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. [1] [2] [3]
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, [1] gold farming is lucrative because it takes advantage of economic inequality and the fact much time is needed to earn in-game currency. [4] 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. [5] Gold farming has also been linked to credit card fraud, with game accounts used for gold farming being paid for with stolen credit cards. [6] [7]
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. [8]
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. [9]
While in the past players used eBay and PayPal to sell each other items and gold from games like Ultima Online [10] and Lineage, [11] 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. [11] This model, with full-time gold farmers working long hours in cybercafes, was outsourced to China and initially served demand from Korean players. [5] Gold farming in China was experiencing swift growth c. 2004. [11] Cheap labor from inland provinces had washed into more cosmopolitan cities, and these real-life farmers were promptly pressed into service farming gold. [12] 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. [13]
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. [6] [7] 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. [14] [6] [15]
Academic studies of gold farming have revealed that the social networks of gold farmers are similar to those of drug dealers. [16]
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. [17]
While reliable figures for gold farming are hard to come by, [18] there are some estimates of the market for in-game currency. [19]
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. [20] [5] And in 2006–2007, the market for such virtual goods was thought to amount to somewhere between US$300 million [21] and US$900 million. [4]
Another estimate, drawn from 2005/2006 data, valued the market at not less than US$200 million per year [22] and suggested that over 150,000 people were employed as gold farmers with average monthly earnings of US$145. [22] This same report estimated that 80-85% of all gold farmers were from China, [18] a fact which has led to prejudice towards Chinese players. [23] 2008 figures from China valued the Chinese trade in virtual currency at over several billion yuan, nearly US$300 million. [24]
Many game developers expressly ban gold farming in their game's EULA or terms of service. [25] 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. [26] [27] 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. [28]
Gold farming and power leveling can affect a game's economy by causing inflation. [29] They may degrade the game experience for users as was noted in a legal case against IGE. [30] 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. [31]
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. [32]
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.
In 2006, a spokesperson for the Australian Government stated normal earned income rules also apply to income from the sale of virtual goods. [33]
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, [34] with a total of 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country as of 2005. [35] Gold farming in China is done in Internet cafes, abandoned warehouses, small offices, private homes and even "re-education through labor" camps. [35] When organized as an actual informal business, they are known as "gaming workshops" (Simplified Chinese: 游戏 工作室; Pinyin: Yóuxì gōngzuòshì) [36] 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. [34] A popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game subject to gold farming in China is World of Warcraft . [36] The Chinese government banned using virtual currency to buy real-world items in 2009 but not the reverse. [37]
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. [38]
A Korean high court's 2010 ruling meant that exchanging virtual currency for real money was legal in this country although subject to taxation. [39] 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. [40]
A United States Congressional committee investigated taxation of virtual assets and incomes derived from them in 2006, [41] 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. [42]
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. [43] Considering many gold farmers utilize Bitcoin as an intermediate currency, [44] regulation or taxation isn't feasible at the moment.[ when? ] 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. [45] [43]
Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, filed a lawsuit to stop online sales of its in-game currency. The lawsuit never went to trial. [46]
Jagex, the makers of RuneScape, have engaged in legal actions against several gold farmers and bot programmers. [47]
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. [48]
A business producing avatars and in-game currency in MMORPGs is sometimes labelled a game sweatshop. [49] Workers employed by these companies either collect in-game currency (known as gold farming) or generate high-level avatars (known as power leveling). [49] Such organizations are referred to as sweatshops because the gold farmers are usually paid very low wages. [29] [50]
Gold farming has been discussed as a tool for socioeconomic development by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development [51] and University of Manchester professor Richard Heeks. [52] 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. [53]
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", [54] 2010 novel For The Win , [55] and 2014 graphic novel In Real Life [56] (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. [57] 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. [58]
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.
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. [59] : 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. [59] : 254 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." [59] : 255
Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the highly influential massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft (2004), as well as the multi-million selling video game franchises Diablo,StarCraft and Overwatch. The company also operates Battle.net, an online gaming service.
A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.
A virtual economy is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter these virtual economies for recreation and entertainment rather than necessity, which means that virtual economies lack the aspects of a real economy that are not considered to be "fun". However, some people do interact with virtual economies for "real" economic benefit.
RuneScape is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Jagex, released in January 2001. RuneScape was originally a browser game built with the Java programming language; it was largely replaced by a standalone C++ client in 2016. The game has had over 300 million accounts created and was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the largest and most-updated free MMORPG.
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game produced by Blizzard Entertainment. Set in the Warcraft fantasy universe, World of Warcraft takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. The game was announced in 2001, and was released for the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise on November 23, 2004. Since launch, World of Warcraft has had ten major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), Dragonflight (2022), and The War Within (2024). Two further expansions, Midnight and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023.
A massively multiplayer online game is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games that differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or smartphones and other mobile devices.
