For those unfamiliar, gold-farming is a business, mainly exclusive to MMORPGs, in which players spend countless hours grinding out in-game currency before selling it to willing punters for real-world cash. It’s been happening for years now ever since the emergence of Ultimate Online and Lineage, and in some developing nations including China, gold-farming is considered as a full-time vocation. Due to the fact that legal bodies couldn’t place a tax on the sales of virtual goods, it’s was an almost untouchable source of income, though legislation has been altered to change this. It was estimated that in 2006, virtual online goods managed to rack a total sales figure of between 200 and 900 million dollars.
Though legal action is rare against gold-farmers due to the varying legislation in different countries, bans issued by game operators seem like an everyday occurrence for farmers. However, anyone with a working knowledge of MMOs will know that new accounts can be set up within seconds, spawning dozens of characters who are then ready to initiate trade once again.
Since its launch in 2003, sci-fi MMORPG EVE Online has seen its fair share of inter-galactic gold miners. Recently, fan site EVE News 24 managed to obtain a list of 4190 transactions made to ISK-farming site, Iskbank, exposing hundreds of customers in a controversial attempt to name and shame buyers.
A CCP Games representative, GM Gremmi, has since come forward with the following statement:
At this time we cannot comment on the information in focus but we would like to use this opportunity to remind everyone that buying ISK for real money is a violation of our EULA and anyone doing so risks getting the ISK removed and punitive action against their accounts, including possible permanent bans.
The immediate impact of New 24’s discovery is likely to deter customers from Iskbank, though an online gold-farming firm, though company owner Vadim, has responded that:
[In the long term] nothing is going to change; neither in the industry, nor with us ISK farmers.
Oh, the drama!
Source: EVE News 24
gideon1451
Eee, ‘eck.
I don’t see what they’ve got against it to be honest. Other than the fact they’re not making money out of it.
hazelam
maybe they it’s because those gold sellers are scumbags, most of their gold comes from hacked accounts, had my wow account hacked once, fortunately i was poor so they just used it for spamming ads in the trade channels, but still, if i’d had lots of gold and gear i’d probably have been cleaned out.
they did ban me for the spam, but i contacted the support and they reinstated my account.
td_rules
It was such a big problem in WoW but it died down when people realised, like the real world, it messes with the economy when people are creating that amount of gold.
Sympozium
WAR!!
Guyers94
It’s a huge problem for FIFA Ultimate Team, sets of coins are being sold, or even individual players selling on ebay for upwards of 40 quid!
Ridiculous that people are willing to pay that, fair play to the people putting hours in to the game and selling though; don’t see a problem with it myself. If people want to buy online currency off other people it’s their choice.
Jim H [Teabags]
My older brother is a FIFA nut, and I remember him flogging his Ultimate Team stuff for a good £60 when he had finished playing. Madness.
deadwelsh
People will to pay for anything, there is a an ad on tv for royal wedding coins, probably worth less than £1, and they send you another each month @ £39.99 until you cancel