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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這段很有趣....
Gabe在訪談中被問到了Steam的發展，他就提到了以前WoW正紅時，他為了驗證遊戲做為生
產平台的可能性，就跑去WoW中做金幣農夫 (Gold Farmer)。那時他弄到了每小時20美金
的收入。
這段經歷給了他很多收獲，所以Steam就開始有了Steam Workshop的功能。
他還提到曾有父母打電話給Valve，因為他們以為Valve在賣毒品給他們的孩子。一問之下
才知道是PayPal回報他們說他們的小孩超出了PayPal每月可存入金額的上限，小孩可能正
在賣來路不明的商品或毒品。然後Gabe回應這對父母，你們的小孩在絕地要塞的工作坊中
製作道具，這讓他每年收入50萬美金。