Pdwarfy ain’t grinding nuthin

Gold farming might be a joke among many MMORPG players, but, according to a recent Manchester University study, it certainly is a lucrative one. The study estimates that the industry is a $500 Million market, with over 400,000 employees (80% based in China) earning an average of $145 a month. Professor Richard Heeks, who authored the study, had this to say:

“I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry. In a way that is still true. It’s just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands.”

Hundreds of thousands grinding away in games like World of Warcraft and Runescape, for low wages and in poor conditions. This is the ugly side of globalization manifest in virtual worlds. It’s almost surreal to imagine, but apparently gold farming is becoming a major sector in the economies of the countries involved.

Major enough but unregulated enough to allow the participation of organized crime. That criminal aspect of gold farming makes the Manchester study not entirely accurate, Heeks said. Meaning his estimate could be twice as low, and gold farming could actualy be a billion-dollar industry.

Source: BBC (via Gamasutra)

Tags: china, gold farming, grinding, MMO, slave labor, WOW

• LittleBigPlanet reaches 1 million community levels
• SimExchange Predicts 360 Will Outsell PS3 2-to-1 in the US This Holiday Season
• NCAA Basketball 10 Demo Availble Now to Xbox LIVE Gold Members
• PS3 Games Not as Profitable for EA as Mobile Titles
• Major Nelson Milestone: Two Million Simultaneous Users on XBL and I Can Still Stream Porn!
• Rumour: Pokémon Gold and Silver remakes coming?
• Big Shock: Incredible First Day Sales for GTA IV
• Sonic Gets Taken to the Cleaners: Sega Reports $963 Million Q1 Loss

No Comments » No comments yet. RSS feed for comments on this post. Comment Now Note: Commenting on Ripten does not currently require registration, however to be eligible for contests on the site, you must be a registered user. Name (required) Mail (will not be published) (required) Website Commenting Rules: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Ripten reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. Thanks. Notify me of followup comments Tired of the Goomba? Upload your own custom comment avatar.