Twelve hours a day, seven days a week, the World of Warcraft player basks in the ghostly glow of a monitor, his right hand fidgeting with the mouse as he sends yet another ferocious monster to its death.
The bloody battle at an end, he grabs the stash of weapons and gold, and moves on to the next fight. Once again his life hangs in the balance. Defeat is bitter - his skills downgraded, most of his gold lost - and he has to start again.
The frustrations of gaming take on a new dimension when your living is at stake. The gold and weapons lost to the last monster are this player's salary. He is not alone. An estimated 500,000 players - known as 'game trainers' on the mainland and as 'gold farmers' in the west - make a living playing 'massive multiplayer online role-playing games', or MMORPGs.
Gold farmers hand over their hauls of weapons and gold to middlemen who sell them online to other gamers for real money.
World of Warcraft, or WoW to fans, is the largest MMORPG, with more than 11 million monthly subscriptions - more than the entire population of some countries. On average, players of these games spend 20 hours a week slaying monsters or other players, and robbing them of their hoards.
As in the real world, moving up takes dedication and commitment - and firepower and gold, which means a lot of killing and completed quests.
A gold farmer can do that for you - at a price.
