencies and the real-world Dollar (USD).
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.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929103326/http://au.gamespot.com/news/6154249.html |date=2007-09-29 }} gamespot.com, Jul 19, 2006 5:48 am AEST</ref>


===South Korea===
critiques the gold sellers.
A Korean high court's 2010 ruling meant that exchanging ] for real money was legal in this country although subject to taxation.<ref name=cnn> {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20121216064952/http://moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com/2010/01/22/play-money-is-real-money-says-high-court/ |date=2012-12-16 }} moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com, January 22, 2010</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/172452/Virtual_item_trading_to_be_banned_in_South_Korea.php | title=Virtual item trading to be banned in South Korea | publisher=UBM | work=gamasutra.com | date=15 June 2012 | access-date=13 April 2016 | author=Rose, Mike}}</ref>


===United States===
==Rules and enforcement==
A United States Congressional committee investigated taxation of virtual assets and incomes derived from them in 2006,<ref>
* {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104090620/http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2006/10/15/us-congress-launchs-probe-into-virtual-economies/ |date=2010-11-04 }} secondlife.reuters.com, Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:43pm PDT
* news.com.com, December 3, 2006 9:45 AM PST</ref> and the ] has, in its National Taxpayer Advocate's 2008 Annual Report to Congress, expressed concern that virtual worlds are a growing source of ].<ref> insidesocialgames.com, January 20th, 2009</ref>

===Venezuela===
Due to ] and the devalued ], popular MMOs like ] and ] have been subject to mass gold mining. In ], a user published a racially abusive guide on how to kill Venezuelans in the “]” places where the gold farming takes place; the guide was followed by intemperate comments. The moderators removed the post and the comments afterwards.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/11/21/venezuelas-paper-currency-is-worthless-so-its-people-seek-virtual-gold|title=Venezuela's paper currency is worthless, so its people seek virtual gold|date=21 November 2019|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2019-11-26|issn=0013-0613}}</ref> Considering many gold farmers utilize ] as an intermediate currency,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bitcoinmxn.com/2018/09/01/una-entrevista-con-un-anonimo-venezolano-utilizando-runescape-y-bitcoin-para-alimentar-a-su-familia |title=Una Entrevista Con Un anónimo Venezolano Utilizando Runescape y Bitcoin Para Alimentar a Su Familia |access-date=2019-04-11 |archive-date=2019-04-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411011302/http://bitcoinmxn.com/2018/09/01/una-entrevista-con-un-anonimo-venezolano-utilizando-runescape-y-bitcoin-para-alimentar-a-su-familia/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> regulation or taxation isn't feasible at the moment.{{when|date=April 2020}} During the ], RuneScape's trading market suffered a "economic crisis" due to the reduced number of goods, as Venezuelans could not access the game.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gamebyte.com/power-outage-in-venezuela-causes-economic-crisis-in-runescape/|title=Power Outage In Venezuela Causes Economic Crisis In RuneScape|date=2019-03-11|website=Gamebyte|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-11-26}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

===Lawsuits by game companies===

], the makers of ], filed a lawsuit to stop online sales of its in-game currency. The lawsuit never went to trial.<ref>http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2010cv02576/469538/</ref>

], the makers of ], have engaged in legal actions against several gold farmers and ] programmers.<ref> Runescape.com, November 9, 2011</ref>

On February 1, 2008, ], the makers of ], 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.<ref>http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/02/01/peons4hire-blizzard-injunction/ Virtuallyblind.com, February 1, 2008</ref>

==Game sweatshop==
A business producing ] and in-game currency in ]s is sometimes labelled a game sweatshop.<ref name=observer>{{cite news | last = Thompson | first = Tony | title = They play games for 10 hours - and earn £2.80 in a 'virtual sweatshop' | publisher = ] | date = 2005-03-13 | url = http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1436411,00.html | access-date = 2007-06-29 }}</ref> Workers employed by these companies either collect in-game currency (known as gold farming) or generate high-] avatars (known as ]).<ref name=observer/> Such organizations are referred to as sweatshops because the gold farmers are usually paid very low wages.<ref name=uiuc>{{cite journal | last =Jin | first =Ge | title =Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World | journal =Consumers, Commodities & Consumption | volume =7 | issue =2 | publisher =Consumers Studies Research Network | date =May 2006 | url =http://csrn.camden.rutgers.edu/newsletters/7-2/jin.htm | access-date = March 10, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Dibbell|first1=Julian|title=Video Games - China - Money - Online Games|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazine/17lootfarmers-t.html?_r=0|website=The New York Times|date=17 June 2007}}</ref>

