[tt] In-Game Gold Farming a $500M Industry

[Brian Atkins]

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/23/0031252

"Prof. Heeks said very accurate figures for the size of the gold farming sector 
were hard to come by, but his work suggested that in 2008 it employs 400,000 
people who earn an average of $145 (£77) per month creating a global market 
worth about $500m. ... Already, he said, gold farming was comparable in size to 
India's outsourcing industry. 'The Indian software employment figure probably 
crossed the 400,000 mark in 2004 and is now closer to 900,000,' said Prof Heeks. 
'Nonetheless, the two are still comparable in employment size, yet not at all in 
terms of profile.' Prof Heeks suspects gold-farming might be an early example of 
the 'virtual offshoring' likely to become more prevalent as people spend more 
time working and playing in cyberspace."

-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/