Making money from MMO/MMORPG's - gold farming / power levelling etc

DaveTheGeordie

I really want to tap into this because it suites my avoidant personality. I know it sounds silly to some people but I've been looking for jobs for a long time with limited social interaction or ideal internet money making possibilities for a long time now, and I've been thinking about the emerged and growing virtual services > real money market for a couple of months now.

Does anyone have experience in this area? I would like to find a game, preferably free to play, where I can use in-game auction houses or farm to make in-game currency then sell it for real money. Or power level characters and sell them on. How does one become a gold farmer? What sites do people use to sell on?

I think over the next few years more companies may adopt the diablo type model where it isn't against games EULA's and they actually encourage selling and allow cashouts. I know people have made money in 2nd life and owned virtual property which other players farm on to generate real income in a round-about way in that space game I've forgotten the name of. Looking forward to new developments in this in the future.

Thoughts? Comments?

Hoody

Most gold farming and power leveling is done via automated bot's and this is a breach of the eula so will get your accounts banned. Also most gold farmers run numerous accounts at one time to make it profitable. Whilst people did make a fortune in the early days of diablo 3 i believe the price of gold and ingame items has dropped significantly nowadays?

Perelandra

As you've indicated, you should only be trying this in the games where it's allowed:

The only way to make a decent return is to trade (buy and sell high end items within game for a profit). To do that, you need to have a good understanding of the game's economy yourself. If you do, and are willing to put enough hours in to the game, it can earn a modest (above minimum wage) income.

To earn money by actually playing the game (true "gold farming"), the hourly return is simply not worth it now. About ten years ago, the games started becoming crowded out by institutionalised farming, dramatically worsening the virtual:real currency exchange rate.

All earnings are taxable, and need to be declared to HMRC via self assessment.

Lighthouse_in_the_dark

Right this is somthing i know quite alot about its one of my set and forget income streams,

In my experience they will only come after the big guys but Jagex recently sued one bot developer for a 1mill usd

erm yeah its all to do with running dedicated servers its all about the ram. you got to equate gold prices to server costs and membership prices, and the fluctation of the gold prices.

people are a bit sketchy to talk about it because off the risk of being sued and the fact that its very hard to declare it so its untaxed income on the whole, but its very lucrative if you play it right.

Perelandra

Lighthouse_in_the_dark wrote: »

being sued and the fact that its very hard to declare it so its untaxed income on the whole, but its very lucrative if you play it right.

Nonsense. It's as easy to declare this income as any other.

Marion_Yoast

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

I really want to tap into this because it suites my avoidant personality. I know it sounds silly to some people but I've been looking for jobs for a long time with limited social interaction or ideal internet money making possibilities for a long time now, and I've been thinking about the emerged and growing virtual services > real money market for a couple of months now.

Does anyone have experience in this area? I would like to find a game, preferably free to play, where I can use in-game auction houses or farm to make in-game currency then sell it for real money. Or power level characters and sell them on. How does one become a gold farmer? What sites do people use to sell on?

I think over the next few years more companies may adopt the diablo type model where it isn't against games EULA's and they actually encourage selling and allow cashouts. I know people have made money in 2nd life and owned virtual property which other players farm on to generate real income in a round-about way in that space game I've forgotten the name of. Looking forward to new developments in this in the future.

Thoughts? Comments?

DaveTheGeordie,

If you are interested in making some side income through online games, the best game titles to seriously consider for gold farming is World of Warcraft Europe or USA server, Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3. However, I'll rather stick strictly to WoW due to its massive subscribers based to-date and demand for its in-game gold is ever growing with each game expansion release.

The cash flow won't seem much from the start, but gradually it will grow when you put enough time and effort to it. It may seems overwhelming at first when you start an account and creating a new character, but, you have to consider the fact that WoW has grown so much over the years with plenty of game contents and expansions to its name. Do some research on other gold making guides, tips to level your character fast, and ways to farm gold faster. There's plenty of tips out there for your knowing.

Most of the time you will be leveling up and gearing your characters for the sole purpose of farming higher level items or materials, crafting items for sale and even scanning through auctions houses in-game to understand the demand/supply of the item market. Always remember to get the necessary add-ons for the game from 'Curse Gaming'(look it up on the web). 'Auctioneer' and 'TradeSkillMaster' is a must have.

If you need to sell your in-game gold, check this site out. 'G2G - gaming for a living marketplace'. The process is quite simple and you are selling to actual players in-game.

On a side note, try to sell the gold in smaller portions, for example if you had manage to accumulate over 100k of in-game gold, sell it in smaller amounts e.g 20-30k each time to prevent being monitored or flagged by the game makers.

Using bot is risky, but if you are a risk taker, just google search for 'HonorBuddy' bot for WoW. This site has been around since 2010 and the best in the current market. If you purchase the '1 Unlimited Session' package, you will get to use the bots for life, free updates from time to time (patches) or until the site is closed down. Hand grinding is much safer to be honest.

Last but not least, good luck and all the best!

P.S. (I totally understand your predicament, was in your shoes before. ).

FinanciallyUnsavvy

People often list in-game items and gold for sale on eBay. I saw quite a lot of listings for Diablo III when it first came out. Not sure how popular they were to be bought from eBay, but it's at least one fairly easy way to go about it.

droopsnoot

I wasn't aware this was something that was real - I read "For the Win" by Cory Doctorow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_The_Win) and it seemed a little strange.

duggan1

A few years ago during one of the many political shifts in Eve-Online... I was part of an Alliance that attacked and captured/disrupted quite a bit of territory from a mainly Russian Alliance.

The upshot was more than mere in-game upheaval. The Russians had been using the stability of their region to generate real income from selling resources and in game currency. So much so that the war meant that a few of them were no longer able to pay their mortgage. Playing Eve-Online was their only source of income.