A new report has revealed the true extent of this 'quasi-legal' sector that for many has become the lynchpin of virtual gaming.
Virtual gold-farming has become a $500,000 industry employing over 400,000 workers, according to new research by self confessed gamer Professor Richard Heeks.
The online 'industry' was found to have particularly flourished in developing countries where workers can earn an average £77 ($150) a month. China is known to be a big player in the sector with Heeks’s report suggesting that 80% of the gold-farming work forced are based here.
The practice, which centers on the accumulation and 'quasi-legal' sale of virtual gold and equipment to other online gamers, is one that seems to have become common place in the industry. However, despite the industry’s huge growth over recent years it’s one that has managed to remain largely under the radar.
"I initially….assumed it was just a cottage industry," said Professor Heeks
"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."
"It's a significant phenomenon that academics and development organisations are unaware of"
This relative anonymity is to a large extent due to the fact that gold-farming is highly frowned upon by most games developers, with contributing individuals often banned completely. As a result the industry has been forced underground and participants frequently arrange transactions through third party websites and online marketplaces instead of the virtual worlds themselves.
Heeks acknowledged that this secrecy made it incredibly difficult to gauge the exact size of the gold-farming industry, suggesting that his $500,000 figure is likely to be a gross underestimation.
In fact, gold-farming has become such a highly lucrative business that it has drawn in involvement from criminal gangs. Steven Davis, Chief of game security firm Secure Play, acknowledged that this was now becoming a problem with criminals opening accounts using stolen credit cards, collecting money and never delivering the promised gold or virtual goods in return.
Davis remains doubtful about whether a crackdown by the gaming sector would be successful in stamping out this practice.
"When you get people with more money than time and time than money the two will find a way to meet. You could get rid of it, but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction."
