Play Money is an American Documentary that explores an intriguing area of the underground economic online gaming industry through the World of Warcraft.

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The documentary was made in a span of 10 years during which time, the filmmakers explore the World of Warcraft phenomenon that paved the way for innovative gamers to discover make-money schemes from the game using software and online exchanges.

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Play Money is the untold story of the people participating in the realm where the physical and the virtual unite within the attribute of money.

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Deep within a digital underworld – a parallel universe composed of ones and zeros where warlocks, wizards, and warriors roam – a secret lies: multi-million dollar economies.

Economies where real money meets Play Money.

^[4] The real-world economic opportunities these virtual worlds offer can translate into salaries that many can only dream of making.

With a team of workers playing MMOs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) around the clock, individuals and companies can rapidly earn the coveted virtual items, in turn selling them online to gamers who don’t have enough time to acquire them.

But is it so simple?

Play Money explores the complex world of virtual property, the business of real money trade, and the question that blurs the line between the virtual and the real.

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The story begins with the start of the online gaming craze that became World of Warcraft as created by Blizzard Entertainment throughout the gaming and online gaming world during the 2000s.

^[-1]Film follows the storylines of Michael Donnelly as he discovers a way to make thousands of dollars after he created a software that helps characters roam in the game using programmed keystrokes in order earn higher levels of experience in half the time.

Simultaneously, in China, a man in the outskirts of Beijing, has his own group of players who earn the valuables of the game in order to sell items - they too would get involved in money-making schemes with the help of an American named Jared Psigoda.

Other stories merge in order to tell the untold story of the underground World of Warcraft economy that became a multi-million dollar market.

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Real Money Trade (RMT), is a multi-billion dollar industry built upon make-believe merchandise in make-believe worlds.

RMT is the business of selling virtual go ods for real-world money.

With over 40 million online gamers worldwide, virtual monies are growing at an exponential rate.

As eager gamers and creative entrepreneurs reap the benefits of RMT, American corporations that develop these online games, such as Activision Blizzard, seek to shut down what they deem to be unfair practices.

They want their games to remain pure and unscathed and expect every gamer to play by their rules.

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Starring: Ma Liang, Jared Psigoda, Yilan Lee, Marcus Eikenberry, Eva Yuan, Mike Donnelly, Brock Pierce, and Ash Lee.

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Directed: By Anthony Gilmore.

Screenplay: By Joseph Edwards.

Produced: By Tammy Chu, Ryan Seale, and Nameless Films.

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