1. Gold Farming
Denny Sawyer

2. What is it?
• Chinese kids anywhere
from 18 to 25 play video
games to earn reward
items and achievement to
sell to us U.S. players
online in order to give us
an advantage over our
competition.
• W.O.W.
• Average of 12 hours per
day

3. Donghua Gaming Workshop in Jinhua
China
• Slogan on the wall is
Unity and Collaboration
• 45 employees with 80
employees
• Xiong Xiong is a worker
at this location and said,
“If we make money we
split it and if not we still
have fun playing the
game.”

4. Is this ok?
• Yes
• According to TED- “5
million gamers in the
U.S., in fact, are
spending more than 40
hours a week playing
games -- the equivalent
of a full time job!”
• These U.S. kids are
playing these games for
free

5. How should this be monitored?
Stopped?
• The World Bank Proposes
Fair Trade Gold Farming in
2011
• The World Bank initiative
recommends gold farming
and sees it as “an
opportunity for developing
nations to grow their
economies.”
• Portions of the profits are
split between PayPal,
Company in China, Gold
Farming Company, and then
back to the worker.

6. Did you know about this Gold
Farming?
• Personally played games on Xbox and
PlayStation.
• Gold Farming occurs on online computer
games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, and
Guild Wars.

7. Summary
• Gold Farming is encouraged;
– Kids get paid for doing what they love
• If they don’t get paid they still have fun
– Supports the economy
– Gives the workers a sense of achievement and
importance

8. Work Cited
• http://www.ted.com/conversations/44/we_spen
d_3_billion_hours_a_wee.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho5Yxe6UVv
4
• http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/04/the-world-
bank-proposes-fair-trade-gold-farming/
• http://www.bit-
tech.net/news/gaming/2007/06/25/video_game
_addiction_not_a_disorder/1