Gold farmers

In the 1990s and 2000s, gold farming was the practice of playing a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) to acquire in-game currency later selling it for real-world money. People in several developing nations have held full-time employment as gold farmers.

While most game operators expressly ban the practice of selling in-game currency for real-world cash, gold farming was lucrative because it took advantage of economic inequality and the fact that much time is needed to earn in-game currency. Rich players from developed countries, wishing to save many hours of playing time, were willing to pay substantial sums to gold farmers from developing countries. Trading of virtual game items or currency can take place between individuals or through gold farming businesses and gold sweatshops usually via online platforms.

By 2015, the term was being used to describe the wait times and chore-like activities required to enjoy some freemium mobile phone games without paying fees.

What began as a cottage industry in the late 1990s became increasingly more commercialized in the 2000s with the growing popularity of massively multiplayer online games.

While in the past players used eBay and PayPal to sell each other items and gold from games like Ultima Online and Lineage, contemporary, commercialized gold farming may have its origins in South Korea. 2001 reports describe Korean cybercafes being converted into gold farming operations to serve domestic demand. This model, with full-time gold farmers working long hours in cybercafes, was outsourced to China and initially served demand from Korean players. Gold farming in China was experiencing swift growth c. 2004. Cheap labor from inland provinces had washed into more cosmopolitan cities, and these real-life farmers were promptly pressed into service farming gold. In 2011, The Guardian reported that prisoners in some Chinese labor camps were forced to engage in gold farming for the benefit of prison authorities.

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Wikipedia