In the ‘World’ section of the latest TIME magazine there was an inconspicuous little blurb entitled, How Online Video Gaming Can Drive Development. The blurb does little more than point out that enterprises spun off massive online multiplayer games is a $3 billion dollar industry and growing. In other words, “gold farmers” that play games like World of Warcraft, build up huge virtual accounts, and then turn around and sell them for real profit is a major growth area in the video-game industry.

            I decided to do a little more investigating, and what I found was stunning. Countries like China and Vietnam, according to The World Bank’s website, who released the study, employ more than 100,000 of these “gold farmers” that game all day and then sell their virtual accounts to wealthy western gamers for cash. In one comparison, these “gold farmers” made more than ACTUAL farmers!

            That said, anyone who is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) gamer knows that “gold farming” has been going on for some time by certain unethical individuals. I say unethical because, aside from the legal liability to the developer, the unspoken gamer honor code goes; “You should only get what you work for, not what you can pay for.” I used to be a member of the Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) community, slogging through orcs, goblins, and other baddies and grinding out my meager virtual salary. I even took out “credit” from other players, offering to finish a few quests for them in return. However, it seemed like daily there would massive in-game chat-spams offering accounts of hundreds or even thousands of gold and high-level characters for real world dollars (a lot of real world dollars) should I want turn my actual money into virtual digits (which I didn’t).

            Furthermore, a search on Craigslist reveals more virtual money-changers. A quick search of “WoW” or “World of Warcraft” garnered 13 hits, each advertising one or more World of Warcraft accounts for up to 700 dollars. In addition there were a number of accounts for Stacraft 2, LOTRO, and other, lesser known MMO’s for similar amounts of real currency.

            In the case of World of Warcraft, the producer, Blizzard, has been involved in litigation to attempt to curb gold-farming as a general practice. China, ostensibly on board with Blizzard’s ban, continues to make virtual gaming accounts a significant export, which grows annually by 20% according to Michael Sacco at WoW Insider.

            Although “gold farmers” seem to be making a lot of money doing something many of us reading this blog consider incredibly fun, there are some real dangers and ethical hang-ups. Stripped accounts, hacking, unrelenting spamming, and possible lawsuits from developers are all considered the cost of doing business for a virtual money-changer.

            One thing is for sure, if The World Bank is promoting virtual-to-reality sales of services as a huge growth industry, more countries will be heavily investing in all types of online schemes. As far as gold-farming is concerned, I have a feeling that developers are going to need to get used to the idea that gamer accounts are for sale and they can either get in on the profits (in the same way the music industry eventually did) or keep fighting it piece-meal all over the globe.