Interview with a farmer
by Elizabeth Harper 
May 31st 2007 at 4:50PM
No, not a farmer in World of Warcraft gold farmer, but an Everquest 2 plat farmer. When EQ2 player Ogrebear received a tell from someone trying to sell him plat, he responded how he usually did -- with a threat. However, this particular plat seller actually responded to Ogrebear's tell, resulting in an interesting conversation that gives us a bit of insight into the industry.
So what does this farmer make? About $100 a month for seven hours work a day. (Ogrebear notes that that's 71 cents an hour if he only works five days a week.)
How many characters does this farmer go through in a week? Seven. But apparently it's profitable enough to keep at it.
What's this mean to those of us playing World of Warcraft? It means that Blizzard has an uphill battle ahead of them -- the farmers are making enough money to keep at this, despite bannings. And I've got to wonder if they can ever ban enough of them. Perhaps this explains Blizzard's recent push to resolve this issue via legal methods.
[Via PlayNoEvil]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gleb 70 Draka [A] May 31st 2007 5:11PM
Only 100$ a month...wow i cant even imagine its even to keep him barely alive!
Andrew May 31st 2007 5:20PM
He doesn't live in the USA silly.
You'd be amazed what $100 (US) can buy other countries.
Jason McLeod May 31st 2007 5:59PM
I just got back from a trip to China. Played some WoW from there too.
800 RMB isn't that much, the exchange is around 15%, so 800 is $120.
Mind you while I was there things were comparably priced to north america. So a bag of chips was 1 or 2 RMB, so it scales. It would be similar to making $800 a month after taxes.
Daghol May 31st 2007 6:15PM
This is easily the most interesting thing I've read on here in a while.
We spend a lot of time demonizing the gold farmers, but they are people.
Not that I think they should be doing it, but at least this guy is eeking out a living.
Mats May 31st 2007 6:32PM
Beggars are people to, does not make me hate them any less. These people ruin our experience, something we have paid for. If you paid to go see a movie, and some hobo came and asked you for money, or if you wanted to buy some crummy homemade food, you'd ask the owners of that cinema to kick that person the out of there.
That person is no more or less a person then a goldfarmer.
uncaringbear May 31st 2007 6:53PM
Blizzard could easily eliminate gold farming by removing game mechanics which allow players to collect items in the game. They could also make it impossible for players to trade with one another. Or they could allow players to police their realms and kick 'bad' players off the system.
Craig May 31st 2007 7:52PM
@6
Yeah those are some bang-up ideas you got there.
[rolls eyes]
JP May 31st 2007 10:06PM
@7 (Craig)
I'm pretty sure he was just being sarcastic...
kitterz Jun 1st 2007 2:05AM
@ 5
As a whole i am against farming. I am not pleased with the spam or the possibility of an over-inflated WoW economy but i think it is important to look at the situation from another angle.
"If you paid to go see a movie, and some hobo came and asked you for money, or if you wanted to buy some crummy homemade food, you'd ask the owners of that cinema to kick that person the out of there."
I agree that if this happened i would feel upset but it's also important to understand WHY the beggar walks into a theatre and asks for money? In WoW, the goldfarmers are in business because PEOPLE BUY GOLD.
Imagine if a theatre patron offered to buy the "crummy homemade food." The beggar would certainly come back again and again hoping to score another buck. However, if no one in the theatre handed out money then a couple ejections would convince him/her to move on.
Goldfarmers are in business b/c people in the WoW community actively support them. I agree with #4, these people are just trying to make a living, but if players want them out, then we all have to make concerted efforts to stop buying gold from them.
But that opens up a whole buncha new arguments.
Kalandrah Jun 1st 2007 4:44AM
I personally don't care about goldfarmers at all. I wasn't too bothered by their gold-spams before, and nowadays I get next to no gold spams at all.
The goldfarmers are basically doing their JOB, and they do it because they NEED the money. From what I've seen, the hours are from anywhere between 7-12 hours a day, from 5-7 days a week.
Like someone already said; They wouldn't be there, if the players weren't asking for it. It's a simple case of Supply & Demand. If no one's buying gold, then the goldfarms would soon dry out.
The Anonymous Jun 1st 2007 6:25AM
@5: Beggers are just lazy people. Farmers are people actually trying to make money. Please don't compare them.
Race Bannon Jun 1st 2007 10:24AM
#11 Drug dealers are just trying to make some money too.
HiWay Jun 1st 2007 10:57AM
@12 well if they would just legalize the ganja then a large portion of that wouldn't be a problem.
$100 a month? jesus christ i make well over that in a day, that's painful :O
ben1778 Jun 1st 2007 11:03AM
I like reading about all the different viewpoints on gold selling. I'm not sure if the articles or the comments are more interesting.
I never buy gold myself, but I enjoy farming - so there's little need. I have had RL friends buy gold and of course they were shamed by the rest of my RL friends (we even taught the non-WoW friends some good WoW-speak to help in mocking them). In the end we had to police our group of friends ourselves and let it be known that we will mock them mercilessly for copping out and buying gold.
The only excuse that ever elicited a TINY bit of understanding was that a friend bought 500g to cover the last bit for his flying mount training, and some mats for crafting. His wife recently gave birth to a son and he spends nearly all his time caring for his son. So he doesn't have the ability to keep pace with the rest of us. He still LOVES the game, and wants to still play with us (a couple arena matches at a time, maybe an instance here or there). he just needed the mount to get places we went, and didn't have the time to get the cash himself.
However... we still mock him. He could have asked us and we would have floated him some G to get the mount.
Michael Jun 1st 2007 11:25AM
The only way this is going to go away is if Blizzard gets into the business and starts selling gold directly from the website themselves and undercuts the other sellers. Jack up the prices of everything in the game, lower the reward money given for quests and kills by a lot and sell the gold online. If people really want it they can buy it legit through blizzard, if they don't want to they can earn it in the game by putting more time in. Put in limitations on max allowed to be purchase per week per character. Add in the game banks to store money in that will earn interest as well to provide another way to earn money after the reward and kill amounts have been decrease by a ton.
Its all about how much is one persons time worth? If they want to pay real money for in game gold then give them an option that won't get their accounts banned.
FlyinFish Jun 1st 2007 1:27PM
I don't understand why people hate gold farmers, other than the occasional tells (which is not greatly reduced).
Seriously, gold farmers do not affect us much. Remember, Blizzard is the God to all of us, and they are the ones who decide how much our effort worth. And simple changes (like drop rate) will make sure you do spend x hour on grinding for something you want, gold farmer has little influence on this.
For example, if by getting rid of the farmers will have certain tradable goods drop to 1/2 of the price they are now, saving you half of the farming time(in case you farm else where for gold and buy these goods). Blizzard will soon notice this trend and make those goods 2 times harder to acquire, thus rising the price to what it is now, making sure your progression is in pace.
Of course, actually in-game economics is more complicated, but that should explain the idea of controlled economics.
Theserene Jun 1st 2007 2:34PM
If morons wouldn't buy gold, then there would be no gold farming industry and the problem would be solved.
I say, go after the people who buy this stuff, it might prove more effective than trying to go after those selling it.
IKT Jun 9th 2007 11:02PM
^ just like the war on drugs?