Re:hmm (Score 2)

Well, endgame in certain MMOs (read: WOW) is highly competitive as well as extremely time and material consuming. And the time consuming part isn't the competitive part either. In order to get the gear and all the items one needs to raid or PVP competitively and be able to buy all the stuff they want/need, it takes hours upon hours upon hours of farming the in-game currency or the materials from the limited amount of in game zones that contain them. Either way, it takes time and can be quite life consuming. Not to mention there's always lots of competition for the materials, so you could spend hours farming them with very little result.

The alternative: Pay $5 for 10k gold and save yourself 3 days straight worth of farming and get on to the 'fun' parts of the game.

Not that I condone it, but I can certainly see the appeal. It saves a lot of time and frustration...

But frankly, I'm there to play the game to consume some time and take out my frustration. So spending a few hours chatting away with friends while picking herbs after work never bores me. Though judging by the money the gold farmers are pulling in, I seem to be the exception and not the rule.