Dark Gold: Statistical Properties of Clandestine Networks in Massively Multiplayer Online Games

摘要: Gold farming is a set of illicit practices in which players massively multiplayer online games gather and distribute virtual goods for real money. Using anonymized data from popular game to construct networks characters involved gold farming, we examine the trade farmers, their trading affiliates, uninvolved at large. Our analysis these complex networks’ connectivity, assortativity, attack tolerance indicate that farmers exhibit distinctive behavioral signatures are masked by brokering affiliates. findings compared against world drug trafficking network suggest similarities both organizations’ structures reflect similar effects secrecy, resilience, efficiency.