1. Inside World of Warcraft Gold Farm, Future of Work

If you want a glimpse of the future of work in the broadband age, you can find it, of all places, on MTV's website. To my knowledge, their recent gaming news segment, "Is Mining Virtual WoW Gold Exploitative?" features the first video footage shot inside Chinese WoW Gold farms, those gray market companies which collect and sell virtual WoW gold (primarily from World of Warcraft) to wealthier gamers in the developed world. (The New York Times filed a story on the phenomenon last year, but company managers were considerably more leery to speak on record with that reporter.)



Drawing from an fascinating upcoming documentary by UC San Diego grad student Ge Jin (YouTube clip from his film here), the MTV segment features interviews with workers and managers of several WoW gold farms, which resemble a cross between a 24 hour LAN party and a very shabby college dorm. By the segment's estimate, an astounding half million Chinese now make a living - about $100 a month - from the acquisition and sale of WoW gold to US and EU gamers. Why is this is the future of work online? Consider the numbers, youth, and low wages of the WoW gold farmers, and the growing interest in outsourcing tasks online. Amazon recently launched a non-game application for this, known as the Amazon Mechanical Turk.
In Second Life, a Hollywood production company is outsourcing its Second Life projects to its Vietnamese branch, where highly-skilled workers can create professional 3D environments for a fraction of the cost, were it done here. It's easy to see how the Chinese farmers of Warcraft might evolve into the blue collar workers of the 3D Internet.



MTV producer Matt Sunbulli put us in touch with Ge Jin, and we asked him about this phenomenon, and sought his own thoughts on its relation to the future of work online.



How did you locate these WoW gold farms?



I have a friend who had been operating a WoW Gold farms in Shanghai since 2003. So his WoW Gold farm is the first one I visited. My friend's WoW gold farm closed in 2005, so did most WoW Gold farms in Shanghai. Many of them migrated to smaller cities with lower housing and human resource costs.



So I contacted other WoW Gold farms through my friend's old network... I was lucky enough to find several WoW Gold farms that were open to me in Jinhua, Nanjin, Lishui and Hangzhou. Again I was lucky to win their trust. It's probably because I'm from the same background as many gaming workers (many WoW Gold farm owners were former gaming workers.)

2. Were WoW Gold farmers afraid the Chinese government would shut them down?

The ones that allowed me to film there were not afraid because they are located in cities where local governments are tolerant of this industry. There is no national policy regulating this new industry yet, so it's up to the local governments to judge.



Most local governments have no motive to shut down these WoW Gold farms, as they reduce unemployment and even reduce the crime rate by reducing unemployed male youth on the street. Some WoW Gold farms refused my visit because they don't want to pay tax and choose to operate underground, or they are worried that their labor practice is problematic...



What does WoW gold farming suggest about the future of work?



I think these WoW Gold farms indicate that the game platform has the potential to engage more people in Internet-driven economy. The gaming workers in China don't have skills like English, software or graphic design to participate in other forms of Internet-driven work, but they can communicate and navigate in a 3D game world whose tools and routines they are familiar with... So if more social and economic activities happen in an accessible 3D game world, people who don't have access to other culture capital but gaming knowledge will be more likely to be included in global interaction.

3. World Of Warcraft Gold Making - Derek's Gold Mastery Guide

Do you need a clear & concise World Of Warcraft Gold Making Guide? Tired of having to logout of WoW without accomplishing what you wanted that night? Tired of running around without a mount, without enough gold to get what you need without just plain having good, satisfying fun with the game?



Me, too.



Well I kept running into players who enthusiastically pointed me towards Derek's Gold Mastery . I guess Derek is a former WoW gold seller who has now published a book teaching players how to make a ton of WoW gold quickly and easily. And he strictly keeps it legal and clean. You won't find any cheats, hacks or gimmicks in his guide to warcraft riches.



So I gave it a try... I figured I had nothing to lose since it comes with a very simple and easy money-back guarantee.



What I have discovered is not only a fantastic guide to making gold FAST, but a great overall guide to playing the game! It features over 150 pages packed with detailed maps, screenshots and some of the best item stat sheets I've ever seen. My main point is regardless of how much gold he teaches you to make, you also get one of those rare books that enriches your overall experience with the game.



I really like the mix of crazy tricks I would never have considered with simple, common sense tactics many people overlook. The guide is basically 7 guides in one as he teaches a number of approaches. If one doesn't fit with your personality or the way you like to play the game, you'll have six other styles to try instead.



