gold farming

Someone has filed a class action lawsuit against IGE, gold farmers extraordinaire. The specific complaint: they're devaluing the real-world value of WoW gold and virtual items, throwing arena matches, and gold farming.

This is a biiiiiiiig problem for Blizzard. As soon as WoW gold becomes a real currency, Blizzard will be liable for all sorts of possible damages if it does something that could affect the economy. They may even back IGE on this one!

Regardless, IGE has pretty deep pockets. Expect more than a few players to jump on the bandwagon. The thing is, this lawsuit is far more ironic than one might first assume.

Let's say this is successful. This would mean two things:

1. WoW gold would officially, legally have real world value.
2. You could get sued for selling it.

(via Broken Toys)

Metaversed readers may remember our previous article What Is "Gold Farming"?, where we described the phenomena of people gathering virtual currency from online games and selling it for real life cash. Recently a player of Everquest 2 was sent a typical spam message by another player advertising a website selling game currency. Most players just ignore these messages, but this time they began a conversation offering new insights into the life of a "gold farmer".

The conversation started with a threat of legal action based on Blizzard's recent lawsuit, which the gold farmer panicked about. He was making the equivalent of US$100 per month, worked seven hours a day, and really seemed to be grateful for employment despite living below China's poverty standards. Apparently he burns through an account a day as they get shut down by system administrators.

It's a bit pittiful. These guys need a union.