There are 400.000 people involved in gold farming/trading in a realistic estimate. This number can be as high as 1.000.000 people.
There are around 60.000 brokerages all aroud the country.
Brokers (those doing the actual trading) are generally localized within bigger cities, and recruit from the English speaking graduates. Farms tend to be spread in smaller towns - not too small, because they need a broadband connection. They employ workers with a high-school diploma or below.
Some brokerages have started outsourcing in other countries, such as Vietnam or the Philipines. It might be because of the cost reduction, or because they attack markets/games more popular in these countries.
The turnover for Chinese RMT (real money trading) operations is estimated to be $10bn per year.
Some brokerages employ up to 250 people, organized in two shifts and in different sectors - IT, customer service, email spamming.
Farmers are mainly youngsters, 18-20 years old, who take pleasure in playing games all day long (10 hour shifts) for $140 per month, food and accommodation provided. They stay at this kind of work 1-2 years before moving to something else. Customer service stuff earns around $350 per month.
Typical purchases of virtual goods are around $25 worth. The highest reported purchase was for more than $3000)
With virtual economy gaining in importance, and with recent attempts to bring some order in it, this is becoming a subject to take into account.
An interesting attempt to spread the virtual reality to unconquered teritories.
Marcus Carter, a Welsh businessman, published in Second Life the first virtual market dedicated to farmers. He noticed that "nobody wants to drive for miles in a car or actually travel around calling at farm after farm, to meet the producers. However, consumers want local produce". The idea adapted to the times we are living was straightforward.
The principle is quite simple. The traders (reportedly, there are actually 34 of them paying £20 per week) are exposing their goods 24/7, and the clients can come visit 24/7. They can see and buy, if they like, but they obviously can't touch, smell or taste. The application was developed by Digital Presence, and has already attracted interest of several companies from the Welsh food industry (check the original post for details).
Is VR really spreadable to everything and everywhere? If this works, there can be no doubt about that.
This week, Linden Lab awarded two projects with the the first edition of Linden Prize, to recognize their achievements in making Second Life more practical for the real world (you can see a strong message here, can't you?).
One of them, Virtual Ability (just for note, the second one was Studio Wikitecture), is a non profit corporation from Colorado, having for mission to "enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds" (mainly Second Life, at least for now).
Through a variety of activities, concentrated around Virtual Ability island in Second Life which provides the home for new resident orientation and training, the organization tends to teach disabled people the basic virtual world skills of movement, communication, inventory, orienting and appearance. These activities range from Cape Able, conceived for deaf and hard of hearing people, through Virtual Ability Research Group, promoting insertion of disabled people into virtual world research activities, to The Heron Sanctuary, which provides a community for the disabled once they have established their presence in the virtual world.
Problems of the disabled in virtual reality are no longer virtual, and so should shift the efforts to face them. The $10,000 that come with the Linden Prize to Virtual Ability can be a good practical step forward.
The US FAA is planning to introduce new rules for civil flight simulators, in order to make pilots exercise in particular upset situations [ Flight Global ]
An interview with InterSense, detailing their motion capture and virtual camera technologies, appeared on Gamers Daily News
Norway's Tandberg claims that their newly released Telepresence T3 is the only solution that maintains the multi-screen, high-definition telepresence experience when calling out to a third-party telepresence system [ Ajax World Magazine ]
Virtual Worlds News explores some signs that show Microsoft's inclining towards a XBox Virtual World.
Second Life re-explains the basic principles and reference-tips for newcomers in a post on their blog.
3DVia brings another light on the recent Air Force One NYC accident with a proposal to make the whole thing virtual. Great idea or a cheap commercial?
The Naval Undersea Warefare Center (NUWC) is exploring VR solutions for training purposes on a real-world submarine, and chooses Qwaq Forums for the implementation. [ BusinessWire ]
Second Life continues their virtual education campuses presentation with a post about INSEAD.
The Digital Design Blog chooses some of the most notable early marketing moves involving augmented reality.
A LOT of buzz about a "Virtual Reality Magic" video. See here below.
Virtual Worlds News has published recently two news strengthening Sulake's presence in the world of - virtual worlds!
The first one announces that Sulake is thinking about porting it's newly released Bobba to the PC platform market. In an interview accorded to Gamasutra, the company's CCO and co-founder Sampo Karjalainen said that the virtual world, currently running only on Nokia's S60 mobile phones, might in the future even be available on consoles. He confirmed the iPhone version is due soon, probably this summer.
In the second article, we learn that Sulake is going in for a new partnership with FremantleMedia for the next edition of American Idol. The concept has already been tested with French "Nouvelle Star" version of the show, where Sulake created a dedicated room in Habbo (the french version too, of course), where people can get informed, play and meet eliminated singers who pay visits very often. With a fan base of 20,000 and the show not yet the end (the most exciting phases yet to come), the project is considered successful. In the Amercian version, the content promises to be richer, but with less participation from the current cast.
Sulake has previously been known for its youngster virtual world Habbo. Recently they published Bobba, which aims to touch somewhat older population. While in Habbo the idea was to concentrate around public spaces, Bobba promotes more user-centric approach.
In a post on Virtual Economy Research Network, Professor Richard Heeks is summarizing several key facts about the gold farming activity in China.
Through a variety of 