Mining gold for World of Warcraft

Occasionally in the job I've got, there will be stories that I read about now which remind me of things I wrote about years ago.
Most of the time it's business stories, and companies such as Wedgwood, Spode or the Caudwell Group.
But today I picked up on a story in The Guardian which demonstrated the business opportunities that now exist for people willing to exploit the virtual worlds of MMORPGs (massively, multiplayer online role playing games) such as World of Warcraft.

papers/images/worldofwarcraft/worldofwarcraft-800x.jpg" width="400" height="300">

The article describes something which has been long known about, that is people being farmed to sell gold earned in the virtual world for cold-hard cash, but is something I've not seen reported on with proper case studies.

It is an interesting article and backs up a column I wrote on the links between gaming and business for Sentinel Sunday which was published in August 2005.

Here it is:

I’VE got a guilty secret to share with you this week. I play video games. That’s right, and I’ve been playing them since I was 10 years old.

If you believe the latest research is right, that makes me a prime candidate for being more argumentative with authority figures, more aggressive with my peers, and less likely to perform well in academic tasks.

Researchers from Saint Leo University in Florida have found, after 20 years of research, that young people who play violent games — even for a short time — tend to be more aggressive.

During more than two decades I must have played thousands of games, ranging from Space Invaders to Half-Life 2. Yet I was considered quiet by my teachers, and more of a geek than a bully at school.

Depictions of reality are more sophisticated, but I would hardly say that the games are, by their intrinsic nature, more likely to corrupt than any other media.

Why? Because games — no matter whether it is Space Invaders or Sim City — demand that players react to their environment and its rules, solve problems and puzzles, and develop strategies to tackle those obstacles.

And if something goes wrong, they can go back and do it again until they get it right.

Beneath the graphical veneer, the problem-solving ethic remains.

Games are primarily designed for entertainment, but they can be used to educate and train. Pilots, surgeons and soldiers are all trained using glorified game-style simulations of the real world.

Entertainment games can educate too. For example, I studied business studies at school, but I learned more about the raw skills of running a business in Theme Park than I did in the classroom.

From the start I had to recognise the fundamental relationship between the product you’re selling and the price people are willing to pay for it.

Ask for too much, and no-one buys. Ask too little, and at best you make no money; at worst you go out of business.

And because the game runs in real-time, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of investing in a new ride, raising gate prices or making your fries more salty so that punters will buy more cola.

It’s this train of thought that has prompted gaming giant Electronic Arts to embark on a £300,000 pilot scheme at four UK schools to see how games can teach.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying video games never influence people.

Newswire Reuters reported in June how Qiu Chengwei, from Shanghai, received a suspended death sentence in June after stabbing a competitor. Why? The victim had sold a virtual sword which had been lent to him in an online game with Mr Chengwei.

There are games with strong depictions of violence, which can influence people, but no more so than film. The Godfather sits at the top of film website IMDB’s all-time poll of greatest films, yet has strong images of violence throughout.

But just as films are licensed according to the amount of adult content, so too are video games, particularly as depictions of violence become ever more life-like.

Of course, the research by the Florida academics is the latest catalyst for the debate about whether games are evil. Last month U.S. senator Hilary Clinton raged about the hidden sex scenes which could be found in the popular Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas — a game in which the player takes control of a black gangster in 1990s America. She accused video games of “stealing the innocence of our children”.

To me this appears nothing more than the typical generation-gap rant that welcomes any new style of media.

In the 1950s, politicians warned how rock ’n’ roll music was going to corrupt the moral fibre of every teenager. Now you can hear the music used to shift everything from cars to breakfast cereals.

Similar derision has faced video, film, photography and even written texts (Greek philosopher Socrates believed there was nothing better than the spoken word). Yet no-one believes we should now stop people reading books. Indeed, the gaming industry provides a golden opportunity for businesses, in the same way that film, radio and publishing have done.

More money is now spent in the UK on computer games than either film or music, and the signs predict further growth, particularly in titles that allow people to play and talk together online.

It is estimated that 10 million people worldwide now play so-called massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORGs) such as World Of Warcraft, a figure set to double every two years.

Why are these games so powerful? One attraction is that in a society which is increasingly driven by image, when you’re online can decide exactly what you look like and what your talents are. It is also hugely satisfying to spend time performing quests to make that character richer and more powerful.

Don’t believe me?

As I write, 50 pieces of virtual World Of Warcraft gold can fetch £30 on eBay. One seller is even offering two characters at the bargain basement price of £28 million.

There are reports of so-called ‘farming’ operations in the Far East where entrepreneurs hire workers to sit at banks of computers, overseeing programs designed to earn virtual gold and equipment which can then be flogged on eBay.

One company, UOTreasures, has a shop on eBay and estimates that this industry is grossing £280 million a year.

It’s little wonder there are reports of people earning tonnes of cash while paying workers for watching over the online world.

Who said playing games was a waste of time?