The BBC reports that gold farming, a practice much despised by some MMO gamers, is a $500 million global business, employing a half-million people.

Citing research conducted by Prof. Richard Heeks of Manchester University, the BBC reports that 80% of worldwide gold farming is based in China. Workers there earn about $145 per month for their efforts. Said Heeks:

I initially became aware of gold farming through my own games-playing but assumed it was just a cottage industry. In a way that is still true. It's just that instead of a few dozen cottages, there turn out to be tens of thousands... I was drawn to write about gold farming due to my perception that it's a significant phenomenon that academics and development organisations are unaware of...

It is also a glimpse into the digital underworld. Or at least the edges of a digital underworld populated by scammers and hackers and pornographers and which has spread to the "Third World" far more than we typically realise.

Heeks maintains that the worldwide gold farming business has already surpassed the annual revenue of India's booming software outsourcing market:

Meanwhile, Secure Play exec Steven Davis doesn't expect an end to gold farming anytime soon:

When you get people with more money than time and time than money the two will find a way to meet... You could get rid of it," he said, "but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction.

Woman Tries to Kidnap Her Second Life Boyfriend - Twice
August 23, 2008

A 33-year-old North Carolina postal worker is under arrest after she traveled to Delaware in an attempt to kidnap the 50-something man who jilted her on Second Life.

As Destructoid reports, Kimberly Jernigan's romance with the man ended shortly after they met in real life:

...in the beginning of August, Kimberly allegedly drove to her ex-boyfriend's Pennsylvania workplace and attempted to kidnap the man at gunpoint. Apparently she couldn't even manage that successfully, and had to come back two weeks later and track him down to his Delaware home...

she lay in wait for him with a set of handcuffs, a roll of duct tape, a taser, a BB gun and her dog Gogi. Her foolproof scheme failed after the man simply ran away, having entered to find a laser beam pointed at his chest. Kimberley had fled soon after, but her dog was discovered bound in duct tape and abandoned in the bathroom to stop him making noise. She was found an hour later in Maryland and taken into custody after a "brief struggle" at a rest stop.

GP: Wait. She duct-taped the dog?

http://cbs3.com/local/kimberly.jernigan.second.2.801089.html

Thought you would like it. Taken from www.gamepolitics.com
Edit: had the first article on there twice.