More articles on gold farmers this week,
Fran
Wang wrote on Yahoo News about a law student, Zhao Mengyuan who made a living from farming gold in online games. This gold farmer made up to 260
dollars in five hours, effectively 52 dollars per hour - way above what other farmers in
Julian
Dibbell`s article reported on average: They made only 30 cents an hour.
Wrang continues that IGE set up an office in Shanghai to collect gold from more than 1,000 Chinese suppliers. The number of Chinese gold farmers was
estimated to be around 500,000 to over a million. This number is still growing and poses a concern to the Chinese government who imposed a time limit
to games operated in China. However, it is not applicable for Chinese players who access US game servers.
Another report on Union Tribune by Peter
Rowe was more focused on Ge Jin`s opinion on gold farming. He said the gold farming job is a dead-end job for young people who do not have better
opportunities. A gold farmer states that he "didn't graduate from high school. To be good in business, you have to know English. And it's better if
you have foreign connections, so you can directly trade with foreign gamers. Without all these, I can only work at the bottom of this industry."
In World of Warcraft, a gold selling company reinvented in-game advertisement and made a very creative advertising stunt
Raph Koster reported gnomes falling
out of the sky spelling out the gold seller's website. Watch this ad and have a good laugh
here.
