In a recent article on the New York Times website, writer Julian Dibbell analyzes gold farming - more specifically in World of Warcraft - and even goes as far as researching and talking about some of the many, possibly over 100,000 people that work at these "gaming workshops" in China.
It was an hour before midnight, three hours into the night shift with nine more to go. At his workstation in a small, fluorescent-lighted office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sat shirtless and chain-smoking, gazing purposefully at the online computer game in front of him. The screen showed a lightly wooded mountain terrain, studded with castle ruins and grazing deer, in which warrior monks milled about. Li, or rather his staff-wielding wizard character, had been slaying the enemy monks since 8 p.m., mouse-clicking on one corpse after another, each time gathering a few dozen virtual coins — and maybe a magic weapon or two — into an increasingly laden backpack.
You can check out the article in full here, and head over to our forums to discuss the article; we have a thread started on the topic.
Comments
I find it impossible to feel ANY sort of sympathy for them. No one is forcing them to be join the "call to arms" of supplying gold to those that want to cheat their way in WoW... there alot of deplorable jobs that people would hate those in that profession. Trying to humanize them doesn't change the fact of what they do, and why people hate them.
in one magazine i have seen 4 chines in one small room with 2x2 beds but this is terrible...100$ per month plus bonuses?
Bring it on to the forums tbh
Very interesting PoV, that article. Might think twice before killing farmers now!
Still prefer to make my own gold though http://warcraftgoldinfo.com/gold-making
I thought a nice perspective in the artice was the fact that we rarely say anything about the people who BUY the gold and always seem to blame the farmers. Take away the buyers and the farmers go away as a result. Food for thought.
I didn't get the feel of this as intended to be "shocking", really. More of a "behind the scenes" style article to give you a glimpse of the people behind the farming organizations.
It hasn't changed my view on RMT in any way; I still loathe it and want to see it removed from MMOG's and gaming in general for good, but it's nice to see a different take on it other than just the typical "this corporation is bad" articles you see floating around.
All the gold sellers just use bots now anyway. Free labour.
Getting bored of these supposed "shocking" articles. If MTV has already done an article, you've missed the boat :P