Do you know what “gold farming” is? I knew of the activity, although I didn’t know what it was called until this morning.
So, “gold farming” what is it? Well, let me tell you, it doesn’t have anything to do with plowing the fields and waiting for the gold to start growing! No, indeed. Actually, gold farming is playing online games and earning money by doing so.
Earning money from playing games?
Yep. Earning money by playing games.
How can it be done? Well, in many online games you can earn “experience points” and other such things in online gaming by doing things, building a profile on the game, acquiring “virtual stuff” and such through your game activities. All of this “stuff” becomes valuable in helping you become more successful in the game. One of the things you can earn is “virtual gold” and thus the name of the activity, “gold farming.”
But, all this stuff is virtual stuff, not the real stuff. This site is about making money online, and since this stuff is virtual, it is of no value, so how can it relate to the Virtual Earner site? Well, you are wrong if you think that this virtual stuff is of no value.
You see, what a lot of people in third world countries are doing now is that they are playing games, building up their “virtual value” in the game, and then selling their game identity to somebody in the west. And… there can be big money in this.
Some gamers in the west have plenty of cash, but they are lazy and don’t want to spend the time required to build up all of the virtual stuff they need to be successful at the game. So, having cash, but being too lazy or not have enough time to build up their game profile, what do they do? They buy the profile of the person in the third world who has taken the time to build up a great profile. The third world gamer is the opposite of the western world gamer. The third world gamer has plenty of time, no job, and little money. So, they play the game, build up the profile, and sell it to the first world gamer. After that, they start all over on building up another game profile that they will share.
It seems so simple. I am sure you are thinking that there can’t be much money involved in this, though. Think again.
This morning, I saw an article online saying that Chinese Prison Guards are using Chinese Prisoners to work in their “gold farms.” We all can remember things we have hears about Chinese prison inmates being used to doing hard labor in the fields and such, right? Well, this is totally different. The Prison Guards are now using the inmates to play Internet games! The inmate gamers build up the profiles, and then the prison guards sell the profiles and other “virtual stuff” to people in the west! Amazing, huh? Can money be made? According to a website called “Geek System,” some Chinese prison guards are earning up to about $800 per day doing this. Yes, $800 per day! Let’s see, that’s about $300,000 per year. Amazing.
Well, I am no advocate of prison labor, in fact, I detest it. However, I can see nothing wrong with hiring 4 or 5 workers to play games and duplicate what those Chinese prison guards are doing. For example, I live in the Philippines. Labor is inexpensive here. I could hire people here for less than $10 per day. Let’s say that I hire 6 people to come to my office and play games all day. I pay them all a salary of $10 per day, which is more than the average job here pays. Then I turn around and make, say, $500 per day from gold farming? There is a lot of upside potential on this, I can see that. I would be paying our $60 in labor per day, plus other assorted costs for internet connectivity, electricity and such, certainly less than $75 per day, and turning that into $500 in a day? Amazing.
I had heard about this gold farming before (although didn’t know the name) but had never considered actually doing it. In fact, I am doubtful that I would do it now. However, I have a 14-year-old son who loves to play Internet games. I think this would be right up his ally, and I am considering telling him about it and helping him try it out if he has an interest. It could be an educational and profitable activity for him. We’ll see what happens.
Yep … actually I mentioned this in the past on my Philippine-oriented blog as work you can do right out of any Internet cafe … no visa, no license, no taxes, etc., It really, really amazes me, a., the people pay so much for “gold”, points, in these games and b., the people who ask me about ways to earn money never take me seriously when I mention schemes like this.
“What, you mean I have to sit there hours after hour and actually perform in order to get paid”? Uh, yep, that’s sort of a general definition of a job … kinda like a coal miner mining coal or a lumberjack felling trees, or a truck driver earning $0.62 a mile when driving loaded.
There are a lot of online opportunities, along the same lines, but less draconian than prison guards forcing prione5rs to do the clicking. As simple as earning several dollars an hour (which ads up top a good day’s pay in a lot of countries), to do nothing more than visit Facebook fan pages and click ‘Like”, or surf from blog to blog leaving comments, etc. Or a real biggy these days. to build Twitter accounts, gain insane numbers of “followers” and then transfer to highly followed accounts to folks who like seeing big numbers by their (fake) names.
There are, I am told, a number of people making thousands of dollars each during each major sports season as hired managers for online fantasy sport teams … lots of people want a successful fantasy teams, but many don’t want to take the time it takes to build and manage one.
It’s not just third-world counties involved, either. Ever visit fiverr.(dot)com (note two ‘r’s) and see what people are willing to do, sometimes over and over and over again, for five bucks?
Hi Dave – I am a heavy PC user, although I’ve never been a gamer. I used to play a little solitaire on the PC, but I don’t even do that anymore. But, to learn about the kind of money that can be earned doing this gold farming… well, it almost makes me want to go buy a joystick, or game controller! 😆 To say the least, it can be a lucrative business! You are right, any kind of job requires that a person actually do something, even if they are self employed. For those interested in doing so, playing games… why not? It’s not for me, except the part about earning money by doing it! 😉
Bob:
This sounds like a good opportunity…I’m not a gamer, but if it involves making some really good money I am definitely interested…how do I get involved?
Mike
Hi Mike – Like you, I am not a gamer.. I also don’t know for sure how to get started. If I wanted to get into it, I’d start by surfing some of the gaming forums and find out who is talking about it, and what they are saying. As always… Google is your friend.