This is one of the better articles I’ve read about gold farming:

Gold Farmers are young people who earn their living by playing MMORPG [massively multiplayer online role-playing games]. They acquire (”farm”) items of value within a game, usually by carrying out in-game actions repeatedly to maximize gains, sometimes by using a program such as a bot or automatic clicker.

They sell the artificial gold coins and other virtual goods they’ve harvested to players and/or farming organizations and get “real” money in return. Players from around the world will then use the golden coins to buy better armor, magic spells and other equipments to climb to higher levels or create more powerful characters.

This is a well-established practice in China, as well as the Philippines, Mexico and elsewhere, and is another example of how people are earning real money through the use of virtual worlds. And lest anyone think that the real life effects are negligible or insignificant, people have been murdered in disputes over virtual gaming assets.