According to InfoDev, the largest
ever real money transaction for a digital good was $9,709 in World of Warcraft that occurred in
2007. Since then, that amount could have
been exceeded but regardless, it is some noteworthy data that demands respect
for the online gaming community. Not
only does this figure draw respect but also recognition for the fact that
gaming, especially online gaming, has become mainstream. Through this explosion
of gaming in the last decade, InfoDev points out that a latent function of microwork has
been created from this industry. The latent function has become so popular
that it is almost considered an industry of its own. Even further, the “companies”
that exist have actually been outsourced, so to speak, where several developing
nations participate in this grey market of goldfarming and microwork. People
around the world (mostly teenagers to young adult) have the time in the first place
to begin a “career” in microwork. In the U.S. alone, as I have read in the
past, the goldfarming industry has accumulated over a billion dollars in real
money since the concept first began. So to me, goldfarming and microwork do function as an economic activity
simply because of the generated income where some people, surprisingly, make a
living.
I have dabbled in WoW myself and
have even participated in an online transaction that netted me $400. As
surprised as I was that I had become part of the statistics involving digital
goods, I quickly became accustomed to the idea as well. A few of my friends and
people online had already entertained the idea of me selling my account before
I canceled. They had been involved in similar situations within other games like
Diablo 3 and Team Fortress 2. The differences between their transactions,
however, were official and non-official. For example, Team Fortress 2 has a
virtual store where you can buy official items for the game and trade them with
other people in game. In this case, it is a digital to digital transaction between
players, as oppose to a digital to USD transaction more frequently found in
WoW. In Diablo 3, a similar virtual store exists where you can either use gold
to buy items off an auction house or switch the auction house to USD. Hypothetically, for a very rare item, one may pay upwards of a billion or more
gold on the auction house or a player to player trade. In USD, a
billion gold is equal to about $100-150 depending on the market fluctuation of
the gold. One particular item called Ice Climbers ranges anywhere from 20
million to 900 million gold. That is between $10-$100.
