We spoke with a young man who has earned money from video games. However, not as a developer or pro player, but as a gold seller.
Dirk (name changed by the editorial team) had the same hobbies at 12 as most boys his age: soccer and computer games. He was particularly taken with MMORPGs: Regnum Online, World of Warcraft, and the first Guild Wars.
Those who have gold succeed
He really got into gaming in 2009 with the Asian MMORPG Aion. He was 15 then. The game with the wings awakened his ambition.
Just as Dirk wanted to get the most out of soccer, he soon aspired to greater heights in MMORPGs. He realized early on that everything in Aion depended on the in-game currency. With it, you could buy better equipment and be more successful and stronger than others.
Instead of earning the gold himself, Dirk started buying Aion gold from various sites. He quickly realized that he hit limits with his pocket money.
In 2012, the MMORPG Guild Wars launched, and Dirk was 18 years old and tested a bot for the first time. A bot is a program that automatically controls a character, even when you are not at the computer.
Dirk invested 10€ in a bot, which then brought him in-game currency worth 50€ per day. A great deal. Quickly, Dirk’s ambition was sparked: Soon he had several bots running. When that was still too slow, he acquired more accounts and bot licenses. The gold flowed. In no time, some of the coveted legendaries in Guild Wars 2 belonged to him.
When his character in Guild Wars 2 was optimally equipped, botting for personal use had actually become unnecessary. But it was still so much fun and going well.
At 19, earned 1,500€ a month as a gold seller
Then Dirk had the idea that he could also sell the gold for real money. Dirk became a gold seller, a second computer was needed. At that time, at 19, Dirk earned about 1,500€ a month selling gold. He invested more and more time into it.
Dirk started creating mesh routes for Guild Wars 2. With these custom farming routes where the bot runs, the chances of the bot being caught and banned are lower. The efficiency of the route is crucial. Dirk spent hours refining the perfect paths for the bots.
Nevertheless, it always happened that an account got banned. But then Dirk simply bought new accounts. Through the steady sale of gold, it remained lucrative. By now, bots were running on three computers, day and night, following routes for him. Dirk had given up playing soccer after an injury.
After his parents had separated, Dirk lived with his father, who was often away for work. His father trusted him to have everything under control. Dirk’s school performance had always been okay – so far.
What to do when the gold price falls?
The initial hobby had now turned into its own business and Dirk had built a network of clients. The demand kept increasing. The next logical step for Dirk was to buy gold himself and sell it to his customers at a profit. During that time, Dirk made about 3,000€ a month.
This worked for a while. However, gold selling took up so much time that there was no more time left for school. Dirk treated himself to his own apartment with the money, so it wouldn’t be noticeable that he wasn’t attending school.
But then the gold price in Guild Wars 2 dropped, and thus Dirk’s career was in danger: Profits were steadily decreasing.
As the gold prices slowly fell and the income dwindled, Dirk had the next idea: Instead of offering gold, he now sold his optimized farm routes to customers. The target audience was thrilled: Custom farming routes tailored just for them that no one else had.
To attract even more attention, Dirk published some of the mesh routes as a “sample” in relevant forums. He couldn’t handle all the demand. He sold between 20 and 30 routes per day, with prices ranging from 10€ to 500€.
18 hours of hard work
At that time, Dirk’s gold selling business reached its peak. In four months, he made about 40,000€. But the hobby had turned into a full-time job. Since many of his customers lived in different time zones, Dirk slept at night with a headset on, was always on call, woke up, made the deal, and went back to sleep.
Dirk was busy with his “job” for 18 hours a day. He stored loot in various guild banks, monitored everything, and kept it running. When another player approached his bots, he slipped into the bot, talked to other players, acted normally so that no one suspected there was a bot that needed to be reported. But time was running out for Dirk.
His father eventually wanted to see a report card, which Dirk could not provide. So the father called the school and learned that his son had not been there for a long time. When it was revealed what Dirk had been doing with his time, his father felt mixed emotions. While he was proud of his son’s entrepreneurial spirit, he did not like that he had skipped the expensive private school.
The father, a doctor, advised his son to do “something real”.
Dirk was also dissatisfied with his life as a gold seller. He had a slight burnout and was “pretty done”, as he puts it. After the injury, he had stopped playing sports. He had invested part of his earnings in delivery services and had packed on some pounds.
Dirk has earned several tens of thousands of euros from botting and gold selling in Guild Wars 2. He rented an apartment, paid for his driver’s license with the money, and bought a nice car, but he also stressed himself so much that he was glad when it all came to an end.
Not recommended to imitate
Dirk wouldn’t recommend a career as a gold seller to anyone. It is an insecure job – bots can be banned at any time, the gold price can drop, and existence hangs by a thread.
Dirk was also lucky that his career as a gold seller remained without worse consequences for him. He didn’t think at that time about paying taxes. Naively, he assumed that if someone wanted money from him, they would come to him. Today he knows better and wants to remain anonymous in conversation. He fears it could lead to unpleasant consequences for him.
Dirk says he met other people who wanted to make a living from gold selling and who relied on supposedly secure MMORPGs like Aion or WoW. However, they didn’t yield nearly as much as his cash cow, Guild Wars 2, at least in the beginning. Although Dirk also says: When he adds up the hours, he hardly earned minimum wage.
Dirk is now 23 and a computer scientist with a perfectly normal job. He especially enjoys the much shorter working hours. However, he does miss his time as a gold seller a little.
Dirk says: It was a great feeling to be my own boss and earn money myself. Eventually, Dirk plans to become self-employed again. As it is, he knows by now.
We report here about another case of someone who made money with MMORPGs:
Hacker as a profession: Man selling gold and items for 20 years
