Personal experiences with gold farmers

       I've personally had a fair amount of experience with the economy and the people that Ge Jin describes in his article about Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World, and my gut response has always been what I imagine to be the most common viewpoint amongst gamers: annoyance and resentment. In the online games where gold farmers proliferate, virtual items are taken as a measure of social status and in-game dedication. Oftentimes, rare items can take days or even months of hunting to acquire, and carry a hefty in-game price tag as a result. When you see somebody with the best armor and weapons, you have a measure of respect for them - they had the dedication and the smarts to either find these extremely rare artifacts or accumulate enough gold to buy them from the in game market. 

      Introducing gold-sellers into the mix somewhat cheapens the experience - someone can now just buy gold with real money, and then use that to buy the best items in the game, all with no real (in-game) effort invested. I've heard it referred to as "bribing your way to victory" or "paying to win" (though these terms have taken on new meaning in the rise of free-to-play games, which I'll discuss another time). It's analogous to hiring someone to write your school essay for you - technically, you've incurred a cost, but in terms of money instead of honest time and effort like everyone else. 

      But over time, I've come to question why there's such resentment towards gold farmers, and why there's so much value placed on effort and time investment. Aren't games supposed to be for fun? What fun is there in trying to acquire an item that only appears 0.002% of the time every time you kill a particularly difficult monster which requires several minutes to defeat? I personally know and have heard of many gamers who simply don't have the time to invest in games that younger people do. They have day jobs and disposable incomes, and when they come home from work they want to be able to hang out with their friends and kill Diablo on Inferno difficulty level without having to grind for hours upon hours to acquire the necessary equipment. In that case, gold farmers provide a valuable service - they allow you to enjoy your game in a way that you normally couldn't. And it's clear these people are not a small minority - gold farming wouldn't continue to exist if there weren't enough demand to make it sustainable.