CSD5038 ASSESSMENT
MMORPG’s Gold Farmers’ Groups
in China
TIAN ZHE
1.Introduction.
2. How does “Gold Farmer” Group Work.
I. the feature of Gold Farmer Group
II. Process of Earning Money
2.Issues and tricks
I. Market competition
II. Blockage from game running companies
III. Tricks to protect account.
4. Conclusion
1. Introduction.
It is a new time which virtual world and real world coexist. The rapid development of Virtual economy has been regard by people of world. In China, as a developing country, the online game industry expands (a kind of virtual economy) extremely fast. At the same time many new business models are discovered and become the new developing economical aspect. Nobody denies that a kind of new force has entered the online game industry which has created a significant market around the online game. This kind of groups is called “Gold Farmer”.
Gold Farmer: It is a player who farms items for the sole purpose of sale to other players via an out-of-game venue, such as eBay or IGE (also called RMT - Real-money trading). Since there is significant real-world demand for in-game gold, gold farming sometimes is taken very seriously.1
Gold farming: the action of collecting gold in the game for mercantile purpose.
Tracing the beginning of gold farmer in China, this kind of model is developed from Virtual Items trade. In China, the most famous former online game “The Legend of Mir “, is exploded by a South Keroa company WEMADE EntertainmentCo., Ltd, had been introduced to chinese players in 2001. In the first half of 2002, the number of register players had reached 18,000,000 and have the highest record of online players which is 600,000.2 Because of the low probability of gain rare weapons from killing monsters, some players start to sell virtual items or coins with real curancy. Many players shared this new market “cake” from RMT (real money trade for virtual world) at that time.When the mutiple players are organized and have aviable chanels to vend virtual curancy, the real market start to be acceptable and develping by the whole game industory. Throusand of grops which have nearly 500000 chinese are living by playing online game.3
This essay will concentrate on the chinese gold farmers groups and analyise the working form and issues which they have to faces. Also , the tricks of solve the issue will be mentioned.
2. How does “Gold Farmer” Group Work.
I. the feature of Gold Farmer Group
Low cost and Low quality working environment:
Because of the cheap labor resource and low price IT equipment, the new business grow so fast in China.Gold Farmer group normally include a employee and several employers who are compose of unemployed people or just graduated students. Employee just pay each employers very low weages and offer basic food and cabined accommodation. For example, one gold farming operation in Chongqing in central China with 23 gold farmers was reported to pay its employees the equivalent of about 75 U.S. dollars per month.4 Also, in north China, the average monthy pay is nearly 100 U.S. dollars which is higher than south(500,000 chinese is live by playing online games, view at 2006-11-19).
High profit:
If Gold Farming group is working, huge number of money will be produced between the virtual and real world. They use the an effective tool internet to exchange virtual gold with U.S. dollars through playing American online game server. The enormous fortune which bases on the exchange rate of different countries will be created without limtted of law. In the most famous online game World of Warcraft, the 1000 gold cost almost $170 in American server Bonechewer US - Alliance (2006-11-19) which is according gameusd website.5 A experience player is able to obtain 150-250 gold per shift (12 hous) which means that one experience player can create $170 from WoW in four day. Comparing with the cost which include food, accommodation, internet connect fees and other charges, the number of profits could be very big.
Mutiple channels
A normal Gold Farming have mutiple channels to exchange virtual gold with real currency which could be professional online game exchange middleman enterprises ( IGE, 5173.com) or sell it from ebay directly. Some of group may use advertisements to connect with customers directly.
II. Process of Earning Money
training
The employee will normally give the employers training in order to increase the effective of creating gold. Some experience players will illustrate some high effective position or methods to obtain more gold.
Farming
The most borning step in the money creating processes is repeated mouse clicks through using the some game skills. It is undoubted that most of players could adroitly control the virtual character to farming gold after training. However, the workload of them is unbelieveable huge so that health of “farmers” could be damaged in front of the screens. Each “farmer” has working target every day which could be obtian a certain number of gold. When the players reach the target , the extra gold will belong to the players themselives. The employees wil take responsibility to collect virtual gold and sell them in order to create real currency.
Exchange virtual gold with real money
The different channles are available for “Gold Farmer” group, However, the local market exchange can not bring maxmal profits. As a result of this, most of “Gold Farmer” Groups focus on America in order to earn dollars from oversea market. It is proved that some chinese immegration act middleman to support local “Gold Farmer” groups. For examle , in WoW, chinese players in the American server is banned. So the American chinese can create game account using their credit card and gain exchanged real currency. After that, the money will be distributed to each “Gold Farmer” group.
The following table will list a small “Gold Farmer” group income and expenses which according to the current living status of China.
This small group have one employer and ten employees who is working 12 hours each day. It is suppose that the location of this group is Beijing (capital of China) and players group is playing World of Warcraft in US server to produce U.S.dollars profits. (1 USD≈8.3 yuan)
Expenses(per month)Internet connect fees / Employee’s monthly pay / Eletricity fees / Food fees / Accommodation rent / Other fees
1200 yuan / 1000×10 yuan / 75×10 yuan / 300×10 yuan / 3000 yuan / $14.99×10+
$300
Total / 17950 yuan+$440.99≈$ 2603
Income(per month)
Average target (coins) / Current price of 100 coins / Total Money Create
200*×30(days)×10(person) / 141.1 yuan/$ 17 / $10200
Income of
Employer / $ 7597≈63055.1 yuan
* the target of one employees, normally 200 gold per person in 12 hours.
