Very interesting article I read in the march 20th or april 10th issue of macleans (can't remember which) about a new kind of sweat shop.  In China there are now internet cafe/sweat shops in which people, under the direction of a single person play WOW in order to get gold weapons etc.  These items are then acumulated and sold for real life money to interested parties.  In essence there is a real black market for WOW items and gold.  There have been interesting backlashes to this.  In Korea groups players under the direction of a single person hunt these chinese players!  Talk about politicizing a game!

It's true, and this has been going on for as long there's been MMORPG's.  It's become more of a problem because Warcraft has wider appeal than, say, Everquest.

City of Heroes didn't really have this problem because there was no loot.  All you could buy was pre-levelled characters on the "black market", and what's the fun in that?

Like the farmers you've mentioned, there's also Bot's for sale, that will play your character while you're away.  Some focus on XP, some focus on gold, but the one I like, and have been trying to snag for free somewhere for our server is a bot that plays a party support role.  So you just invite a character being played by this bot to your party and away you go.  Instant team.  That would help with a number of missions, and it's not as cheesey as an afk bot.

"AFK bot"??? After factory killer bot?

This whole concept surprises me.  People are actually that desperate for rank and prestiege in a video game and so would pay money to get it.

AFK = Away From Keyboard

I just can't figure what enjoyment there is in buying a game, then paying to be uber-powerful in the game, then what?  You run around saying "Look at me!  I'm big and powerful?"  Nobody cares.

Although... I can think of some equipment I wouldn't mind having.....  

Thats true.  it just means more if you can say I got my righting tiger today (which I did) than to say I got it given to me.   Plus the whole concept of the game is ruined.. it is in the adventure not the finishing of it where the fun is.. at least for me.

I agree with you guys, what is the point in buying a game that is partially (or nearly fully) complete?  
On CoH I ran into a number of people who either had done that or were looking into HOW to do it though.  Many of them were younger kids - they seemed to think that it made them cool to the other players somehow.  But there were also a couple "older" players (our age) I spoke with on CoH who had been playing for a while (had one or two really powerful characters) that just wanted to save the time investment in developing a new character.  They also were serious gamers who hated playing with all the newbies.  Or that's what they told me anyhow.
I suppose once you finish the game some people consider it like a cheat or easter egg that allows you to skip all the crap and enjoy the bigger benefits of the end portion of the game?  But it makes about as much sense to me as buying a book and reading the last 4 or 5 chapters.. you miss all the character building that really got you to the end...

Yah that is so stupid. I've seen articles on that and saw some 20/20 on tv about it once. People just want to be the BEST. So they buy stuff with real money. sheesh. Talk about sucking the fun out of a game.

Thats why MMORPG always have tons of people complaining about the economy. All the people that go BUY lots of fake money with real money can afford to buy bigger and better items from the lucky players to find those items. So the people that don't cheat and try to earn thier money the honest way are screwed cause they cannot compete with the ones that have millions of dollars.

Anyways, it causes lots of problems. Which is why having a private server like this one is such a big benefit. Although it has some pitfalls.. like when you want to do a quest that requires a group of about 20 players or something. ha.

You just need to get 20 friends on there.  

I think that is a statistical impossibility... people who play MMORPGs do not even KNOW people in real life - so if they don't have "online friends" through the game, they are kinda screwed.  And don't think Blizzard and the gaming companies don't know this.. they RELY on this to keep them coming to the pay servers!