Thanks to recent gains in the popularity of gaming and broadband Internet access you can now make real money by playing PC games--real games like World of Warcraft, Counter-Strike, City of Heroes, Starcraft and others.
I'm not making this up. In 2001, economist Edward Castronova calculated the money earned by gamers in just one game (Everquest) to be over 130 million US dollars a year1!
And more recently, in 2006, another game academic valued the total economy for all MMO games at 20 billion US dollars, nearly a billion of that being openly traded over the Internet for real cash2. That means hundreds of millions of dollars are being exchanged within games--and I'm not talking about the game companies! I'm talking about a billion dollars worth of products and services being sold by gamers to other gamers for cold hard cash.
Gold farming starts when players accumulate in-game currency, such as gold pieces. They then turn around and sell their loot to secondary markets--other gamers willing to pay real world money for their hard-fought booty. This is the OLD WAY to make money with online games.
Because more of the world's wealth is now being spent inside games, new practices have sprung up, frequently out of nowhere. These new income opportunities have even sparked the interest of financial news network CNBC. The December 2007 edition of their Business Nation program featured Second Life account holders who were making $85,000 to $180,000 annually, at home, using their avatars. CNBC estimated the GNP of these Second Life services to be 365 million dollars a year.
So while it's true gold farming used to be the only way to make money playing games there are many more business models out now. You won't be spending all day clicking on a mountain, unless you like doing that sort of thing...
People are now making money participating in these activities:
Each opportunity comes with its own advantages and disadvantages and requires certain skills and appetites from the gamer. The more research you do the more likely you will find a role that fits you. As you learn more you may even develop your own unique business models based on your own interests and knowledge about certain games and the people who play them (your market).
You don't need a degree in software engineering to make headway. Of course, just like in real life, it helps to have skills (design-sense, business acumen, marketing, accounting, researching, chat persuasion, battle strategy, a photographic memory, fast reflexes, or just a love for games and avatars). Whatever you start with will help you find your place in this industry. The fact is, most people starting in these games are, well, noobs.
There are some people who may not feel comfortable trying to make money online such as those who like relying on a boss or who generally avoid spending a lot of time indoors and enjoy driving to work. Others could simply have an aversion to information technology and virtual reality. On the flipside the things that make this unattractive to others can be the very thing that draws some to this industry.
Wages are highly stratified. As in real life, there is a large minimum wage class. But don't let that fact stop you. It is easy to get ahead of the pack. The problem with these low income players is that they are new, poorly trained, and are using the same gold farming techniques that have been around since the turn of the century.
So instead of mindlessly following the herd, the thing that will make you highly successful in any virtual economy is the same thing that you will bring you success in the real world. That is, taking the time to use your most marketable talents in the game and having the right information.
The game you choose can also determine much of your success. Before you begin should know which games are hot and which are not.
In late June 2009 tech-savy news outlets reported that The People's Republic of China will no longer allow its citizens to engage in profitable game play (such as gold farming). Go figure why a country awash in poverty doesn't want its people to make money?
Anyway, this is actually good news for you. Since a vast majority of the "virtual labor market" is from China this ban will open up a lot of oppurtunity for new players like you.
Because the business that otherwise would have gone to China will have to go elsewhere, this ban will actually tend to raise wages for everyone who wants to make money inside games. There also appears to be a loophole in the law that will allow foreign transactions, so you can still hire people in China to help you in your video game businesses.
Traditional sources of income come with many barriers to entry such as having the right background or being in the right circle of friends or, frankly, being liked by your potential employer or investor.
But the Internet is much more democratic and efficient. It doesn't matter what you look like or what you sound like. It doesn't matter who you know or who you don't know; the online market is indifferent to everything but your talent and your work ethic. Where you live is not even part of the equation: you can work at home or anywhere on planet Earth that is connected to the Internet. So even if you enjoy spending all day outdoors you can still be "working at home" if you have a laptop and a wireless broadband account.
Furthermore, start-up costs for creating your own game player business are very, very low, sometimes nothing. Lastly, online game jobs don't carry the legal risks of certain other "sexy" online industries.
For starters you could spend the next 6-12 months doing research, tearing up the servers at Yahoo! and Google, finding out all the intricate ways in which people are making money in this new economy--in other words a lot of hard work. Fortunately Game Player Cash has done all the work for you. This instantly downloadable eBook is the most comprehensive resource you will find on the topic.
NO. This is not a strategy guide for playing games but playing for cash. I went out into the "virtual field" and met with all sorts of people involved in this new industry. You'll hear my reports from smaller, newer players just making a little extra income to the in-game giants making loads of cold, hard cash you can take to the bank. Plus you'll also hear from the game developers themselves. You'll get the information you need to succeed in this new line of work.
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References Used in this Article:
1Castronova, Edward. "On Virtual Economies." CESifo Working Paper No. 752, July 2002.
2Dibbell, Julian. Play Money Basic Books, June 2006
© Copyright 2006-2009 Tex Media · (412) 204-8086
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