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Foreign Workers Moving To The Promised Land: Online Gaming
from the gotta-go-where-the-money-is dept
In years past, people from poor countries would move to wealthier countries seeking work, opportunity and a higher standard of living. However, moving all the way to a new country with a different language can be scary, risky and expensive. So, why bother when you can just do it online? There have been plenty of stories about people selling online video game characters and goods for real cash, but now there are stories of people in Russia, China and other countries who are setting up "currency farmers." They hire out-of-work individuals to sit around and play the game, focusing only on in-game money making opportunities, and then sell the virtual fruits of their labors to an online exchange, paying the worker a bit of money while pocketing the difference. It does make you wonder why the workers don't sell things themselves. Still, some regular gamers are apparently quite annoyed, because these "currency farmers" are clogging up certain aspects of the online games, and aren't "playing" at all. They don't converse with anyone, they just hunker down and do whatever it takes in the game to make more money. Of course, the flipside is that no one ever said that everyone had to be friendly in these games, and if they can make a living this way, good for them. If anything, it may be making some of these games a bit more realistic.
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the art of the game...
I was just thinking about this a couple of weeks ago, so it's fun to see it posted. It's amazing to see the depth of commerce in online games, particularly mmorpgs. What I hadn't considered was the international aspect of it. I suppose I should have since my own avatars used to conduct in-game business primarily with a group of Japanese players who routinely purchased ebay'd game-coin and would then purchase my customizable crafted goods. The wealth that could be accumulated ingame had definate reach into real world commerce.
It will be interesting to see what happens as these games continue to grow in popularity and expand the features of their game economies. Perhaps giving away the feature-secrets will be considered inside trading. :p
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