"Gold Farmers" in virtual world make fortune in reality
21/9/2006 17:09
There is a continent with over 6 million people that is not charted on any
map. Called Azeroth, it's a computer-generated continent in the World of
Warcraft (WoW), an online game people can access through the Internet.
The
game, first launched by California-based Blizzard Entertainment in 2004, now has
over 6 million players, with more than 3 million in China.
As WoW becomes
increasingly popular in China, the game has given birth to a new way of making
money: trading the virtual game money called "Gold" into real money in the real
world.
"We call it 'Gold Farming'," said Wang Yiwei, "Gold is the virtual
currency in WoW with which players can buy stuff just like in the real world.
Players can only obtain Gold by accomplishing time-consuming quests, slaying
monsters, or starting a virtual business through the game's trade and auction
system."
Wang runs two companies, one in Shanghai and another in his hometown
in northeast China, with over 40 employees or "Gold Farmers" as they call
themselves. Their job is to play WoW all day long to gather as much Gold as
possible, and then sell the virtual money to players in the real world for real
money.
Wang said, "A big proportion of WoW players are white-collar workers
and students. These people do not have enough time to go through all the
time-consuming procedures to obtain the virtual money they need, so we do it for
them. We help those people save time, for a small fee."
One US dollar can be
traded for approximately 100 virtual Gold in China-based game servers. In
foreign-based servers, particularly those in Europe and the United States, the
price for Gold could be higher.
Deng Shuojing, a 22-year-old graduate student
in a Nanjing-based university in Eastern China, confessed that he is a regular
buyer of virtual Gold.
"I really enjoy playing online games, especially the
World of Warcraft. But I have to buy things in the game with Gold, and I cannot
invest all my extracurricular time in the game to make the money all by myself.
Buying Gold with RMB saves me a lot of time. It's a good deal for me," said
Deng.
Wang Yiwei said, "What we are doing in Beijing is exchanging real
commodities for virtual ones. It's a new industry. But the total annual volume
of traded virtual goods worldwide is likely to reach 6 billion yuan. This
industry is gaining increasing acceptance among young people in China," said
Wang.
Wang said he expects his two companies together to do 80,000 yuan worth
of business per month.
He said the Gold Farming job does not require
high-level education, but it does require a substantial time investment.
Wang
did not go to senior high school or college before he went to Shanghai in
2000.
He started his Gold Farming work in other online games before WoW was
launched, and was paid 1,000 yuan per month back then. Now he offers salaries
ranging from 1,200 to 1,500 per month for his employees in Shanghai, and 600 to
700 per month for those in his hometown company in Northeast China.
About 50%
of college graduates in Shanghai earn a salary of 1,000 to 2,000 yuan, according
to a report on Xinhua.net.
But Wang has his own problems.
"People do not
accept us. We regard ourselves as money makers in both the virtual world and the
real world, but a lot of people still cannot accept the idea of playing games as
a profession," he said.
"And there are risks, too. Online game operating
companies, like The 9 Ltd, delete players' profiles if the players are found to
be "farming Gold" for over 24 hours. If their profile is deleted, players are
unable to recover their Gold," Wang added.
The 9 Ltd is the official
operating company of WoW in China. It charges Chinese players 30 yuan for every
66 hours.
"No companies like ours have ever existed before, nor are there any
laws or regulations in this new realm. All these factors make company management
even more complicated," said Wang.
Online games, such as WoW, have long been
accused of disrupting students' studies and inducing delinquent behavior among
youngsters disturbed by the violence of many games.
Luo Wen, a medical school
student in a Lanzhou-based university in Northwest China said he earned more
than 2,000 yuan Gold Farming in two months during the summer vacation.
"It's
really time-consuming. To earn that much money, I have to spend at least 10
hours everyday at the computer. Sometimes I don't have time to eat and sleep,
not to mention my studies," said Luo.
xinhua
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