A great poet of our age once said: "It's like the mo' money we come across/The mo' problems we see." Blizzard has certainly been in this position recently, with their 2004 blockbuster multiplayer online game World of Warcraft reaching over 6.5 million subscribers and gaining more than 50 percent market share in less than two years.

With this unprecedented success have come headaches, from persistent server outages, to virtual plagues, and even allegations of sexual harassment. However, one of the major issues for Blizzard has been the problem of gold farming, the practice of
paying workers in poor countries to spend all day gathering virtual gold and then selling it to anyone with a credit card.