In the past few years, a rather unique job has arisen for people who play online multiplayer games. While some people were content to make a living simply reporting on gaming, others have discovered they can work at home and make money by playing them. There are a variety of ways this can be done, but the most prominent is that of the gold farmer. Other ways these gamers have learned they can work from home include starting virtual banks and stock exchanges, selling characters, and speculating on in game markets of resources.

Most people outside of the gaming community probably don't know what a gold farmer or any of the other new occupations are, but they can be increasingly lucrative ways for some people to earn money, work at home, and play their favorite game. The most prominent, gold farmers earn money by selling the in game capital to players who don't want to go to the trouble of gaining themselves. Some things in games like WOW can cost a great deal of in game gold, and players often see the trouble involved in getting it to be a form of work at home, something they're hoping to avoid by playing the game. Instead, they are willing to pay someone else outside dollars for their in game wealth. Some players are quite willing to supply it, even though it can be drudgery to gather it repeatedly. For these players, it is an excellent way to work from home, and play their favorite game at the same time.

Other players have found different ways to support their online fix. Just as there is a market for gold, there is also one for high level characters. In game player avatars, or characters can become extremely good at what they do after they've been played for a long period. Again, some players see the time involved as work at home they'd rather not do and are willing to pay real world dollars for someone else's time.

More complex ways in which players can work from home involve more economically intensive actions. For some gamers who work from home, entire banks seem like the thing to do, and some gamers have duplicated real world institutions, even down to savings accounts. Some of these have worked, at least for a time. However, in a wholly created world that, so far, has little stable store of value, these banks are on questionable footing. Some of them have even crashed, and one game recently experienced what is believed to be the first bank run in an online game. Players lined up to receive their money from the bank when rumors began flying that the gamers who handled the work at home were unable to pay everyone back.

There are even goods markets emerging in online games. The price of in game commodities can fluctuate, and by engaging in a form of arbitrage, buying low and selling high, some gamers attempting to work from home can make tidy profits. That fact that the digital commodities never wear out or go bad is one thing that makes this much easier than in the real world.

There are downsides to this, however. Depending on the game, some of these practices may be frowned upon by the designers. There is a debate over whether real world goods should be allowed to interfere in an online game and that as caused trouble for those hoping to work at home by playing their favorite game. The situations depend on the designers, though, and as games become more rich and complex, the opportunities are not likely to go away.