Both Holt and Castranova acknowledge the obvious appeal of buying in-game money as a way of saving time and effort in what can be a very time-consuming process of earning gold in MMOs, but they also both agree that the trend is not a positive one overall. With the growing phenomenon of gold farming as a way of making a living (and the usage of cheap labor in other countries to do so), Castranova worries that such schemes may eventually attract regulation.

Seigel: "Castranova agrees that it's wrong to mix the virtual economy with the real economy. For one thing, the real conomy is regulated."
Castranova: "If you're going to say that I can make profits with gold pieces, why isn't the IRS taxing those profits? And I think everybody would agree that that would wreck the game. So what's at stake here is the game itself; these things could be destroyed if we don't try to put a wall between the real economy and the virtual one."

I've played World of Warcraft for almost a year now (though with some substantial breaks) and I've still yet to purchase any items or gold online, though admittedly it can be a tempting prospect when I know that an epic mount is still several hundred gold away...