Is it really possible to make money by farming?

This post will be discussed in several sections because although some of the concepts are similar the skills required are not.

Farming gold and other items (ingame money)

You can spend hours farming the best spots found from guides but there’ll always be the problem of selling your items in order to convert them to real money. Unless you’re starting a Chinese farming business to sell later, like on WOW for example, you won’t get anything from most online games. Farming is an activity that consists of selling the funds from a player’s account--it’s also illegal (and check to see if the email is linked, because if it is, you’ll also be required give up the email).
Chinese farming is not a myth, it’s actually way for hundreds of thousands of people to earn a living, here’s one report among many on the subject: note that this practice, like leveling is generally prohibited.

It’s pointless except...

In the early days of video games, Blizard made big headlines with Diablo 3 and its Auction House (AH) where buying and selling using real money was permitted. This innovation was a response to the parallel hidden economy that developed in the previous generation – but it also could have just been a way for Blizzard to earn substantial fees.

But even if it’s theoretically possible to earn money by farming, it takes time and isn’t very profitable. In fact, the Diablo3’s economy has been in perpetual inflation.
Every day casual farmers and professionals join the ranks of those who are already established. An acquaintance was able to make 150€ per month after their regular job equipped with a full set of % gold find. Now patches have decreased the profitability of farming areas and once inflation has been factored in then the whole affair becomes pointless for him.
In the end it all amounts to spending a lot of time to receive so little ... Look at the thread on the JudgeHype (Archive)forum and read the latest comments; everything was going smoothly in March but in June of the same year it all became a waste of time.

Yet, there’s another solution seems to emerge when gaming is viewed as a closed ecosystem in perpetual evolution.

Becoming a trader at an auction house

I’ve personally tried this method without having any particular knowledge. Yet I stopped after a few months because I found it really difficult to follow the market: meaning, without knowing its competitors, the prices that people are setting or identifying shortages and creating scarcity.

With WOW of course I didn’t earn real money but I did discover that it was possible. It’s still a job in its own right and not related to anything that many MMORPG games allow you to do.
Some people have reported being able to make a living from Diablo 3, but they fail to say how. Here, one player claims to have made $10,000, yet here, another admits to using bots to earn $.80 per hour per bot… What’s certain is that there’s no improvised trading on even a virtual market like this. Real skills must be developed and contrary to the real world, inflation is rampant and a change of rules or the arrival of a new patch substantially increase the risk of losses.
Trading a particular game is fine but it won’t do you any good in a few years when players move on to another game. Any knowledge acquired will not be transferable as each environment is unique.

Are there other options?

I’ve thoroughly searched some of the biggest forums and for overseas players, the winnings are less than they were in the past.
Feel free to share some of your experiences, they’ll be of interest to everybody.

See also:
Betting on your own victory | Farming gold | Being a beta tester | Winning tournaments | Share | Making videos | Collector's item | ESports betting | Your ideas