Goldfarming and Microwork

    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.