MMORPG Wage Slaves

1Up has published a very interesting two-page article that explores the lucrative MMORPG virtual property industry. The article reports about several "sweatshops" where MMORPG players are payed as little as 56 cents an hour to farm gold and items, which are then sold for thousands or even millions of dollars. Read on:
Smooth Criminal's game cartel made $1.5 million from Star Wars Galaxies alone last year, and individually, he's made as much as $700,000 in a single year. "[SWG] built my new house, which I paid for in cash," he says. "So when you ring my doorbell, it plays the Star Wars music." Smooth Criminal is in charge of writing programs, finding exploits, and locating in-game "dupes" (bugs for duplicating gold or items). "I have a real job, but when there's a dupe, I call in sick," he says. It costs him more money to actually go to his "real job." "When I dupe," Smooth Criminal adds, "I farm billions on every game server and spread out my activities." He then uses three accounts to launder the gold: a duper account, a filter account, and a delivery account each created using different IPs, credit cards, and computers. This way, it's hard to trace the source, and the gold comes back clean.