According to a recent study by Manchester University, the growth rate for gold farmers is at an all time high.
Best guess estimates place the number of world-wide gold farmers at roughly 400,000 strong, with 80% of these farmers living in China. With farmers earning roughly $145 (USD) per month, these figures equate to an industry that would be worth nearly $500 million! Concrete figures are hard to come by given how "underground" the business typically is.
Heeks continues on:
Source
Best guess estimates place the number of world-wide gold farmers at roughly 400,000 strong, with 80% of these farmers living in China. With farmers earning roughly $145 (USD) per month, these figures equate to an industry that would be worth nearly $500 million! Concrete figures are hard to come by given how "underground" the business typically is.
"I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry," said Professor Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester who wrote the report.
"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."
In many online games virtual cash remains rare and many people turn to suppliers such as gold farmers to get money to outfit avatars with better gear, weapons or a mount.
Some gold-farming operations offer other services such as "power levelling" in which they assume control of a player's character and turn it into a high-powered hero far faster than the original owner could manage themselves.
"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."
In many online games virtual cash remains rare and many people turn to suppliers such as gold farmers to get money to outfit avatars with better gear, weapons or a mount.
Some gold-farming operations offer other services such as "power levelling" in which they assume control of a player's character and turn it into a high-powered hero far faster than the original owner could manage themselves.
Heeks continues on:
But, he said, the true size of the sector was hard to estimate - it could easily be twice as big.
The quasi-criminal nature of gold-farming made it hard to truly gauge its extent, said Prof Heeks.
"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.
The article continues on to state that even gangs are becoming involved in the trade. They'll pay for accounts with stolen credit cards, spam chats with advertisements for fake gold-farming businesses, and provide no services to those persons who unwittingly fall for the scam.The quasi-criminal nature of gold-farming made it hard to truly gauge its extent, said Prof Heeks.
"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.
Source
Comment