There is a culture of players in WoW gold that play the game not for fun, but for profit. To the citizens of Azeroth, these players are known as "WoW gold Farmers." Farmers spend their time killing monsters in out of the way places for the items they drop. A farmer hopes to get rare and valuable items for the hours spent mindlessly killing. They then hock all the items gathered to vendors or to other players via the Auction House. A majority of the WoW gold farmers active in WoW gold are Chinese, and often speak little to no English. Though they are often the focus of ridicule by American players, and playing video games for money is something that most American kids would dream of, their lives are not easy as it may sound.

In near sweat-shop conditions, the accounts are manned in twelve to fourteen hour shifts, without holidays or vacations. It is rare for a WoW gold farming account to spend much time offline, as each account has two or three players assigned to it in these shifts. In tightly packed rooms, between ten to thirty computers can be running the game simultaneously. Each account has a quota, most commonly twenty WoW gold an hour. So if the average price for an American player to purchase WoW gold is $85 for one thousand WoW gold. Using these figures, each hour of game play earns approximately $3.50. A pittance is paid to the WoW gold farmer, between 45 to 55 cents an hour is the normal wage. With WoW gold subscription cost of $15 a month, the first 5 hours of the farmers first shift pays for that, everything else is profit for the company.

The American players who are up in arms at the WoW gold farming epidemic are not lobbying for more fair work conditions, or attempting to help farmers unionize. The plight of the Chinese WoW gold farmer isn't even a consideration. They are worried that it has an adverse effect on the game's economy. A farmer grinding for WoW gold initiates a perpetual cycle. They sell the items to players for WoW gold to give to their company, who in turn sells their WoW gold back to the players. People buy the WoW gold from the farming services so they can afford the things they want for their character. The purists in WoW gold believe that it should be hard work on the player's behalf that earns them the best gear, not real world currency.

Blizzard takes the side of these purists, but they do not necessarily hold the same moral convictions. All items, WoW gold, characters, likenesses... everything in WoW gold is intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment. The players pay their subscription fees each month to "rent" their character. Selling items or WoW gold is strictly forbidden by the Terms of Service Blizzard has written. According to blizzard the only thing a player owns is their log on ID and their password, even sharing that is a terminable offense. A player or account proved to be engaged in the sale of items or WoW gold and the account selling and buying can be suspended. With the long days spent farming, and the vigilant-in-text regulations set in WoW gold, Blizzard has still done little to stop the farmers or the buyers.