Virtual cash
Being the experimental sort, or maybe just a bit mental at times I was at a bit of a loose end over the new year due to the horrible illness lurgy I had somehow contracted. During my bouts of vomiting and self imposed quarantine as was suggested by the NHS direct phone line people, I got to wondering how to make money if I was ever stuck unable to go to that lovely college I call my workplace.
Well due to an unhealthy obsession with computers and particularly online games I found something remarkable if you have time on your hands. Actually it would probably take lots and lots of time but I had heard the stories of Chinese people stuck in little rooms playing these games to make virtual money to sell for hard real life cash.
Well how hard can it be?. So off I tootled and turned my sicky illness into a 24hr marathon of seeing how to generate money and what it would be worth in real currency. A little research on e-bay and contacting some of these in game 'gold sellers' as they are referred too got me a 'going rate' . It looked an insurmountable task to actually make it worthwhile but not put off I killed virtual monsters by the hundreds, scavenged loot by the truckload and finally turned my attention to 'crafting' making virtual stuff out of virtual junk.
Well 24 hrs later I can safely say I'm glad I'm not Chinese, I probably would spend all I earned and more in a day in China on coffee and cigs to keep going.... But you CAN make money and the only real way with any success sort of mirrors real life. You have to be a successful entrepreneur, keeping an eye on the market, buy cheap, sell for more and actually make the stuff people want but nobody is making. I made a huge amount in 'virtual' terms but convert that into 'real money' and it was about $40, or £20 for us with a more successful economy over in the UK. I get that for a couple of hours drinking tea in my present role. So I shall not be becoming a gold selling Chinese robot for a living then but I suppose $40 a day is a lot in China and they probably do it better than me.
Well due to an unhealthy obsession with computers and particularly online games I found something remarkable if you have time on your hands. Actually it would probably take lots and lots of time but I had heard the stories of Chinese people stuck in little rooms playing these games to make virtual money to sell for hard real life cash.
Well how hard can it be?. So off I tootled and turned my sicky illness into a 24hr marathon of seeing how to generate money and what it would be worth in real currency. A little research on e-bay and contacting some of these in game 'gold sellers' as they are referred too got me a 'going rate' . It looked an insurmountable task to actually make it worthwhile but not put off I killed virtual monsters by the hundreds, scavenged loot by the truckload and finally turned my attention to 'crafting' making virtual stuff out of virtual junk.
Well 24 hrs later I can safely say I'm glad I'm not Chinese, I probably would spend all I earned and more in a day in China on coffee and cigs to keep going.... But you CAN make money and the only real way with any success sort of mirrors real life. You have to be a successful entrepreneur, keeping an eye on the market, buy cheap, sell for more and actually make the stuff people want but nobody is making. I made a huge amount in 'virtual' terms but convert that into 'real money' and it was about $40, or £20 for us with a more successful economy over in the UK. I get that for a couple of hours drinking tea in my present role. So I shall not be becoming a gold selling Chinese robot for a living then but I suppose $40 a day is a lot in China and they probably do it better than me.
