World of Warcraft vs. China: whither the gold farmers?

November 8, 9:16 AMPittsburgh Video Game ExaminerEric Keihl

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The steel workers of the 21st century.

One of the biggest news items flitting around the gaming world at present is the Chinese government's internal wrangling over whether to suspend the local operating license for Blizzar'ds MMORPG behemoth World of Warcraft. While the game's fate is still in flux, the controversy calls to mind an interesting question: if the game gets shut down, what happens to the gold farmers?

Gold farmers, for those who don't know, are people (usually employed by a sort of brokerage service) who play an online game solely for the purpose of harvesting in-game items and then selling them for real-world money. While it might sound ridiculous, many gamers in the US, Europe, and Korea with a little extra money (or access to their parents' credit cards) are more than willing to shill out up to hundreds of dollars for the game's rarest and most powerful items. While gold farmers aren't paid all that much (usually in the area of $150/ month for working 10-12 hours shifts,) it is a way for young people in China to make something like a decent living, and World of Warcraft employs a significant chunk of the half million people thought to be presently engaged in this unusual trade.

So in the spirit of populism, I ask you: what happens to these hardworking folks if World of Warcraft is made illegal in China? Do they suffer the terrible indignity of switching to Final Fantasy XI? Do they form a Morlock-like society in the sewers beneath Beijing? Or do they just fade away, like a rainbow after a light drizzle? And more importantly, when they're gone, who will fill the massive gap in "^_^" emoticons? These are the burning questions that define our times, ladies and gentlemen, but as for the answers... only time will tell.