Virtual Outsourcing: gold farming employs 320,000 Chinese cheaters

Davey Winder
Sunday, 24 August 2008 15:05

Business IT - Networking

Perhaps the most bizarre service offered is that of power-levelling. What is the point of playing a game when you then hand over your character to a shady Chinese outfit to play from you non-stop over 48 or 76 hours to rapidly progress that character through the ranks?

Yet Professor Heeks warns that this is not just some cottage industry, but a rapidly growing one with "tens of thousands" of cottages in effect.

He estimates that this year the average gold farming worker will earn USD $145 per month. The true size of the market is, he admits, hard to determine as gold farming exists on the verges of legality.

Certainly as far as the virtual world is concerned it is a big no-no. Just about every MMORPG I know of prohibits the practise of gold farming. Or rather the activities associated with it such as the sharing of accounts and selling weaponry for example.

The trouble being that breaking the terms and conditions relating to game play is not a criminal offence, so the only punishment upon being caught out would be closure of the gamer account.

Some might argue that this is the harshest punishment you could get, of course.