Gold Farmer's Almanac Trivia Quiz

Answer: League of Legends

One of the most popular MOBAs on the market, "League of Legends" suffers the same fate as many of its contemporaries in that those who simply want to get around any speed bumps in their gameplay have the ability to drop their accounts entirely and start scratch.

This time investment, of course, is mitigated by purchasing an account that someone has already invested the work into. "League of Legends" also has a system in which new characters can be purchased from Riot Games directly (with Riot Points), so any of those would likely be lost in the switch.

Answer: Guild Wars

"Guild Wars'" first follow-up, "Factions", allowed players to follow either the Kurzick or Luxon faction, each of which would lead them through a different storyline to, inevitably, complete the main questline in the Asian-inspired Cantha region. While players could receive faction from generic quests on their respective sides of the map, two battlegrounds were also available for faction farming. Players could also gather in 8v8 guild-vs-guild (GVG) battles. Or...you know...run bots. Players could also farm their faction's respective unique items-- Jade for Luxon and Amber for Kurzick-- for special goodies.

Answer: Blade and Soul

Another game of collectibles, "Blade and Soul" was originally a grind-heavy South Korean MMO (a la "Lineage") that led its players through an extensive storyline collecting non-essential trinkets that could be traded up for-- eventually-- end-game items. Those collectibles aside, the game also used NCSoft Coins, a currency purchased through NCSoft's website (and through other means) to purchase cosmetics and other helpful in-game extras (like storage space).

The game was, otherwise, heavily populated by bots, especially in PVP, upon release.

Answer: DotA 2

While DotA is a much different game from others in this quiz (being a MOBA), farmers still exist, not only for rewards of all sorts, often sold on Steam or traded in-game, but for in-game ranking in ranked matches. Alternatively, farmers often advertise services allowing you to get out of low priority matches without playing them yourself.
Oh yeah, and weather in this game is completely controllable and customized depending on the player. You can set a map style, often depending on your earned rewards or the season as per a Battle Pass.

Answer: Runescape

"Runescape" was never one for realistic effects in the online gaming world. What it was, however, was a grind-fest; people would level up skills and attributes while collecting numerous items and materials to build themselves up. Of course, like most other major online games, it developed its own external gold-selling service which could take the legwork out of having to accumulate your own wealth.

It would not be uncommon to pay for thousands of gold coins for a steep fee.

Answer: World of Warcraft

Released as part of the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion, the Isle of Thunder inevitably became a big hotspot for gold farming though it's far from the only one. "World of Warcraft" is unique in that for many years, it was the number one source of income for Chinese gold farmers, mainly because "WoW" has consistently been a top-performing MMORPG.

In most of the larger servers, gold sellers have a tendency to spam city chats in an effort to sell bulk amounts of gold, the in-game currency, in order to give a bit of a boost to players for a real-world cost, because, of course, time is money, and less time farming means more time raiding.

Answer: Final Fantasy XIV

Developed by Square Enix, this online-based "Final Fantasy" title ended up collecting a rather large player base but suffered from the usual stagnant end-game that MMOs could end up with. That said, people wanting to avoid the wait could cut out the excessive amount of time questing and collecting high-end materials by finding a Gil seller on the internet and paying up. For those willing to work their way through the content, Savage Raids and Extreme Trials with large parties could also pay out.

Answer: Clash of Clans

Weather is a bit of a non-issue in this mobile game created by Supercell. In this one, the goal is to build up your clan bases, either solo or with allies, and win out against other clans online to reign supreme (while protecting your own, of course).

There are a number of useful in-game collectibles, and with the game being free-to-play (with pay-to-play perks), there are opportunities for things to get a bit dicey with real-world farming. In 2017, a gem mine was introduced to the game, and for a bit of a time investment, you can net yourself a healthy amount of in-game currency. Or, of course, you could simply buy the gems in real life.

Answer: The Old Republic

Pushed as one of the largest "Star Wars" games ever made, this timely MMORPG put players into the Expanded "Star Wars" Universe to complete quests, become Jedi, and do all the expected stuff that makes one a hero in a galaxy far, far away. The in-game currency for this one was Credits, and while you could spend your time fighting with bots and campers to collect pre-set materials from around the planets, you could also just pay them directly, having gold sent straight to your mail. You know-- the mail where Credit spammers can send you their ads.

Answer: Pokémon Go

While the mobile game "Pokémon Go" found quick popularity with a captive audience in 2016 and slowly worked out the issues with its early-days 'augmented reality' content, players found a way to make a buck performing the literal legwork of going around and 'catching 'em all' in the world. That's right-- if you wanted to get a head-start, you could buy an account of a certain level with specific Pokemon and items already at your fingertips and, yeah, that means someone went out and accumulated those items in real-time for you. Is the manpower worth the cost?