Workin' on a Gold Farm...

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Terra Nova has a forum excerpt quoted all about how one gold farmer ran his business in EverQuest. The author made over a hundred grand in his first year of operation, and eventually turned the enterprise into a company doing $800,000 in a year, which supported 16 employees--with health care coverage. (It's probably worth noting that none of his employees were Chinese). Somewhat surprisingly, it seems that most of his employees were husband and wife duos who actually supported families on their gold farming salaries.
My tax return for that year which has salary from 2 months of my job which I quit to make this my full time business, showed $150,623.78 after expenses. By this time I had made another character on another server and bought myself another computer and was playing on two. I killed guards in everfrost and sold the weapons to vendors and then bought items from players, or sold the platinum. That's the entirety of what I did to make that income.

Eventually the "article" shifts from a description of the running of the author's business into a discussion of how the in-game economy has become inflated and inbred beyond repair. I have played EverQuest for maybe a total of two hours in my life, so while I'm not familiar with some of the terms he uses, the principles are easy to understand. The closest analogue I have in my gaming career to the insane upward drive of the economy due to widespread farming and sale of currency is the Diablo II Battle.net servers--and yes, I'm aware that Diablo II is not an MMO, but its player economy operates very much like one--when it got to the point where there was simply no hope of a new player participating in trade with established players without having to spend money on gold himself. It seems like a similar fate might be in store in the long term for World of Warcraft, which is apparently more conducive to gold farming than EverQuest. One thing I see working on WoW's favor, however, is that by virtue of its absolutely enormous playerbase, the number of casual players who have no interest in buying gold might keep the problem from becoming too large proportionally. Then again, that is only idle speculation; I am by no means any kind of MMO expert.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 23, 2006 10:59 AM

    Who are these idiots who BUY this shit? That is amazing.

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      January 23, 2006 11:00 AM

      people that value time over money aren't idiots ;P

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        January 23, 2006 11:06 AM

        it's like paying someone else to play the game for you. how is that fun?

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          January 23, 2006 11:08 AM

          if the part of the game you don't like is grinding for cash, and you can eliminate this part of the game for, say, $20... then there's more time for the fun part, right?

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            January 23, 2006 4:36 PM

            Exactly. Some people want to pay to skip their least favorite part of their game, so they can play what they do like about it. If I could just pay a nickle to skip any level or FMV I didn't like in a game, I'd do it all the time.

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          January 23, 2006 2:09 PM

          Anyone who thinks grinding all the way to 60 is fun is full of shit.

          • spl legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
            reply
            January 23, 2006 2:42 PM

            If you are grinding, yes. Grinding is never fun. I think that's part of the definition.

            Getting to level 60 by playing the game is plenty of fun. I wouldn't do it more than once if it wasn't, that's for damn sure.

          • reply
            January 23, 2006 4:55 PM

            I've played a couple characters to 60, and it was fun for the most part. Sometimes a little aggravating trying to accomplish stuff and getting stuffed by horde or bad group members, but you take the good with the bad.

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      January 23, 2006 11:16 AM

      yeah I agree with you. I could do boring stuff and farm for a month. Or I could pay $25 and buy the item I want. I know a month of my free time is worth more than $25 dollars. I guess to some people their time is worth less.

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      January 23, 2006 11:17 AM

      well at the end he said it was only like $13 for 100k so I guess I would even consider that :-P

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      January 23, 2006 11:21 AM

      [deleted]

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        January 23, 2006 11:42 AM

        That's beautiful man, just beautiful. It reminds me of this qote:

        Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. -Tyler Durden

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          January 23, 2006 12:07 PM

          Wow, I gotta see that movie again. Those statements hold a lot more truth today than they did years ago when the movie came out. We're going to hell in a handbasket :)

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          January 23, 2006 12:13 PM

          yeah I love that quote

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          January 23, 2006 6:16 PM

          Damn, I got to get that framed or something.

