Although it may sound like fiction it is a fact, you can indeed make money selling virtual gold. And right now the only way to do that is through MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games).
Virtual worlds have become so popular and financially lucrative that there is even a factory in
China that hires young people to play online games like World of Warcraft and Lineage 24 hours a day.
In these games, you can create a virtual identity and interact with thousands of other players from around the world.
Virtual Gold
Even if you are not an avid gamer, I am sure you have heard of
Word of Warcraft. It’s a game that involves strategy and lots of challenges. The objective is to find and collect items and rewards after reaching certain goals.
The game’s official currency is gold. That currency has led to other forms of virtual currencies where hundreds of virtual businesses have opened up to buy and sell all kinds of virtual commodities.
As I mentioned, gold is the main currency in World of Warcraft. For you to gain competitive advantage in the game, you need gold and lots of it. The problem however, especially for new avatars, is that it takes an awful lot of time to acquire enough gold.
You can get there by going through training and learning how to get more gold. But that takes a long time.
What if you don’t want to wait that long? Is there any way to get to a higher level without putting all that effort into it?….
Well, thankfully there is a way – you can buy gold from other players who farm gold. So, basically, instead of working and earning the gold in World of Warcraft, you simply buy it!
Now, the twist here is that you can not buy gold on WOW with virtual money, you have to actually use real cold hard cash! Yes, you read that right, you have to pay real money to buy gold in WOW.
This business is so profitable and popular that there are even WOW gold making addons and dedicated forums for people to discus strategies and gold farming techniques. There are even guides you can download to help you get started. And the best part is that this virtual currency is immune to rescission and will not lose value!
But that sounds like spending money, how do I actually make money selling it?
Make Money Selling Virtual Gold
Reveres your role as the buyer to a seller and you are now making money. But how do get all that gold to sell in the first place?…
Remember we said you can work and earn gold but its time, well, if you have lots of free time on your hand, you can become a gold farmer.
To get started, you have to pay the subscription fee so you can become a member and set up your avatar. Once you have set up your avatar, within a few days you can start farming gold and selling it to make money.
And just like farming out there in the real world, here too the amount of gold you earn depends on the amount of work and effort you put into it. So, the more you work, the more gold you earn, and the more real money you can make selling it to other players.
Waste of Time?
While you may think playing fantasy online games like this is just a waste of time, consider the fact that there are actually hundreds of thousands of people around the world (especially in Asian countries such as China) who actually make their living by farming and selling World of Warcraft gold.
According to Scientific American Magazine a gold farmer in China who sells virtual currency can earn the same wage and, and in some case, more than what he or she may be able to earn working in a toys factory for 12 hours a day.
While nobody is yet tracking it, the combined amount of (real) money these folks are earning is estimated to be upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year!
That said, I don’t think the majority of folks can earn anywhere close to where they can make a living off it. But, if you have free time and what it takes to play in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, you could make a little extra spending money as a virtual gold farmer and seller.