Analysis and Control of Gold Farming Transaction Activities in the Online Gaming Environment

By Myke Sanders

Overview

Gold farming is a cottage industry that functions to acquire valued assets in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The assets may be obtained continually through the use of automatic mechanisms such as bots and later sold to other game players interested in gold or other items to advance their skill level. In the past couple of years, organized groups of gold farmers known as ‘sweatshops’ have begun to dominate this evolving market. The scope of this phenomenon is global in nature and affects several MMORPG environments.

Impacts of Gold Farming

Gold farming introduces several deleterious impacts on the MMORPG environment. The main negative effect from gold farming concerns economic inflation inside the game itself; gamers are forced to work even harder to accrue gold for the purchase of various useful items for their character development. Expensive items eventually become the norm, and the enjoyment of the game is reduced.

Another negative impact is the monopolization of rare, valuable resources by the gold farmers. Monopoly pricing thwarts the demand of game items by increasingly large portions of the MMORPG market. Entry-level players are especially vulnerable to such pricing schemes.

Additionally, gold farming can monopolize crucial computer resources as spam and email messages choke channels and mail systems. The game is, thus, rendered less enjoyable as the ‘real time’ quality of the game diminishes.

Lastly, real transaction chargeback activity generally increases in a gold farming gaming environment. Essentially, gold farmers buy an account then charge the account back. If a chargeback rate of 1.5% is reached by the MMORPG vendor, the company will be fined by credit card associations such as Visa and MasterCard. Fines of this nature can reach as high as $150,000, which may threaten the viability of the game.

Current Trends to Control Gold Farming

Given these negative side effects from gold farming, most companies take an active approach to controlling this practice. Most efforts that are use to combat the practice are focused on the supply side of the asset purchase transaction:

prohibition of gold farming services in end-user license agreements (EULAs);
exclusion of gold-selling service advertisements on game sites;
posted instructions for earning gold quickly in a game;
delisting of virtual property auctions by prominent auction sites (eBay);
use of guild banks for donated items (WOW, Star Wars Galaxies);
enforcement of balanced stakes and trade limits (RuneScape);
transaction log data mining of account activity;
forced removal of farmed gold from a player;
criminalization of gold farming at the national level (Australia, China, Great Britain, South Korea, U.S.)
lawsuits from game companies directed at gold farmers
use of monitoring software for minors (China)

Study Results

In this study, the demand side of the equation was analyzed. By examining the buying habits of people who purchase from gold farmers, new ways discourage people from buying farmed game assets may be illuminated. The data collected is based on 90 days of purchases from a gold farming company and focuses specifically on World of Warcraft (WOW) gold.

The above graph shows how many people made a certain amount of purchases.

The second graph illustrates the total volume of transactions.

Examination of the graphs indicates two major spikes. The first is centered on single purchases within 90 days and then expands to two purchases; these people appear to be making single, large purchases. Given that this study is based on WOW data, the behavior is consistent a purchase of an epic mount or large item inside the auction house. The second spike involves 11 to 12 purchases. The frequency of such purchases occurred consistently once every week and appears associated with active raiders who buy supplies for their upcoming activities as wells as those who purchase gold when paid on a weekly basis.

Conclusions and Proposed Gold Farming Controls

Ultimately, the best way to discourage raiders from farming gold is to offer buffs that are better than normal consumables; the process of obtaining these buffs has to render them non-transferable, though.

The data do give rise to a more novel approach to gold farming and associated buying habits: loans to be given out in the game itself. This would focus more on the single large purchase buyers. The loan would be based on character level, accumulated play time, and player equipment. Since it is a loan with interest/fees, the player would have to pay back more than they received. Essentially, it offers the bonus of not only limiting gold purchases by players but also helps to siphon gold from the MMORPG economy thus stabilizing it further. The loan may also appeal to players because it is less risky than purchasing gold from a site that in which there may be unknown or questionable security practices. Given the social stigma that is attached with purchasing gold and the safety and security of the loan, this should deter people from purchasing farmed gold. If a person can be prevented from an initial gold purchase to satisfy a large need, it will probably be easier to discourage subsequent, regular gold purchases.

Unfortunately there is no way completely control gold farming practices, as it succumbs to an underground economy; so long as items can be traded inside the game, there will be gold farming. The intent with the proposed controls is to provide an additional level of discouragement for such practices.

References