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So he has bought it in state. (*instead)

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Tens of thousands of British computer gamers have joined what has fast become an international phenomenon――A virtual community of more than 8 million people all playing a single computer game. But now gamers are paying real money to gain extra powers in the virtual world and the gaming community is split over whether that’s cheating. Richard Scott went into the world of warcraft to find out more.


This is the world that most people never see. But more than 8 million people around the globe come here on a regular basis paying tens of millions of pounds a month for the privilege.

Now each of these characters that you can see here is being controlled by real people from different countries all around the world. They’re all cooperating or fighting with each other in order to get ahead. It’s that competition which is causing controversy.

In order to be successful in the game, you need better equipment for your character. But to buy this equipment, you need in-game money. Now you can earn money yourself by doing jobs like mining. It’s not difficult but it can take a very long time.

So the whole industry is sprouted up ----- sell you the game money for real cash. Money which might take you a hundred hours to collect can be bought on websites like this one for 20 pounds and if you give them a couple of a hundred pounds they can even create a top level character for you.

And this is much of that take place――China. It may look like an ordinary office but these people are paid for play full time. The in-game money they earn is then sold to western players.

“Well, the war craft is very hot now. In the gold farming studio some of us played for 12 hours a day, many players want to improve their characters themselves but they don’t have the time, they need to go to work in the day so they need someone else to play for them. ”

The game money earned by players like Qinshen often ends up being bought by people like Ryan here in the UK. He works full time so can’t earn enough in-game money to compete. So he has bought it in state.

“I have a lift outside of the game. um, that certainly is a lot more important. The few precious hours I dig I play my game. I don’t want to spent doing the same thing over and over again to get in-game money when I could just buy that and do the stuff in the game which I enjoyed . ”

But is this actually cheating? Many in the gaming community including the game’s creators think it is.

“it’s like in the real world. In the real world there are people that tried to cheat and last month alone we banned 100,000 accounts for illegal goal trading or cheating in the game. And it’s very important for us to keep a fair game environment”

But there is no sign any of this is putting off gamers. thousands turned up a midnight London earlier this when new features of the game were launched. For the gamers who work it would always be easier to buy their way into another world and to find time for two lives.

Richard Scott, BBC news, in the world of warcraft.

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