Gold farming readings

I found this week's readings on Chinese gold farmers to be a really fascinating look into lifestyles that seem strange on the surface, but still reflect aspects of the world that I know.

In the "Director's Statement" by Jin, he makes a similar point to Tom Boellstorff about the complicated relationship between the "virtual" and "real." It's a bit of a cliche to say that people who spend all their time gaming do so because they are discontent or frustrated with their "real lives," but as Jin says, "the real does not necessarily precede the virtual." In his "Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World," he describes how many gold farmers feel disconnected from other players, separated by language and cultural barriers, in the same way that new immigrants to a country would feel. The way that they're harassed and name-called even incorporates their Chinese identities and stereotypes in way that is definitely reminiscent to how early Chinese immigrants were characterized in the U.S. Another "real" consequence of this virtual job is the fact that it provides income for thousands of people who otherwise have few employment prospects. It's definitely indicative of something about the Chinese and international economy that so many young men are willing to do this work to support themselves.  

In Dibbell's New York Times article, he describes gold farmers who play W.O.W. during their off hours for fun, in addition to playing for their jobs. The interaction/blend between work and play is especially interesting to me. In terms of western customers who pay for these products, I don't know how to think about the idea of paying people to play for you, when the "point" of a game is the process of playing and the joy that it brings? I understand that it can be beneficial to have certain virtual items, but I can see that becoming a cycle where a gamer uses items they didn't acquire themselves to get to a new, harder level, and then have the need to buy more items so that they can sustain their playing at new levels that they don't actually have the skill to play. It's interesting to try and understand how this the demand that drives this industry is sustained. 

Since these articles are from almost ten years ago now, I'm curious as to what the current condition of gold farming is? I feel like it's diminished recently, perhaps due to gaming corporations cracking down on the practice, but I don't know enough about it to say for sure.