Virtual Money World of Warcraft
Think of it as "bling" for online gamers in a virtual world, the gold or credits which are earned by players after hours, weeks, even months of game play. One of the most well known and popular of these games is World of Warcraft, better known as WOW. The game has over nine-million players logging on world-wide.
Gamer, turned businessman Travis King has made a killing making virtual gold his gold mine. King, owner of the website mmokings.com described his business, and said, "there is a virtual economy that goes along with it, where people buy and sell, (they) buy swords,slay monsters...and the virtual currency is used to purchase all these items."
He uses mmokings.com, to sell the gaming gold for real money.
The trade can be compared to paying ten dollars for one hundred dollars of monopoly money.
So how big of a business is it? Try eight hundred million dollars.
King said, "The average consumer spends about a hundred dollars a month. We've had people big customers buy up to five thousand dollars a month. "
King's job is rare, he works from his home on the island and is one of just a handfull of sellers in US. The rest can be found overseas.
"I literally started selling virtual currency from...my buddy's basement", says King, and here's how it works. King says he gets the gold from shops in China. Those shops have people who will play the game for hours on end in order to farm the gold or collect the virtual money. From there, players will place an order on King's website. After that King will meet up with that gamer in their online world for a trade off.
While his business has taken King out of the basement, its a business which some players say is cheating. World of Warcraft player Paul Austin says "It's an easy way out for people who don't have a lot of time, but i feel that its not very cool...I am going to fork out more money than I already am to play monthly to buy more gold in the game, that will be gone in less than five minutes."
Game companies don't like it either. King says if he is caught selling the virtual currency to another player in a game, the game company will often ban his game account. King says, "Our stance is, we are selling time,."
King hopes as online gaming becomes more mainstream, and that game companies will become more accepting of what he does.
Gamer, turned businessman Travis King has made a killing making virtual gold his gold mine. King, owner of the website mmokings.com described his business, and said, "there is a virtual economy that goes along with it, where people buy and sell, (they) buy swords,slay monsters...and the virtual currency is used to purchase all these items."
He uses mmokings.com, to sell the gaming gold for real money.
The trade can be compared to paying ten dollars for one hundred dollars of monopoly money.
So how big of a business is it? Try eight hundred million dollars.
King said, "The average consumer spends about a hundred dollars a month. We've had people big customers buy up to five thousand dollars a month. "
King's job is rare, he works from his home on the island and is one of just a handfull of sellers in US. The rest can be found overseas.
"I literally started selling virtual currency from...my buddy's basement", says King, and here's how it works. King says he gets the gold from shops in China. Those shops have people who will play the game for hours on end in order to farm the gold or collect the virtual money. From there, players will place an order on King's website. After that King will meet up with that gamer in their online world for a trade off.
While his business has taken King out of the basement, its a business which some players say is cheating. World of Warcraft player Paul Austin says "It's an easy way out for people who don't have a lot of time, but i feel that its not very cool...I am going to fork out more money than I already am to play monthly to buy more gold in the game, that will be gone in less than five minutes."
Game companies don't like it either. King says if he is caught selling the virtual currency to another player in a game, the game company will often ban his game account. King says, "Our stance is, we are selling time,."
King hopes as online gaming becomes more mainstream, and that game companies will become more accepting of what he does.
