Chinese labour camp prisoners forced to play World of Warcraft
22 replies, posted
[img]http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2011/05/26/1226063/280064-world-of-warcraft.jpg[/img]
The black market in World of Warcraft credits is a full-blown industry in China. Picture: Blizzard Entertainment
Source: [url]http://www.news.com.au/technology/chinese-labour-prisoners-world-of-warcraft-jixi-re-education-camp-scam/story-e6frfro0-1226063275491[/url]
[release] • Prisoners forced to break rocks, game
• Physical punishments if quotas not met
• Huge blackmarket in gaming credits
A FORMER prisoner of a Chinese labour camp claims guards are forcing detainees to play online games as part of a huge money-making scam.
Liu Dali told The Guardian website that guards traded the credits inmates built up playing games such as World of Warcraft for money.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," he said.
"There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5000-6000rmb a day.
"We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."
Dali — not his real name — is aged 54 and was sent to Jixi re-education camp in Heilongjiang province, in north east China, in 2004.
He said he would spend his days either breaking rocks or assembling car seat covers and his nights playing computer games.
Dali said that if he didn't complete his credit quota, the guards would punish him: "They would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."
The building up and trading of game credits is known as gold farming.
Millions of gamers around the world pay real money for the credits in order to save hours of playing time.
Gold farming is rampant in China and other developing nations. Many Chinese gamers have full-time jobs as gold farmers but The Guardian story highlights the first time it has been practiced in labour camps.
Quoting figures from the China Internet Centre, the paper says almost £1.2 billion ($1.85 billion) worth of virtual currencies was traded in China in 2008.[/release]
I didn't know the stereotype of some Chinese sweatshop worker chained to his computer was this accurate.
Honestly not surprised.
That actually sounds pretty horrible. At least with breaking rocks you're getting exercise!
[QUOTE=deathstarboot;30058593]That actually sounds pretty horrible. At least with breaking rocks you're getting exercise![/QUOTE]
And then die from physical overload.
i fucking hate gold farmers
My God, talk about such an inhumane punishment, not even I would want to force people to play WoW as a method of torture. (
So they are not bots after all. I'll be nicer to them :3:
[QUOTE=deathstarboot;30058593]That actually sounds pretty horrible. At least with breaking rocks you're getting exercise![/QUOTE]
If you had the option you'd pick WoW
Anyone would
Well it's not that bad if you think about it, in fact it's good. If they weren't forced to play WoW at night I doubt they'd be getting a good night of sleep instead, they'd just be forced to break rocks for another 8 hours (before you say that they at least get exercise, remember that it's 8 hours on top of the 12).
[QUOTE=HendoV2;30058650]i fucking hate gold farmers[/QUOTE]
Next time you see one, talk to him :buddy:
this isn't funny this is fucking horrifying
I hope Blizzard trys to do something about this?
[QUOTE=-n3o-;30059248]I hope Blizzard trys to do something about this?[/QUOTE]
They've been trying for years, with minimal luck.
Only way they can get 100% rid of goldfarmers and goldsellers, is by gimping the game heavily to the point where it's almost unplayable.
Kinda like the whole internet & software piracy thing.
Can't stop one thing without severely gimping the freedom in the other.
[QUOTE=Noth;30058469]
He said he would spend his days either breaking rocks or assembling car seat covers and his nights playing computer games.[/QUOTE]
All day doing physical work and all night grinding WoW? That does sound pretty bad. (your eyes would bleed and I would imagine you would be mentally fucked)
This is actually ridiculous.
Guess now we know why WoW has +12 million subscribers!
Shit, they do it in juvie too!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIxVv3yPHGo[/media]
This is just ridiculous... I guess it's better for them than a lot of other things.
[QUOTE=Ninja Duck;30065180]Shit, they do it in juvie too!
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIxVv3yPHGo[/media][/QUOTE]
You know, these people are prisoners of labor camps, not of correctional facilities.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.