Bizz Gossip - Virtual Realty Virtually Real

A report by BBC featured how China is exploting the new industry of trading virtual expertease for real money. "Paying real money for virtual items in this ‘world’ is just the tip of the iceberg" they said. So games like 'World of Warcraft' or an older one 'Age of Empires' require players to build 'virtual' credit and wealth after tiresome hours of efforts and tactical play. But those who are on a fast lane and don't want to spend the time spend the money.

"It is estimated the market in buying and selling these virtual game items is already worth nearly $900m (dhs3.3 billion) and so-called ‘gold-farming’ factories are springing up all over China. In the town of Wuxue, one of China’s newest industries is taking off. The noise of computer generated monsters being slain in cyberspace rings out as twelve young Chinese men sit huddled over computer screens in a dingy room on the first floor."(7days reported)

$900 million is no joke and these gold farmers are on it. These young programmers in China get paid about $100-$250 a month and work on 12 day shifts. Heather Gore of Internet Gaming Entertainment, the world's largest marketplace provider for farmers and power levelers says, the secondary gaming market could be worth $9 billion to $10 billion annually by 2009, when it likely will surpass the game-publishing market."