As an ex-WoW player I was very familiar with the concept of Gold Farming, but only after reading some of the FTW and watching those videos in class have I realized how serious it was. Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions about Gold Farming is that it's a fairly new invention originated in WoW. Actually, the earliest instances of real money being traded for virtual goods can be tracked back to 1970s and 80s. Then, in 1990s with the emergence of massively multiplier online role-playing games (MMOs) this problem only persisted. Now, is this really a problem? I have no idea why companies like Blizzard look down upon people selling their virtual property for real money.. I mean, gold farmers will put in even more hours if there is a demand and chances are they will do it month after month which means profit for Blizzard. On the other hand, the players who purchase such goods or gold will not stop playing the game, if anything as they will gain more money or better items, they will be even more interested in playing the game.. to me, it seems like a win-win situation. Can someone explain to me why is it illegal, then?
Another thing I would like to touch upon is that the first thing I think about when I hear the term gold farming is China. I believe this is due to the fact that most of the GFs are indeed from China as can be seen on these EQ2 charts:
Now, another question coming your way: How come China is so famous for GFs? What makes China so special that such great % of players from there choose to be GFs? Is it harsh economic conditions or something else?
On a final note, while I was researching GFs in order to learn about them, I stumbled upon a site that compares GFing to drug trafficking.. do you think that's a stretch or indeed, are there similarities?
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