Gold Farming?!? Really?
I think I've found the perfect metaphor for what's wrong with America. In my local paper, I read an article about a practice known as "gold farming." Unfortunately, I can't find the article electronically, but luckily we have Wikipedia, who can tell you more about Gold Farming than you might care to know.
For those not interested in reading a wiki entry about it, gold farming is the practice of playing online role playing games for the sole purpose of collecting virtual gold. This virtual gold is then sold to other players for real money. In essence, people are paying hard-earned (or, maybe, not-so-hard-earned) money for electronic ones and zeros.
I'm not sure how to feel about this practice. I guess I could get up in arms about the competitive imbalance that it might create, but, as I don't play games online, I find it hard to get worked up about it that way. I think, however, that it's worrying in another way. Namely, have we, as Americans, become so lazy that we can't even be bothered to play games without resorting to shortcuts? We can't even enjoy a computer game without turning it into some kind of overly-serious enterprise. What is it about World of Warcraft that would make it necessary to pay money to fake your way through it? What does a gamer earn from this? What does that money pay for? I'm not sure I'll ever figure that one out.
I had a discussion with a coworker about this practice, and we were both laughing about it - or atleast, I was until I figured out that there are other people in the world who will work like dogs 24/7 doing nothing but sitting in front of a computer in order to make a few bucks from a relatively lazy gamer. I can understand not having enough time to put into the game to feel competitive, but the disparity in work ethic between the gamer and the gold farmer is a bit worrying...
Anyway...that's just my two cents worth...not sure it's even worth that.
I think I've found the perfect metaphor for what's wrong with America. In my local paper, I read an article about a practice known as "gold farming." Unfortunately, I can't find the article electronically, but luckily we have Wikipedia, who can tell you more about Gold Farming than you might care to know.
For those not interested in reading a wiki entry about it, gold farming is the practice of playing online role playing games for the sole purpose of collecting virtual gold. This virtual gold is then sold to other players for real money. In essence, people are paying hard-earned (or, maybe, not-so-hard-earned) money for electronic ones and zeros.
I'm not sure how to feel about this practice. I guess I could get up in arms about the competitive imbalance that it might create, but, as I don't play games online, I find it hard to get worked up about it that way. I think, however, that it's worrying in another way. Namely, have we, as Americans, become so lazy that we can't even be bothered to play games without resorting to shortcuts? We can't even enjoy a computer game without turning it into some kind of overly-serious enterprise. What is it about World of Warcraft that would make it necessary to pay money to fake your way through it? What does a gamer earn from this? What does that money pay for? I'm not sure I'll ever figure that one out.
I had a discussion with a coworker about this practice, and we were both laughing about it - or atleast, I was until I figured out that there are other people in the world who will work like dogs 24/7 doing nothing but sitting in front of a computer in order to make a few bucks from a relatively lazy gamer. I can understand not having enough time to put into the game to feel competitive, but the disparity in work ethic between the gamer and the gold farmer is a bit worrying...
Anyway...that's just my two cents worth...not sure it's even worth that.
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