Gabe Newell was a World of Warcraft gold farmer
https://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-was-a-world-of-warcraft-gold-farmer/
Gabe Newell: CEO and co-founder of Valve, recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship
award, billionaire, and as we have now learned a gold farmer in World of
Warcraft (retired). The topic came up in a recent interview with Edge
Magazine, where Newell discussed the evolution of Steam, explaining that at a
certain point Valve started thinking of games "as productivity platforms"
rather than just entertainment.
"As a sort of proof-of-concept I decided to be a gold farmer in World Of
Warcraft for a while." As you do. "I was making $20 an hour farming gold. I
was making what was a spectacular wage for most people in most parts of the
world."
Having seen an in-game economy up-close, Valve began the Steam Workshop, a
hub for player-created mods and in-game items, including ones that are
available for sale. As Newell explained, that paid off for some people for
far more than $20 per hour.
"There's this story of the parents that called us up because they thought we
were selling their kid drugs. What happened was PayPal pinged the parents and
said, 'Your kid is exceeding our limits of how much money they can put into
PayPal per month. They're probably selling stolen goods or drugs, because
there’s no other explanation.' So the parents called us up and I said: 'He
makes items on the Team Fortress Workshop. He’s making $500,000 a year.'
That to us was an indication that this was a helpful way of thinking of games
—as platforms—and it's informed all of our decisions about multiplayer
games subsequently."
Newell also took the opportunity to discuss the Epic Games Store and
increased competition in the digital storefront market, saying that his real
issue was with the Apple Arcade and the way "people who are falling in love
with Apple's model of controlling everything".
Thanks, PCGamesN.
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这段很有趣....
Gabe在访谈中被问到了Steam的发展，他就提到了以前WoW正红时，他为了验证游戏做为生
产平台的可能性，就跑去WoW中做金币农夫 (Gold Farmer)。那时他弄到了每小时20美金
的收入。
这段经历给了他很多收获，所以Steam就开始有了Steam Workshop的功能。
他还提到曾有父母打电话给Valve，因为他们以为Valve在卖毒品给他们的孩子。一问之下
才知道是PayPal回报他们说他们的小孩超出了PayPal每月可存入金额的上限，小孩可能正
在卖来路不明的商品或毒品。然后Gabe回应这对父母，你们的小孩在绝地要塞的工作坊中
制作道具，这让他每年收入50万美金。