gold farming

great article (found via slashdot.org) about what could possibly be one of the strangest jobs i've ever heard.

the 'new sweatshop' seems to be related to online role playing games where workers toil in the back rooms clicking, clicking, clicking on dead corpses and slaying virtual baddies all to hand over their hard earned loot to the boss who pays them roughly 30 cents an hour. their boss in turn takes their loot and sells it for $3 to an online reseller who then is able to sell to players in the first world for $20.

a small shop with three workers can bring in about $80,000 a year.

loot farming