A new study conducted by at Manchester University in England is suggesting that the act of gold farming in massively multiplayer online games could be a business worth upwards of 500 million dollars. Professor Richard Heeks’ report details that this underground industry is comprised of around 400,000 workers (80% of whom reside in China) who earned an average of $145 per month in 2008. The BBC spoke with Heeks about his findings: Prof Heeks said very accurate figures for the size of the gold farming sector were hard to come by but his work suggested that in 2008 it employs 400,000 people who earn an average of $145 (?77) per month creating a global market worth about $500m.But, he said, the true size of the sector was hard to estimate – it could easily be twice as big. The quasi-criminal nature of gold-farming made it hard to truly gauge its extent, said Prof Heeks. In most online games all the activities associated with gold farming – gathering in-game cash to items to sell, buying game gold or sharing accounts – are a violation of the terms governing that title.Anyone caught engaging in any of these activities is likely to be banned from the game and have their account shut down.Article Source: www.gamespy.com.

Article Source: www.associatedcontent.com.The MMORPG WorldWarcraft is one, if not the biggest game on the Internet at the time. It is very addicting and has many qualities that make it an unbeatable classic. In the time that i played it iGame Title: WorldWarcraftPublisher: BlizzardDeveloper: Blizzard Genre: Role PlayingESRB: Teens (13 +)Platform: PC GamesOverall Rating: 78/10018/2516/2521/2523/25Graphics/Audio:Gameplay:Creativity:Fun Factor: found that many of the functions were very advanced and the mechanics to game play were smooth. The combat style was based of group play, which i loved because what fun is it playing a mmorpg by yourself. The graphics were above average and i would rate them very good for the size of the playable map. The area in game was probably one of the biggest i have ever seen personally. I played for over a year and still had content i have not even been able to touch. The classes and races were very distinct and customizable. The best part about the game was the PVP (player vs player) side of the game. This allowed players to engage in combat with other players in real time at their own discretion. Overall i would give the game a 9 out of 10. The game was playable by any age group and enjoyable the same.