World Bank Examines Benefits of Gold Farming

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
World Bank Examines Benefits of Gold Farming


A World Bank report says gold farming, power-leveling and other such services generated roughly $3 billion for poor nations in 2009 and could actually prove to be very beneficial to local and developing economies.

Nobody likes gold farmers but according to the World Bank report "Knowledge Map of the Virtual Economy," a lot of people out there are sure making use of them. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. The report says that an estimated 100,000 people in countries like China and Vietnam make their living in the "third-party gaming services industry," grinding games for people in wealthier nations who like to play but don't have the time and/or patience to do the dirty work themselves. But more significant is that unlike other industries, most of the money earned stays in the country that provides the service.

"The gross revenues of the third-party gaming services industry were approximately $3.0 billion in 2009, most of which was captured in the developing countries where these services were produced. In comparison, the global coffee market, on which many developing countries are highly dependent, was worth over $70 billion - but only $5.5 billion was captured by the developing countries that produced the coffee beans," the report says.

"This suggests that the virtual economy can have a significant impact on local economies despite its modest size," it continues. "It can also support the organic development of local ICT [Information and Communications Technology] infrastructure by providing revenue models that maintain existing deployments and justify new private investments."

The report acknowledges that these services can throw a monkey wrench into artificial economies which sometimes results in a negative "net social value" - back to the whole "nobody likes gold farmers" thing - and that's a bit problematic, as the focus of development efforts should ideally focus on activities with a positive net social contribution. Yet some players in the business recognize the widespread dislike for their activities and have apparently begun promoting "ethical" services, such as refraining from in-game advertising and farming resources manually rather than employing bots or theft.

The World Bank research makes it clear that while gold farming is generally viewed as a problem, the issue isn't quite so black-and-white, nor is it likely to go away anytime soon. It's an unusual but very interesting perspective, and also a surprisingly engaging read. The full report is available in PDF format from infoDev.org [http://www.infodev.org/en/Publication.1056.html].

via: Boing Boing [http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/07/world-bank-gold-farm.html]


Permalink
 
Feb 13, 2008
19,430
0
0
Andy Chalk said:
A World Bank report says gold farming, power-leveling and other such services generated roughly $3 billion for poor nations in 2009 and could actually prove to be very beneficial to local and developing economies.
So's Slavery, Organ Legging and Blood Diamonds.

For very similar reasons.
 

CM156_v1legacy

Revelation 9:6
Mar 23, 2011
3,997
0
0
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Andy Chalk said:
A World Bank report says gold farming, power-leveling and other such services generated roughly $3 billion for poor nations in 2009 and could actually prove to be very beneficial to local and developing economies.
So's Slavery, Organ Legging and Blood Diamonds.

For very similar reasons.
While not as extreme, I agree with that point. Just because something makes them money does not make it right.
 

doodger

New member
May 19, 2010
166
0
0
Well... IMO, money injected in the economy isn't always profiting the poor and downtroden. I mean, all this cash could be used by a rich man to buy another gold plated limousine.

That said, if the little companies that gold farm are created by poor people, then it's a good idea.

Also, it's hard to compare this to organ trade or blood diamonds since nobody is actually harmed by gold farming...
 

Catalyst6

Dapper Fellow
Apr 21, 2010
1,362
0
0
I'm amazed that not only do gold sellers have an impact on the economy, it's also so *massive*! Seriously, 3 billion dollars? That's 200mil sales at 15$ each!

Who's buying this stuff? Addresses and entry routes would be helpful in addition to names.
 

hudsonzero

what I thought I'd do was,
Aug 4, 2009
319
0
0
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Andy Chalk said:
A World Bank report says gold farming, power-leveling and other such services generated roughly $3 billion for poor nations in 2009 and could actually prove to be very beneficial to local and developing economies.
So's Slavery, Organ Legging and Blood Diamonds.

For very similar reasons.
oh you took the words out of my mouth
 

BENZOOKA

This is the most wittiest title
Oct 26, 2009
3,920
0
0
Catalyst6 said:
I'm amazed that not only do gold sellers have an impact on the economy, it's also so *massive*! Seriously, 3 billion dollars? That's 200mil sales at 15$ each!

Who's buying this stuff? Addresses and entry routes would be helpful in addition to names.
We'll, there's my neighbor. Her name is... she's quite tall.
Then there's Jim, Joaquin, Pablo, Pablo Sr., Jose, Rachel... That should be sufficient.

OT: I never knew the market for that was so immensely huge. But hey, while it isn't perhaps the most lovable phenomenon, the money at least is going to somewhere, where there isn't too much of that sort.
 

