1 of 9

Write now Article Tools

Every day around the world over 100 million people enter a completely different universe. I'm not talking about alien abduction, and this isn't a dream, some of these people are spending more awake time in these alien universes than they are in our own world. This strange phenomenon has even stranger acronyms - MMO or MMORPG - which stand for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. It's a long geeky phrase for "video game".

Not just any video game, in these MMOs you play alongside people from around the world - our world. Many of the most popular games - Everquest, World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Dark Ages of Camelot, and Ultima Online - all have a fantasy world theme. Thus your character might have their own castle, and be in a warrior guild with hundreds of other players, and team up together for epic quests to travel into dangerous dungeons and kill powerful beasts like dragons and demons.

You might choose to play a rogue and steal from other players and earn the reputation of a "ninja looter" and became an outcast. The choice is up to you. No matter what path your character chooses to take one thing is certain - you will need to sell the loot you gather for gold. With lots of gold you can buy powerful weapons, armor, spells, potions, and a wide assortment of deadly magical items. Thus, like in the real world, gold is horded in these games. And like in the real world there are black markets.

The Virtual Gold Rush

You see your character might desire a magical sword, but not have enough gold to buy it. That's where the black market comes in. You simply go to eBay, or any of a number of gold selling websites, and purchase with real money the play money that you need. As you can surmise, this happens a lot. The process of gathering game gold to sell for real money even has a name - "gold farming". And with a 100 million plus players globally that means that game gold is pretty valuable.

As a kid you might have wished "if only you could make money playing video games." Well now you can, if you don't mind violating the End User License Agreement of the game's manufacturer. According to Synthetic Worlds author Edward Castronova, black market gold from some Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games is valued higher on eBay than the Japanese yen and the currencies of third world countries. So, neither gold farming startup companies nor individual gamers are willing to let the End User License Agreement stop them from cashing in. The first gamers

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Gold for cash: The trend of buying and selling online video game currency?
We want to hear your view. Write now!