The income is not very accurate because of different location and floating exchange rate. Other fees only include the US proxy rent and WoW playing fees. Actually, there are still several aspects will share money from the process. The oversea proxies will charge money from profits. At the money transfer process, the bank will charge money as well. However, the income is still a amazing figure. That is the reason why many player want to make money from oversea game server, even though they take the risk of end account.
3. Issues and tricks
Although “Gold Farmer” group can make huge money from playing online game, they have to face many problems during processes between the virtual and real world which are market competition and blockage from game running companies.
I. Market competition
It is undoubted that the real market has been built in the virtual game, the probems ,which exsit in the real market, also appear in the virtual wolrd. In China, there are numbers of people is playing online game as a job. According to estimates, around 100,000 people in China are employed as gold farmers, as of December 2005. This represents about 0.4% of all online gamers in China. Chinese gold farmers typically work twelve hour shifts, and sometimes up to eighteen hour shifts.6 Until 2006, the number of people who are living by playing online game has reached 500,000. The drastic competitions among different “farmer” groups cause the reduce of average production of gold.
The exorbitant exploitation of virtual money brings the inflation in virtual market. The price of virtual currency will reduce when too much virtual currency circulates in the virtual market. As a result, the change of price directly influences “farmer” income. For example in the WoW, the gold price has decrease very fast because of the inflation. In the 1st half of 2005, the WoW gold price had dropped from 0.6 dollar per gold to 0.1 dollar.7
Finally, in order to keep earning money from virtual market, these professional “farmers” have to spend more time and energy to produce more gold for their live.
II. Blockage from game running companies
As we know, most of game running companies ban the RMT between the game and real world. The punishment of disobeying the rules is normally sealing the account. According to the report, in keeping with Blizzard’s aggressive stance against cheating in World of Warcraft, Blizzard banned over 30,000 accounts in the month of May, and with that removed well over 30 million gold from the economy across all realms. The banned accounts were taking part in activities that violate the game’s Terms of Use, including using third-party programs to farm gold and items, which severely impacts the economy of a realm and the overall game enjoyment for all players.8According to experience of many “Gold Farmer” which has shared on the Internet. There are several kinds of reasons for seal players’ accounts listed below in WoW.
. Online trades tendency
Blizzard owns the rights of everything in the WoW, so all the RMT is banned in the WoW. For this reason, if the Blizzard suspects the player have tendency to farming gold or items in order to trade with real currency. The suspect actions include keeping online too many hours, exorbitant same resource exploitation, keeping doing the same thing in one place. All of these actions in the game will be investigated and freeze the game accounts.
. Using the third party software or cheating software
In the Blizzard’s agreement, the using the illegal third party software is strictly banned. The illegal includes cheating software, and accessorial software. The Blizzard can trace data of server to find out the cheating players.
. Illegal IP address
Because most of “Gold Farmer” is from come from China, the Chinese IP address is also illegal to play American server. If the players use the illegal IP, a seal account letter will be sent from Blizzard. The content is probable like this “It is implicitly stated on the account creation page that: This account is available to customers in North America, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. When this account was created, the standard, valid, creation method was circumvented, thus invalidating the account and subjecting it to closure.”9 This action of Blizzard aims to Chinese “Gold farmer” group to prevent RMT in the WoW.
. Suspect register information
In the register information, the register system only accepts English letters. However, Chinese Windows system has some different character types which can not be recognised. Furthermore, if register detail has Chinese style information which could be Chinese address, email, Pinyin or using “CN”. Even the same information is using to register several different accounts, these account may be banned directly.
. Communication problems
If other players talk to “farmers”, they cannot understand and cannot communicate with American players because of the poor English level. If GMs suspect the player is Chinese player because of communication gap, the account may be banned.
Above reasons of stop account have not been completed. There still many reasons which cannot be known. The “Gold Farmer” groups are impacted by sealing account operations. Thousands of gold have been removed which means these “Gold Farmer” lost huge money because of the Blizzard’s strike.
III. Tricks to protect account.
Although there are many rules to restrict “Gold Farmer”, they still have solution to avoid punishment. The following paragraph will list the some tricks which are summarized by some “farmers”.
○Tricks for trades tendency
Do not keep too much gold in one character.
Do not exploit simplex resource for a long time
Do not farming at “popular” gold-production location
Do not sell the simplex resource too much.
Do not keep online too long. Switch accounts.
Do not increase level of character too fast.
○Tricks for Avoiding illegal IP
Using authentic and steady American proxy servers.
○Never using any third party software
○To register with American information. The best is using relatives’ information.
○Try best to use American, Singapore, Australia or Canada credit card and one card for one account.
4. Conclusion
Although the “Gold Farmer” groups have already existed in the game for several years, legalization and tax issue still have not been solved. The “Gold Farmer” groups are able to earn enormous fortune without tax, because they are actually not real companies. However, It is true that Gold Farmer groups have created a new business model and Chinese “Gold Farmer” groups are developing very fast with cheaper labours and IT resource. However, the government should create a series of standards to make this market standardization.
Reference:
- Farmer (gaming) , viewed at 2006-11-17
2. The story of legend of mir in last 6 years, viewed by 2006-11-17)
3. viewed at 2006-11-17
4. Farmer (gaming), viewed at 2006-11-19
5. view at 2006-11-19
6. viewed at 2006-11-17
7. World of Warcraft Gold Price Graph:1st Half 2005, viewed at 2006-11-15
8. WOW 30,000 Accounts Banned, viewed at 2006-11-19
9. viewed at 2006-11-19