My favorite discovered secret so far involves a perfectly legit and legal way to make WoW gold while you're not even logged in and playing. It's such a thrill starting a session more empowered to do fun stuff than ever before!



My biggest problem with a guide like this is that Derek's Gold Mastery Guide is starting to catch fire. Some of those sly little grinding spots won't be so secret before too long. For that reason I suggest snatching up this World Of Warcraft Gold Making Guide as soon as you can.

4. To make World of Warcraft gold fast, you must apply 2 basic techniques:

1) Adhere to gathering professions while you level up. Skinning, mining and fishing can all be lucrative in terms of WoW gold.

2) Utilize the auction house! It is a simple matter of buying low and selling high and making big amounts of WoW Gold. Be sure to observe what other people are selling. You will usually discover somebody who does not try to maximize his profits of WoW Gold and sells low just to be done with it and move on. You need to find this impatient person and become his or her friend. You will earn a lot of WoW Gold.

If you stick to these professions while leveling, you will have plenty of raw materials to sell against WoW Gold at the auction house. You might supplement this with some crafting to enhance your wares for the auction house.

Additionally, you will find some areas where you can leverage monsters which both drop good WoW coin and provide materials for your auction-house selling. Humanoid mobs are particularly useful as they drop several different kinds of cloth you can sell and they also drop good WoW coin and WoW Gold.

Three areas I suggest exploring:

1) Visit the eastern part of the Badlands around level 45. In this area you'll discover lots of whelps in two different areas. The whelps here drop good WoW coin and you can skin the WoW Gold. In addition, they are surrounded by juicy WoW Gold mining nodes. But that's not all: they also drop flaming sacs. Those sell well at the auction house.

2) In the North Western Plaguelands, visit the Scarlet City. The Scarlet spell Binders leave good WoW gold, WoW coin and they also drop formulas and recipes you can use to enhance your auction house trading.

3) While you're in the Western Plaguelands, delve into a cave named The Weeping Cave. The mobs here drop tons of recipes you can collect for warcraft riches at the auction house and gain WoW Gold easily.

These are just the basics. I strongly suggest you visit my blog for far more clever and useful techniques to make a ton of Warcraft gold fast. Your Warcraft riches await!

5. World of Warcraft Gold Farming Tips

World of Warcraft Gold Farming Tips are plentiful, but WoW gold farming is a tough business. Have you ever wondered why some items in World of Warcraft sell for a lot of WoW gold and then other items for mere silver or copper?

Even more so, you notice that on other servers the same items are fetching huge amounts at the auction house.

Well, World of Warcraft fans, the economy of the game is very much like a real world free market economy. Supply and demand of virtual tools and WoW Gold is a very important lesson with regards to World of Warcraft...especially for you WoW gold farmers out there!

So, what does this mean exactly? Well on some of the older servers, you have a whole legion of seasoned players who can go anywhere and harvest just about any thing in the game pretty easily. This means that if you are a young, new entrepreneur to the game, you are going to want to do one of two things. You might want to consider a newer server where many of the player characters are young (low level). Or, you might want to concentrate on some of the lesser harvested items that people do need regularly. (Supply vs Demand)

The second option might not yield as much WoW gold in each sitting, but over time you can amass great WoW coin by being consistent with it. Plus, you build a reputation of being the go to person when someone needs something.

Let's review supply and demand a little more. When you are at the auction house, take a look at what items are being sold. Look at how many listings, pricing etc. This is your research component. High supply with low demand is going to equal poor results for you the seller. Obviously you want to look for high demand with low supply ie tough to get items.

In World of Warcraft, tough to get items doesn't always mean hard to find...they could be items that people just hate to have to grind out. The dirty jobs if you will. Trust me, in the real world, there are plenty of dirty jobs out there that no one wants, but someone does and gets paid for well!

Here is an idea that is used well in real world free market economies...control the market. Where have we seen this? Dell Computers, Microsoft, AT&T are all examples of conglomerates that have or had control of their markets and therefore could command or dictate a price.

This same idea can be used in World of Warcraft by finding ways to be the sole WoW Gold seller of an item. If you are looking to sell an item that is currently being sold for far less than it should be at an auction house, this might be an opportunity for you. If you can purchase all of those items and then re-list them at a higher price, you might be able to drive the market for some time.

The World of Warcraft WoW Gold Economy is very much like a real world free market economy. Try to use things you have seen or observed in the real world and apply them to the game, who knows you may be able to get rich!