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        January 23, 2006 12:12 PM

        HAHAHAH! Oh shit! My jaw just dropped open when I read that. That's the funniest thing I've seen this week.

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      January 23, 2006 11:23 AM

      I gotta agree with you. Though I realize why everyone is saying the entertainment value could be worth it, I personally could never get behind spending so much on a game. There's a lot of great entertainment opportunities out there, and I have always taken issue with a game that I don't really 'own' in any way. That, of course, is why I've never played an MMORPG and I could never really get behind battle.net.

      I'm sure that among the commenters here, I'm among the minority. But give me a simple and fun single-player or co-op game, and I'm very content, without repeated costs.

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      January 23, 2006 11:55 AM

      I remember when a buddy played SWG and then he was glad that he found out how to do a macro (a feature of SWG, I guess) to do some of the tedium for him.

      "So let me get this straight - you paid for the game then you pay to play the game then you program the game so you don't have to play the game you continue to pay to play for? And this is a good thing?"

      • reply
        January 23, 2006 12:50 PM

        that's what I wondered when I played Lineage II where that virtual gold trading/RMT is a lot more widespread, and I still wonder when people come up with the "I rather spend a little real money to have more fun" argument.

        Chris, it's huge in WoW becaues so many people play the game (and actually considering that the really useful stuff to hardcore players is BoP, I rather see actual casual players buying gold and then giving the same old excuse of "but it's only fun like this"), but not as huge as in Lineage II which is pretty much *built around and for* RMTs

    • spl legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      January 23, 2006 12:32 PM

      I would never buy it, but I fully understand those that do.

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      January 23, 2006 12:36 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 23, 2006 12:44 PM

        Roger! I think I got it now!

        Chinese Life < My Life

        All set, glad I got that sorted out. j/k :P

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      January 23, 2006 7:45 PM

      There are a lot of "weird" players out there too. They all aren't about buying plat or gear to be the most uber ever. The dude who bought my warrior in EQ was in some casual guild. When I talked to him on the phone, he said he just wanted another warrior that was better than the other 2 that he owned so that his guild could do better in Fear. He paid $1,600.00 for http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=65040 so that he could raid Plane of Fear. Craziness.

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      January 24, 2006 8:24 AM

      How about not buying stuff from those farmers for the [gaming] ethics of it? Although I realize a lot of ppl here could afford the $ to power level their char to 60, or buy 100g, how about choosing not to, so you're not enabling the farmers?? Whose really ruining the economy here, the farmers, or the players willing to pay the farmers? I can afford it, but I will never pay these guys a dime.

      I have a 60 and a 36 alt, and I still love playing WoW. It isn't a "grind" to me. If it is to you, maybe the games not for you.

      And about the comments that you'd rather pay to get by the early, "grind" levels, to get to the higher "fun" levels, are you kidding me? Have you played that game at all? I wouldn't exactly call running the same instances over and over and over, hoping you get a roll on that one blue item, "fun." If anything, those high-level instances are the grind.

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        January 24, 2006 10:51 AM

        You could spend 2 weeks killing the same mob for a cool item or spend 1 hour of work and pay for the item. Now if you want the item to use in PvP then it makes sense to buy it. Why waste two weeks of your life when you can pay someone in china for two weeks of his life?

        Because its a f*cking game thats why. Your already paying to subscribe, do you really need to pay extra REAL money to get VIRTUAL items. It makes no sense to me why you need to pay for something that isn't real, sure I'll pay a subscription, I'm paying for a game, but pay for an in-game item to make my online avatar better at killing other peoples online avatars?
        Is it really needed, what acheivment do you have from having a better item, its a nice skin with some fancy numbers, it's not worth 10 quid. After all, once you have that then your using it to grind for an even "better" item. Why bother? Sometimes when I play an MMOG I wonder this, when I'm having no fun, I have to question why the hell I'm doing it.

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