28 Jan 09 My child is a gold farmer – is that bad?

Hi, I’m Atom and I play World of Warcraft.

I’m not going to wax on about the addiction of WoW, or MMOs in general – perhaps another time. Suffice it to say, I do play said game – probably a bit more than is appropriate for a “guy my age”, but certainly not as ‘bad’ as some of my guild-mates.  Why the game is so appealing to me probably transcends a few boundaries – fantasy role-playing, socializing, a bit of twitch-gaming, interesting lore, etc.

In any event, I play – so deal.

One of the less obvious aspects of WoW specifically (and I believe MMOs in general) are the sub-games within the framework of the virtual world. These typically take the form of “professions” like leather working, blacksmithing, tailoring, etc.

Overall, the professions are a definite ‘meh’ for me in terms of fun. I use my ‘farming’ time as a less serious time to chat with friends online, or do it while on my laptop upstairs preparing dinner (that’s REAL dinner – like Pot Roast, Spaghetti, etc – you know, the stuff that a real person can eat) since it really doesn’t require much reaction time.

Except for fishing. Arrrrrg fishing. My understanding is there is a large number of WoW players that (claim to) enjoy fishing. I’m not one of them. For me, it is a necessary evil since the fish you catch are used in recipes.  These recipes, in turn, produce food (ok, this is the virtual food – you know, clefthook steak, mudfish stew, etc.), and that food is important for two reasons: it can be consumed (granting a bonus to certain stats) and it can be sold at the in-game auction house.

Selling food is quite profitable – generating a nice positive cash flow which in turn supports your in-game habits and necessities quite handily. In fact, there are times when selling the materials for the recipes are actually more lucrative than selling the cooked food; so the raw fish itself can be worth a bunch.

Good grief, this all sounds so….wrong.

Anyway, fishing is a pain – since it requires more attention than the other professions; when the fishing bobber ‘bounces’, signaling a catch, you have a short period of time to click the mouse button and “reel’er in!”. The time it takes between casting and reel-in is variable – anywhere between about 3 and 30 seconds.

So… this past weekend the family was hunkered down against the unusually frigid winter temps trying to not go stir crazy. I had the boys upstairs in the dining room, doing some projects with paper and pencil (remember those?). I had WoW running on the laptop, and had my character at a nice secret fishing location. I would occasionally throw a line in the water and pull something out; all the while helping one of my boys cut out a fire station, and another figure out how the proper way to sketch a needler.

The third boy notices my fishing and asks about it. I explain that “I’m Fishing! You can see here the fishing pole, the line and the bobber. When the bobber bounces, I click here and then I get a fish. See?”.

“Oh! Cool!!” he exclaims. “Can I try?”

<<light bulb: ON>>

“Sure,” I reply, “here’s how it works”.

I then go on to explain the procedure and set him loose.

30 minutes later, I have a bag full of fish – some random treasure (which occasionally you will catch) and 8 more experience points in my fishing skill.

Oh – and a kid who really enjoyed this task, exclaiming with glee each time a new fish was caught.

It wasn’t until a few hours later – when I considered offering him a dollar for each skill point he levels the fishing skill to – that I started feeling a bit sheepish. Had I inadvertently turned my kid into a gold farmer? Am I taking advantage of my kids ala Kathy Gifford? Am I an exploitative S.O.B?

The next time he asked to fish, I declined.

Tags: Gold Farmer, MMO, Warcraft, WoW