==Development potential==
Gold farming has been discussed as a tool for socioeconomic development by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.infodev.org/articles/converting-virtual-economy-development-potential-1 | title=Converting the Virtual Economy into Development Potential | publisher=infoDev | work=infodev.org | date=7 April 2011 | access-date=13 April 2016}}</ref> and University of Manchester professor Richard Heeks.<ref>Heeks (2008).</ref> 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 ].<ref name=ars> arstechnica.com</ref>

==In the media==
]'s 2011 novel '']'' has a plot centered on an online game that encourages gold farming.

]'s 2004 short story "Anda's Game",<ref>{{cite news | last=Doctorow | first=Cory | author-link=Cory Doctorow | url=http://www.salon.com/2004/11/15/andas_game/ | title=Anda's Game | work=] | date=2004-11-16 | access-date=2014-04-01 }}</ref> 2010 novel '']'',<ref>. creativecommons.org, May 11, 2010</ref> and 2014 ] ''In Real Life''<ref></ref> (based on his short story, "Anda's Game", and illustrated by Jen Wang) include references to gold farming.

]'s radio play ''The Gold Farmer'' was broadcast on ] as part of The Wire series on February 6, 2010.<ref name=play>. bbc.co.uk</ref> 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 ], ''Chinese Gold'', used found video and ] to document and explore the Chinese gold farming phenomenon.<ref name=nmai> Netherlands Media Art Institute</ref>

]'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.

== Discourse ==
In the game '']'', 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.<ref name="Eyman">{{Cite book |last=Eyman |first=Douglas |title=Games & Play in Chinese & Sinophone Cultures |date=2024 |publisher=] |isbn=9780295752402 |editor-last=Guo |editor-first=Li |location=Seattle, WA |chapter=Translation and Chinese Culture in Video Games |editor-last2=Eyman |editor-first2=Douglas |editor-last3=Sun |editor-first3=Hongmei}}</ref>{{Rp|page=253}} 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.<ref name="Eyman" />{{Rp|page=254}} In her analysis analysis of gold farming, media scholar ] 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."<ref name="Eyman" />{{Rp|page=255}}


==See also==
In most games, gold farming is specifically prohibited by the game's ] or ] and is grounds for termination of the account. However, enforcement is generally sporadic, due to the manpower required to perform investigations of that kind and the large negative impact that the termination of a compliant user account has compared to the minor positive impact of the termination of a gold farmer. As well, most MMORPGs require players to spend large portions of their time on repetitive actions or "farming", making it difficult to distinguish between characters that are farming for their own use and those that are farming for real-life sale.
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]
*]


==Publicity== ==References==
{{reflist|30em}}


=== General ===
Guilds in World of Warcraft highlighting the gold farming community have risen in popularity. On the World of Warcraft server, Bleeding Hollow, for example, a popular guild by the name of "i farm gold or family dies" has formed mocking the profession.
* {{cite journal | url=http://hummedia.manchester.ac.uk/institutes/gdi/publications/workingpapers/di/di_wp32.pdf | title=Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on "Gold Farming": Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games | last=Heeks |first=Richard | journal=Development Informatics--Working Paper Series | year=2008 | volume=28 |publisher=University of Manchester |location=United Kingdom}}


{{Multiplayer online games}}
==External links==
{{Video game genre}}
*
*
*
*
* - An article from The Daedalus Project by Nick Yee that deals with the racialized narrative we tell about gold farmers and what that typical narrative leaves out.
* - a PhD student from UCSD makes a video documentary of gold farming in rural and suburban China. A video link to youtube can be found on this website.
*In ]'s short story , an elite player discovers she is being paid real-world money to disrupt ] gold-farming operations.
*
*
]
]


]
]
]
]
]

Latest revision as of 09:47, 13 December 2024

Practice of professional video game players Not to be confused with gold mining.
This article uses bare URLs, which are uninformative and vulnerable to link rot. Please consider converting them to full citations to ensure the article remains verifiable and maintains a consistent citation style. Several templates and tools are available to assist in formatting, such as reFill (documentation) and Citation bot (documentation). (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

While in the past players used eBay and PayPal to sell each other items and gold from games like Ultima Online and Lineage, contemporary, commercialized gold farming may have its origins in South Korea. 2001 reports describe Korean cybercafes being converted into gold farming operations to serve domestic demand. This model, with full-time gold farmers working long hours in cybercafes, was outsourced to China and initially served demand from Korean players. Gold farming in China was experiencing swift growth c. 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 experience points. The term elo boosting may refer to a similar activity in games that features Elo rating system or some other competitive ladder system.

