RMT Provides Aid to Poorer Countries

[6souls]

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5304/...c9cbeb6e63.jpg

Up to 100,000 people in China and Vietnam are playing online games to gather gold and other items for sale to Western players, a report suggests.

The global market for such virtual game goods is worth at least $3bn (£1.8bn) the World Bank study estimates.

About 75% of that comes from so-called "gold farmers" who stockpile game currencies to sell on later.

Encouraging these in-game services could aid development in many poorer countries, said the report.

Virtual farms

Popular online games such as Lineage and World of Warcraft revolve around the gear that players gather to outfit their characters. Better equipment makes characters more powerful.

Some of that equipment can be found on monsters, as well as being bought from other players who have found or made it.

Increasingly, the report said, Western players who have limited time for gaming are buying game cash, gear and high level characters from people in China and Vietnam that are paid to play as a job.

About a quarter of all players of massively mutiplayer online games spend real money on virtual items, suggests the report. Some pay significant sums, with one player splashing out almost 5,700 euros (£5,000) on a single account.

This has led to some of the biggest suppliers becoming substantial businesses, it said, despite the efforts of many game studios to snuff out a trade that they believe undermines the game.

The largest eight Chinese suppliers of game gold have an annual turnover of about $10m (£6.1m) each. A further 50-60 firms have annual revenues of about $1m (£600,000).

Billion dollar business

The most up to date figures for global virtual sales suggests that the market was worth $3bn in 2009.

About 30% of the virtual currency being traded is "hand made" by human players, said the report; a further 50% comes from "bot farms" that automatically play the game and 20% is stolen from hacked accounts.

The supply chain getting the virtual goods to players was very mature, said the report's authors Dr Vili Lehdonvirta of the University of Tokyo and Dr Mirko Ernkvist from the University of Gothenburg.

They gave the example of a 100 dollar payment made via Paypal for game gold. After processing fees, the cash would be split between a large retailer ($30), a smaller farmer ($45) and the individual ($23) who had gathered the gold.

Coffee comparison

The high proportion of money from such sales that reaches those in the country where the work was done might mean that it could aid development in many nations, said the report which was co-commissioned by the World Bank and development organisation InfoDev.

It contrasted this situation with that of coffee which was worth $70bn annually in 2009 but only $5.5bn of that reached nations that farm coffee beans.

"This suggests that the virtual economy can have a significant impact on local economies despite its modest size," it said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13012041
http://blog.machinima.com/insidegami...ate-viewpoint/
http://www.infodev.org/en/Document.1056.pdf

[ronin sparthos]

Well, it beats prostitution?

[Zeb]

so poor they can't even afford shirts =/

[Titanss]

why do their pcs look like they are from the 80s?

[Cantih]

Afaik, it's because they can't afford A/C. All those PCs and the climate makes the places hot.

[Mazmaz]

Make MMO
Create an ingame RMT system restricted to developing countries
Make profits and do non-profit work

Sounds pretty good. Though it's still up to those countries' governments to make sure sweat shops are gone.

[notorious bum]

I had always assumed the gold selling business was pretty big, maybe in the millions, but not billions. Also, title is pretty misleading since the aid doesn't actually reach those who need it. I'm sure its marginally better than sewing the new Jordans together all day, but you still can't call it anything more than modern-day slavery.

I wonder what happened to that Gold Farmers documentary that never got released. The trailer seemed like a page out of a Dateline episode. Did Mother China catch-up to the filmmaker? lol

[Heavencloud]

I don't think the communities see this money. I guarantee there's a head person who makes 90% of it, and the rest of them get shit. Misleading article.

[Elesirdur]

I don't think the communities see this money. I guarantee there's a head person who makes 90% of it, and the rest of them get shit. Misleading article.

Ie. Capitalism.

[Shenrien]

so poor they can't even afford shirts =/

who needs a shirt to sit and play a game all day?

[Zeb]

who needs a shirt to sit and play a game all day?

ugh, now I'm picturing casual friday.

[Pikarya]

Moral of the story;

Buy currency, you're keeping someone overseas employed at a penny per hour.

[Dimmauk]

I thought everyone didn't wear clothes while playing Video games. I cant be the only one?

[Bregor]

I cant be the only one?

Spoiler: show

[Omniyoji]

why do their pcs look like they are from the 80s?

The even sadder part, I bet you their PCs run MMOs better than ours...

[Pikarya]

The even sadder part, I bet you their PCs run MMOs better than ours...

Those are Dell workstations with integrated graphics.

IdontthinksoTIM.jpg.exe

[Gwynplaine]

If selling virtual goods is not part of an online game's terms then it's not a proper industry that is capable of providing actual productive jobs. Whether the people who work for them are poor or middle class or rich is irrelevant. It's like saying that nationalizing business' or stealing cars or identity theft provide work and "aid" to people. There's plenty of people in China who may be poor or rich or whatever who work to offer legitimate and legal values such as coffee like they mention. The only thing that allows online gaming to be such an easy target is the unseriousness of digital laws, and the impracticality of engaging in foreign law.

[Siniroth]

The even sadder part, I bet you their PCs run MMOs better than ours...

You don't need anything but absolute minimum graphics for what they do, they aren't there to enjoy the game

[Fhqwghads]

Hack account, sell for money IRL, hack same account again. Rinse, repeat. Economy = SAVED.