Why Do People Gold Farm?
In MMORPGs, "gold farming" is the act of performing tasks for the sole purpose of raising virtual money. There are two main reasons for doing this.
The first reason: you're saving up money to buy something for your character - or a friend's character - that will improve that character's abilities in the world. Some examples of improved abilities - your character travels faster, or has a weapon or piece of equipment that gives it an advantage over other players in player-versus-player (PvP) fights.
The second reason to farm is so that you can sell the items outside of the game for real-world money.
Getting Paid For MMORPG Game Gold
From reports on the Internet, there are individuals and groups in Asia and Eastern Europe where people are paid a very low wage to play characters for long hours - with the sole purpose of making virtual money that will later be converted into real money.
The farmer's character will try to make the most amount of money during his shift - some are rumored to have quotas. In order to do this, the characters perform certain tasks that are guaranteed to make money - killing monsters that drop large amounts of money, and going on quests that yield valuable in-game items like weapons and armor.
The farmers then sell their items through online sites. An interested buyer visits these sites and selects the game he's playing. The buyer browses what's available, selects what he wants, and enters his credit card number.
Illegal Gold Farming
At this point, the player must trust the farmer and wait for him to complete the transaction in-game -- the farmer must enter the game, and either arrange a meeting, or use the in-game postal service to send the items.
Because it is against the end-user license agreement of most MMORPGs, there's no guarantee or any recourse if the farmer doesn't deliver the promised goods. I've heard that many people have been scammed in this way.