Figures

While reliable figures for gold farming are hard to come by, there are some estimates of the market for in-game currency.

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 and US$900 million.

Another estimate, drawn from 2005/2006 data, valued the market at not less than US$200 million per year 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. 2008 figures from China valued the Chinese trade in virtual currency at over several billion yuan, nearly US$300 million.

Rules and enforcement

Many game developers expressly ban gold farming in their game's EULA or terms of service. 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. 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.

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 "spammed" by sellers via the game's messaging system.

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.

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 Australian Government stated normal earned income rules also apply to income from the sale of virtual goods.

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 Internet cafes, abandoned warehouses, small offices, private homes and even "re-education through labor" camps. When organized as an actual informal business, they are known as "gaming workshops" (Simplified Chinese: 游戏工作室; 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 virtual currency to buy real-world items in 2009 but not the reverse.

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.

South Korea

A Korean high court's 2010 ruling meant that exchanging virtual currency for real money was legal in this country although subject to taxation. 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.

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 a "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.

Jagex, the makers of RuneScape, have engaged in legal actions against several gold farmers and bot programmers.

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.

Game sweatshop

A business producing avatars and in-game currency in MMORPGs 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. 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.

In the media

Neal Stephenson's 2011 novel Reamde has a plot centered on an online game that encourages gold farming.

Cory Doctorow's 2004 short story "Anda's Game", 2010 novel For The Win, 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. 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.COM, Chinese Gold, used found video and machinima to document and explore the Chinese gold farming phenomenon.

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.

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 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