Jagex Limited is a British video game developer and publisher based at the Cambridge Science Park in Cambridge, England. It is best known for RuneScape and Old School RuneScape, both free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The company's name is derived from the company's original slogan, "Java Gaming Experts".
Duping refers to the practice of using a bug in a video game to illegitimately create duplicates of unique items or currency in a persistent online game, such as an MMOG. Duping can vastly destabilize a virtual economy or even the gameplay itself, depending on the item duplicated and the rate at which duplication occurs. Modern persistent world games include automated detection of duping. Duping is usually considered to be a game cheat.
Free-to-play video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which requires a payment before using the game or service. It is also separate from freeware games, which are entirely costless. Free-to-play's model is sometimes derisively referred to as free-to-start due to not being entirely free. Free-to-play games have also been widely criticized as "pay-to-win"—that is, that players can generally pay to obtain competitive or power advantages over other players.
Virtual crime, can be described as a criminal act conducted in a virtual world -- usually massively multiplayer online role-playing games, MMORPGs. To grasp the definition of virtual crime, the modern interpretation of the term "virtual" must be assessed to portray the implications of virtual crime. In this sense, virtual crime describes those online acts that “evoke the effects of real crime” but are not widely considered to be prosecutable acts.
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (2002) and its expansion, The Frozen Throne (2003). The objective of the game is for each team to destroy their opponents' Ancient, a heavily guarded structure at the opposing corner of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied teammates and AI-controlled fighters. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the game.
IGE is a company that trades in virtual currency and accounts for MMORPGs. The company sold virtual goods for real money in more than a dozen popular games. Members of the gaming community were often critical of IGE, as its services were against the rules of the games, though not illegal by the laws of the real countries in which the games would operate.
The Corrupted Blood incident took place between September 13 and October 8, 2005, in World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Blizzard Entertainment. When participating in a certain boss battle at the end of a raid, player characters would become infected with a debuff that was transmitted between characters in close proximity. While developers intended to keep the effects of the debuff within this boss's game region, a programming oversight soon led to an in-game pandemic throughout the fictional world of Azeroth.
Gold sink is an economic process by which a video game's ingame currency ('gold'), or any item that can be valued against it, is removed. This process is comparable to financial repression in real economies. Most commonly the genres are role-playing game or massively multiplayer online game. The term is comparable to timesink, but usually used in reference to game design and balance, commonly to reduce inflation when commodities and wealth are continuously fed to players through sources such as gold taps; such as quests, looting monsters, or minigames.
Virtual tax is a proposed USA tax on internet gamers for items bought or traded solely within the virtual world. The tax on a transaction would be considered as if it were a purchase or sale or barter. Virtual property, on the death of the owner, would be considered as if it were any other intangible property for the purpose of estate or inheritance tax. The Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress has investigated taxing such transactions. This tax might include items bought with virtual currency, virtual items traded for other virtual items, real items traded for virtual items, and real currency traded for virtual items.
Julian Dibbell is an American author and technology journalist with a focus on social systems within online communities.
Virtual goods are non-physical objects and money purchased for use in online communities or online games. Digital goods, on the other hand, may be a broader category including digital books, music, and movies. Virtual goods are intangible by definition.
Dragon kill points or DKP are a semi-formal score-keeping system used by guilds in massively multiplayer online games. Players in these games are faced with large scale challenges, or raids, which may only be surmounted through the concerted effort of dozens of players at a time. While many players may be involved in defeating a boss, the boss will reward the group with only a small number of items desired by the players. Faced with this scarcity, some system of fairly distributing the items must be established. Used originally in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game EverQuest, dragon kill points are points that are awarded to players for defeating bosses and redeemed for items that those bosses would "drop". At the time, most of the bosses faced by the players were dragons, hence the name.
PlayerAuctions is a digital marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of various types of gaming genre such as Massively multiplayer online game (MMO) games, First-person shooters (FPS), Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), Mobile game, survival games, battle royale game etc. so they can buy and sell digital assets. These include in-game currency, items, skins, accounts, power leveling and boosting services, and CD keys for games and applications. The site is a neutral marketplace that supports player-to-player trading for popular online games such as RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, World of Warcraft, CSGO, PUBG, Path of Exile, League of Legends, Fortnite, Overwatch, GTA V, Warframe, Pokémon Go, Clash of Clans, EverQuest, ArcheAge, Final Fantasy XIV, Apex Legends, Elder Scrolls Online, Habbo, Fallout 76, and over 250 other games.
Old School RuneScape is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed and published by Jagex. The game was released on 16 February 2013. When Old School RuneScape launched, it began as an August 2007 version of the game RuneScape, which was highly popular prior to the launch of RuneScape 3. The game has since received engine improvements, new content, and quality of life updates largely decided by the community via in-game polls. Despite originally having a smaller development team and a slower update schedule relative to RuneScape, Old School RuneScape is now the more popular version of the game, with an all-time record of 205,521 concurrent players in November 2023. A mobile version for Android and iOS was released in October 2018.
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