Money is simply a store of your work, after the government has finished ripping the taxes from it, you have so much of your stored work that you can exchange for someone else’s stored work. Currency is just the medium of exchange.

The numbers in the database at your bank (”fiat money”), what you refer to as real money, is exchanged for some other numbers in the database of the MMO game (what you refer to as pretend money). In reality what is happening is you are both making an exchange of your time.

In a free economy I should be free to choose how I exchange my store of work (in this case represented by fiat currency). You’re argument about paying not to play the game is fallacious, they are paying so that they can enjoy aspects of the game that they like, and not the boring ones. Is paying a golf caddie real money in exchange for him doing boring things a bad thing?

In addition, gold farmers greatly enhance online economies by making *more* capital goods, in this case, rare herbs, and iron bars etc. available to the overall economy. In no way can the increase of available goods be seen to be bad for the economy. Neither is it inflationary, it is clearly counter inflationary. Iron bars etc are sold to other players, this results in a *transfer* of gold already existing within the economy typically via an auction house system, and not the creation of new currency (which is inflationary).

Contrast this with “real” money where the Congress has authorized “quantitative easing”, in other words the typing in of fiat currency in order to purchase government and other securities.

Incidentally the prices of everything in EVE online has skyrocketed since this announcement and a number of bannings. The tirade against “evil” farmers is propaganda put out by MMO companies to keep people in time sinks.

I can suggest reading some books on Austrian Economics which provide an interesting viewpoint on money.

Honestly… I have purchased gold. It doesn’t come down to paying so you don’t have to pay. It comes down more to “Here is a little bit of RL money, now I can play the parts of the game I enjoy” I have limited time, and 5 hours or 2 days of farming gold is not equal to 5 hours or two days of working. Ie. I pick up some extra shifts and make more money. or I menotonously farm gold. Instead I just pay what usually amounts to maybe an hours salary to get the gold it would have taken me 2 days to get in game.

Now in the current market I do not buy gold… just stating that I have in the past and my reasoning behind it then. Now I have a little more time available and can think of much better things to do with my money.