A new strategy for promoting growth & development?

I’ve just read this fascinating economic development story on the BBC website- had to check it wasn’t an old April Fools prank, but apparently not…

It seems the solution to economic development now lies in the virtual world. According to this BBC article, workers in the developing world are playing massively multiplayer games such as ‘World of Warcraft’ as a full-time job, and then selling various virtual ‘game goods’ on to players in the developed world with less leisure time but more money. Apparently it’s more profitable for the developing country employees than growing coffee!
Whilst this sounds like just a bit of fun, if you wanted to use it in a more formal context in a lesson, it’s another argument in favour of making investments in communication infrastructure in developing countries- especially high-speed internet connections. And a number of countries, particularly in Africa, have made such investments over the last few years, including in Kenya (see related article here)