Since the emergence of professional arcade
gamers
in the 1980’s, playing games for a living has been a dream for many
children, teenagers and adults alike. Whilst only a lucky few have been
able to attach themselves to Donkey Kong for a living, or compete in
Korea on the latest first-person shooter, the 21st century has seen the
emergence of a whole new generation of professional players. And there
are a lot of them!
The world of massively
multiplayer online
role-playing games (MMORPGs to the techno-savvy amongst you) has
provided opportunist gamers the chance to earn small fortunes from
developing fan sites, add-ons, wallpapers and instructional eBooks. But
the most profitable niche of all is that of “Real-Money Trading” (RMT).
It works quite simply; professional gamers play within MMORPGs with the
sole purpose of selling services to other gamers. Yes that’s right;
millions of people all over the World happily pay out huge sums of
money to let people play the game for them. In some cases that’s
literally true (and is dubbed “power levelling”) but for most this
includes buying pre-played accounts or buying virtual currency for the
game.
By far the most popular target of these services is
World of Warcraft,
with over 10,000,000 gamers subscribing to the game across the Western
world. The game’s currency (WoW Gold) is currently the hottest property
in the RMT market, with millions of dollars being spent every day to
gain this precious in-game resource. Recent estimates suggested that
over $500,000,000 in sales were made last year for WoW Gold, and that
figure is set to grow still further in 2008. The release of an upcoming
expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, is set to increase demand still
further creating a buying frenzy when the pack is finally released.
Fuelling this money-train is a workforce of near 500,000, largely based
in East Asia. There have been many claims that these workers (or “Gold
Farmers” as they are dubbed) are poorly paid and badly treated,
especially within China. This has tarnished the industry’s reputation
with many Western gamers, but is largely attributed to a lack of
understanding of the cost of living difference between East and West.
Whilst $1 per hour won’t pay the rent in the USA, it will afford you a
very reasonable standard of living in the provinces of China where this
work takes place.
Suffice to say, this is an industry to watch, especially if you’re an
aspiring entrepreneur. Many MMORPG-millionaires have been made to this
day and, with many more titles being released on the horizon, the
future looks very bright.
Article Source:
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