Gold farming versus gold selling

Two: power-levelling. Payment is again made via a web site but this time you give the gold-farming firm your username and password. Their staff then play your character, levelling it up. Once the character has reached the agreed level, it is handed back. This is where many MMO firms contend that hacking comes into play: you're trusting a virtual stranger with all your details.

Three: selling accounts. "Want to play an MMO but don't want to start at Level 1?" says 'Extreme Gamer', who runs the WoW Gold Facts review site. "You can purchase MMO accounts that have characters at high levels, with coveted items, mounts and what-have-you. Alternatively, if you want to sell your account to another player, the RMT site can act as your middle man. Price will depend on what level the character is plus the items and gold in its inventory. I'd say the range could be anywhere from USD 100 for a so-so account to USD 1500 for the cream of the crop."

Amidst a crop of hackers, cheats and scammers, are there any which are running a reputable business? E.G. claims that "they're usually the old-timers of the industry like IGE and MySuperSales. I reviewed both sites in the past for my site and both did not fail. They weren't perfect, but they delivered, and I didn't have to go through the agony of following up and threatening a chargeback. As for the nature of the business being illegal or not, I am not aware of any ruling by any court that states that it is illegal. We're talking about corporate EULAs [End User Licence Agreements]. In my opinion, their current terms and conditions makes the publishers look greedy.

Gold farming companies are what you might call the sweatshops of the MMO world. Farmers don't sell direct - they run their high-level accounts and grind long shifts to acquire gold, currency, items, etc.

The gold-farming firm (workshop) which employs the gold farmers has a relationship to a gold seller (the broker), usually the website that the player ends up dealing with. Gold selling companies are borderline legit, or sometimes borderline criminal, depending on your definitions and their actions (and geographical locations and laws in those countries).

They buy the gold from the farming companies, put on a markup (see table, end) and they are the ones you see spamming in-game. A game account to them is far less valuable than to a farmer, who needs a high-end character in order to farm most efficiently.