Like most issues, people argue for and against gold farming in MMO games. Supporters of gold farming believe that it cannot be stopped and that players should have the freedom to decide if it is more enjoyable to buy their way through the game by spending real money on it. On the other hand, the developers and a lot of gamers consider that to be unfair, if not outright cheating.
Another view of the issue came from the Guardian which revealed that gold farmers are actually forced to work in sweatshops for extended hours daily.
The guardian's report tells the story of an ex-prison guard who (along with others) was forced to work in actual coal mines and to play online games to farm gold while he was imprisoned at the Jixi labor camp in northeast China in 2004.
"If I couldn't complete my work quota [of in-game money or gold], they would punish me physically," he explained. "They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu added. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [about $770 to $924] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."
