BBC examines WoW's Chinese gold farmers

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 29th 2007 at 3:30PM }

The BBC has taken a straight look at Chinese gold farmers in the World of Warcraft. We'd fear for our own jobs when MSM begin competently portraying game news -- thankfully, gold farming is old news and has already been well documented in the last two years, so we feel relatively safe. The piece takes a look at your typical Chinese gold farming operation, with some nifty use of green-screen by the reporter being magically teleported into the game.

At least it wasn't another WoW game addiction piece. Of course, the 60 Minutes-level reporting we'll never see from the MSM would be if Blizzard actually likes Chinese gold farmers. Think about it, they're constantly buying new copies of the game, keep players involved in the game who would normally quit because they can't keep up and generally maintaining a black-market that's actually healthy for the games bottom line. But that's a conspiracy for another day.

[Via WoW Insider]

Tags: bbc, competent reporting, world of warcraft, WorldOfWarcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LockeCole @ Apr 29th 2007 4:07PM

Watch your words Mr. Sliwinski, the Blizzard Mafia will come knocking on your door if you don't hush up.

Ichidou @ Apr 29th 2007 4:34PM

LOL i love how it cuts off at "And now, weather in the REAL world with-"

mr. weatherman, nobody likes yooooou! ^_^

Alex @ Apr 29th 2007 4:45PM

I have a few guest passes of the game from a couple of friends, but I'm afraid to join it and become obssessed to it like they are.

There was a looooooong line at WalMart when the expansion pack came out

Grey Acumen @ Apr 29th 2007 4:48PM

Actually, if anything, this makes gold farming look like a service to the gaming community and an incredibly respectable career.

Either way, I must be one of the only people who hasn't played it, I just don't have time period. I tried an MMORPG once and only managed about a month before I wasn't playing often enough to justify the funds to keep it installed.

denney @ Apr 29th 2007 4:54PM

OK first i dont buy my char kit you what good kit go to an instance or dungeon raid.

I do get the point of buying gold cause to grind it takes ages and you what to have your own life at the end of the day.

Durandal @ Apr 29th 2007 5:02PM

Wow SUCKS. it isnt even a good game, and its a waste of money. %&^* yourselves.

Rob Accomando @ Apr 29th 2007 5:04PM

damn, I'm in the wrong line of work.

Durandal @ Apr 29th 2007 5:04PM

p.s. look at that kid named denney. He never gets any sleep so he cant form a coherent sentence. His comment is number 5.

Lixie @ Apr 29th 2007 5:07PM

I'm not sure these Chinese farmers are buying new copies when then get banned. I'm fairly certain MMO's are given away for free in China because piracy is so rampant, Blizzard only makes money on subscriptions.

But I could be mistaken.

Meowzers @ Apr 29th 2007 5:28PM

I couldn't stand WoW.

There's a lot of gil farming problems on FFXI as well. Some people believe that Square-Enix actually started it, to get more profit. I don't care... I farm all my shit anyway.

Andrew Hsieh @ Apr 29th 2007 7:04PM

Don't see where you get off insulting other gamers, Durandal. :/

frosty @ Apr 29th 2007 7:10PM

With the exception of buying your first mount at lvl40 I don't see the need to ever buy gold since the majority of quality equipment drops in instances anyway. If you're looking to twink your toon with an epic staff at level 9 or something then maybe otherwise it's no sweat.

futurebiblehero @ Apr 29th 2007 7:27PM

They're -not- buying new copies of the game. The new practice is to steal accounts whether it be through keyloggers or any other means and use those stolen accounts as a network of money laundering. I've witnessed this happen to five different people so far. So, the lesson is: keep your security tighter than a six year old boy and scan any addons you may be using, because even the most reputable sites are compromised from time to time.

Grant @ Apr 29th 2007 8:28PM

clever work of green screen there BBC. lol

Anyways, supply and demand allows for this to occur, and it all boils down to how you value your time.

Blizzard considers it cheating to ONLY play the good parts of the game and not the repetitive boring tasks? Maybe they should have made those parts more fun, sounds like it's their own fault. It's called "playing a game" for a reason, no one wants to do lame stuff.

God forbid people want to have fun playing the game and have a life in the real world, good thing you make them choose all or none blizzard!

My point is that blizzard is actually profiting from people who gold farm, since people who have limited time wouldn't keep playing if they couldn't buy gold, and they are stressing the servers less, blizzard is collecting cash for providing less. If they smartened up, they would offer it, and cut out the middle men, and they would have more money than they would know what to do with.
They have been doing similar things on the 360, by allowing people to pay to unlock reward type things in the games, and obviously people have been buying those as well.

Sidepocket @ Apr 30th 2007 12:07AM

Wow, slow news day on the BBC huh?

Yes US News shows report stuff and its not considerd good. People getting shot, borring! Lets look at some Chinese assholes selling virtual shit to brit losers. Real news!

-.-;

Cabcru @ Apr 30th 2007 12:40AM

"But that's a conspiracy for another day."

If you read the WoW forums, it's pretty much every day. Some slack-jawed moron is always drooling on their keyboard with that doozy.

Adam @ Apr 30th 2007 4:05AM

"Sidepocket"

If you would rather watch news all day about people getting shot that you must leave a very miserable life.

This is news 24, not main news, it has interesting segments like this to....you know....make it interesting.

denney @ Apr 30th 2007 5:35AM

"p.s. look at that kid named denney." Ay least im not a sad bastard like you. All you do is sit on your computer and look for peoples mistakes. M8 get a fucking life.

denney @ Apr 30th 2007 6:34AM

Oh one more thing Durandal. Your other comment "its just an xbox flipped and shrunk." You didnt even put a capital letter at the start. lol you tool.

Ghen @ Apr 30th 2007 7:53AM

gold farmers use trial copies of the game, they don't have to keep buying the box. They may have to pay monthly though considering the box is free, but thats much less money than you think.

t_m @ Apr 30th 2007 8:19AM

Why don't MMO companies simply SELL gold and items themselves?

That way anyone who wants to buy advanced characters or items (for whatever reason: not enough time, more money than sense, etc..) could just do so from in game.

I don't see a downside..