Keava

New member
Mar 1, 2010
2,010
0
0
The beauty of economy is that it's all about numbers and has little connection to reality. Sure the money stay in the 'poor' nation, but how much of those 3 billions actually stays in hands of poor people? What rates, compared to other sources of revenue a gold farmer as in the person doing the work, gets per hour of worked.

I understand that the 'loss of net social value' is hardly an issue worth considering in terms of actual poverty, but same time promoting behaviours that are against the gaming companies interest is not really the best way to solve the problem.

I'm sure if the World Bank examined the money that third-world gets from drugs or other even worse illegal businesses it would come as even 'better' in economical terms.
 

CanadianWolverine

New member
Feb 1, 2008
432
0
0
I wonder how many of these "gold farmers" are involved with a criminal organization where they live in order to have the means to be online with stable enough with decent credit for international banking, bandwidth, computational power, stable electrical power, food, and lodging. Are they indebted to their handlers? And how are they so certain the "gold farmers" are even from developing nations and not developed nations? Is this extrapolated information from polling with a margin of error or are online gaming companies being more open about their user data or are the banks and credit businesses being more open about their user data in who is making what transfers to where and why they are doing that?

All kinds of issues with this when you start to ask questions about the details, I'm not exactly sold on this kind of cooked books BS that is trying to convince us the transfer of currency is actually all above board and hunky dory. My intuition tells me their report and opinion is worth about jack and squat - so what's the rub, what are they trying to soft sell us on blindly accepting?

This smacks of Nigerian email scam spam with a sugar coating.
 

JakDRipa

New member
Mar 26, 2008
8
0
0
Guys, the World Bank's job is making money flow to poor people in the third world, and it's a job they've been doing for years, I think they've probably realized that sometimes money is not distributed equally by now. If it does turn out that gold farming isn't as big a help for the third world as it seems, it will probably be for reasons that you don't learn in your first semester of undergrad economics.

Also
The_root_of_all_evil said:
Andy Chalk said:
A World Bank report says gold farming, power-leveling and other such services generated roughly $3 billion for poor nations in 2009 and could actually prove to be very beneficial to local and developing economies.
So's Slavery, Organ Legging and Blood Diamonds.

For very similar reasons.
Are we really suggesting that gold farming is as morally bankrupt as slavery, is that a thing, really?
 

Hero in a half shell

It's not easy being green
Dec 30, 2009
4,286
0
0
Well the poor people it was going to have to have a good source of electricity, access to a computer and good internet access. So those benefiting will not be from the 3rd world slums. Also a lot of gold farmers are from China, the company that created "Evony" for example, are believed to have got their funds from gold farming, and I believe most gold farmers use bots and macros. So I would take this news very sceptically.
 
Feb 13, 2008
19,430
0
0
JakDRipa said:
Are we really suggesting that gold farming is as morally bankrupt as slavery, is that a thing, really?
Are you suggesting that being forced to sit in cramped conditions doing repetitive tasks for very low pay, for a high end product, is not slavery?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/05/virtual-world-china?intcmp=239

30p an hour sound like fun? And this is in a developed country.
 

KingofMadCows

New member
Dec 6, 2010
234
0
0
The problem with relying on poor countries for cheap labor is that the people in power tend to maintain the conditions under which people are willing to work for so little money.
 

Gennadios

New member
Aug 19, 2009
1,157
0
0
That settles it. Every new year from here on, instead of my usual donations to Heifer International, I'll just buy a few hundred dollars worth of gold or power leveling in whichever MMO I'm currently active.

The_root_of_all_evil said:
JakDRipa said:
Are we really suggesting that gold farming is as morally bankrupt as slavery, is that a thing, really?
Are you suggesting that being forced to sit in cramped conditions doing repetitive tasks for very low pay, for a high end product, is not slavery?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/05/virtual-world-china?intcmp=239

30p an hour sound like fun? And this is in a developed country.
You're not forced to. If you don't like clicking on a computer for hours on end for 30p a day, go work at the nike factory where you actually work.

And if sitting a computer doing repetitive tasks all day is bad, why do so many MMO players pay subscription fees for the privilege?
 

Idocreating

New member
Apr 16, 2009
333
0
0
Gold Farming does not benefit the poor in any way. The money goes entirely into organisations and companys, some of them criminal.
 

DazBurger

New member
May 22, 2009
1,339
0
0
I dont really care much about gold farming... As long that it dosen't include gold-spamming and account-hacking.