References

  1. ^ The business end of playing games bbc.com, Wednesday, 25 April 2007, 14:55 GMT
  2. Heeks (2008). p. 2.
  3. For Chinese gold farmers, see Davis, Rowenna (March 5, 2009). "Welcome to the new gold mines". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
  4. ^ China's full-time computer gamers bbc.com, Friday, 13 October 2006, 19:20 GMT
  5. ^ Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese nytimes.com, December 9, 2005
  6. ^ Ryan, Nick (April 9, 2009). "Gold Trading Exposed: The Developers". Eurogamer. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  7. ^ Purchese, Robert (29 April 2015). "World of Warcraft and the battle against black market gold". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 3 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  8. Myers, Maddy (9 July 2015). "Gold-farming in Heroes of the Storm is My New Part-Time Job". pastemagazine.com. Paste Media Group. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  9. Gold Trading Exposed: Introduction eurogamer.net, 19 March 2009
  10. Heeks (2008). p. 4.
  11. ^ Heeks (2008). p. 5.
  12. Dyer-Witheford, Nick (2009). Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. University of Minnesota Press. p. 133.
  13. Vincent, Danny (25 May 2011). "China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  14. "The RuneScape Documentary - 15 Years of Adventure". YouTube. Jagex. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2023. It was getting to the stage where the credit card companies themselves were saying "We're not gonna accept your credit cards 'cause you're getting so many people charging back 'cause of stolen credit cards
  15. Leyden, John (15 February 2008). "UK bank blames fraudsters for World of Warcraft ban". The Register. Situation Publishing. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  16. "Gold Farming Research Digs Up Similarities With Drug Dealers". Kotaku Daily. Retrieved July 23, 2010.
  17. LeJacq, Yannick (July 22, 2015). "League Of Legends Pro Suspended For Allegedly Leveling Accounts For Cash". Kotaku. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
  18. ^ Poor earning virtual gaming gold bbc.com, 22 August 2008
  19. Dibbell, Julian (24 November 2008). "The Decline and Fall of an Ultra Rich Online Gaming Empire". Wired. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  20. Dyer-Witheford, Nick (2009). Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 142. ISBN 9780816666102.
  21. The high cost of playing Warcraft bbc.com, 24 September 2007
  22. ^ Heeks (2008), p. 10.
  23. Chinese WOW players speak out eurogamer.net, 17 January 2006
  24. China Limits Use Of Virtual Currency informationweek.com, June 29, 2009
  25. Gold Trading Exposed: The Developers eurogamer.net, 9 April 2009
  26. Auction House Services Diablo III us.battle.net 12 June 2012
  27. Mike O'Brien on Microtransactions in Guild Wars 2 arena.net, 3 March 2012
  28. WoW Token Archived April 13, 2016, at the Wayback Machine us.battle.net 12 April 2016
  29. ^ Jin, Ge (May 2006). "Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World". Consumers, Commodities & Consumption. 7 (2). Consumers Studies Research Network. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  30. Chalk, Andy (1 June 2007). "IGE Sued By World Of Warcraft Player". The Escapis. Themis Media. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  31. Kelion, Leo (18 September 2013). "Diablo 3 auction houses are doomed by developer Blizzard". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 21 September 2013.
  32. Rosati, Andrew (5 December 2017). "Desperate Venezuelans Turn to Video Games to Survive". Bloomberg. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  33. Virtual world: tax man cometh theage.com.au, October 31, 2006
  34. ^ Vincent, Danny (25 May 2011). "China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 May 2011.
  35. ^ BARBOZA, DAVID (9 December 2005). "Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  36. ^ Dibbell, Julian (17 June 2007). "The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 April 2024.
  37. China bars use of virtual money for trading in real goods Archived 2013-11-29 at the Wayback Machine PRC Ministry of Commerce, Monday, June 29, 2009 2100 GMT
  38. Japanese gov't looks into gold farming Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine gamespot.com, Jul 19, 2006 5:48 am AEST
  39. Play money is real money, says high court Archived 2012-12-16 at archive.today moremoney.blogs.money.cnn.com, January 22, 2010
  40. Rose, Mike (15 June 2012). "Virtual item trading to be banned in South Korea". gamasutra.com. UBM. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  42. IRS Getting Closer to a Virtual Goods Tax insidesocialgames.com, January 20th, 2009
  43. ^ "Venezuela's paper currency is worthless, so its people seek virtual gold". The Economist. 21 November 2019. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  44. "Una Entrevista Con Un anónimo Venezolano Utilizando Runescape y Bitcoin Para Alimentar a Su Familia". Archived from the original on 2019-04-11. Retrieved 2019-04-11.
  45. "Power Outage In Venezuela Causes Economic Crisis In RuneScape". Gamebyte. 2019-03-11. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  46. http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2010cv02576/469538/
  47. Bot-Busting Update: Legal Proceedings Runescape.com, November 9, 2011
  48. http://virtuallyblind.com/2008/02/01/peons4hire-blizzard-injunction/ Virtuallyblind.com, February 1, 2008
  49. ^ Thompson, Tony (2005-03-13). "They play games for 10 hours - and earn £2.80 in a 'virtual sweatshop'". The Observer. Retrieved 2007-06-29.
  50. Dibbell, Julian (17 June 2007). "Video Games - China - Money - Online Games". The New York Times.
  51. "Converting the Virtual Economy into Development Potential". infodev.org. infoDev. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
  52. Heeks (2008).
  53. Fair Trade Gold arstechnica.com
  54. Doctorow, Cory (2004-11-16). "Anda's Game". Salon. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  55. "Cory Doctorow's 'For the Win'". creativecommons.org, May 11, 2010
  56. "A Comic That Explores the Dark Side of Gold Farming"
  57. "The Gold Farmer". bbc.co.uk
  58. Space Invaders artists and works Netherlands Media Art Institute
  59. ^ Eyman, Douglas (2024). "Translation and Chinese Culture in Video Games". In Guo, Li; Eyman, Douglas; Sun, Hongmei (eds.). Games & Play in Chinese & Sinophone Cultures. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press. ISBN 9780295752402.

General

Multiplayer video games
Types
History
Concepts
See also
Video game genres
Action
Platformer
Shooter
Survival
Other
Action-adventure
Adventure
Digital tabletop
Puzzle
Role-playing
Simulation
Life
CMS
Sports
Vehicle
Other
Strategy
Other genres
Related concepts
Themes
Player modes
Production
Design
Other
Categories: