Article - REAL world of Online Farming for profit.

OK, are people making their millions off sweatshops or bots? It does make a difference, because bots don't expoit anyone, and it doesn't hurt anyone except perhaps "virtually."

Comparing this to narcotic cartels or illegal arms trade is overreaching a bit. Until people start being killed over virtual gold, it's just not the same evil.

If you really wanted to shut down farmers, then just eliminate trading items in game. End of Farming.

I know this would disrupt a huge part of the player base (farmers and buyers), but, frankly, if the problem is as nefarious as you insist, it would be a small price to pay to stop the sweatshops.

If that's too extreme, then work out a complex program that won't allow player's getting gold or items for "nothing". You'd have to offer up an item that's worth gold in a certain range (decided by the market and Anet). This is more susceptible to exploiting, so it won't be perfect, but it would probably cut down on ebaying gold and items. It would also end scamming, but at the cost of "free trade."

I dont disagree. Sweatshop farmers are not farming on Guild Wars just to make fun of us, there's a fundamental driving force that compels them to do so. Just as I am sure that there must be at least dozens of business here that is causing a worse affect to the people across the sea, and we may not even know we're doing it, afterall who is to blame about all the sneaker and t-shirt sweatshops.

Because of cheap labor. They can get away with paying some one 56 cent an hour in china. In other countries it is laughable. There are other countries on this I've seen some euro farmers as well.

As for americans this market is completely none existance because you not make any profit since our minimum wage is so high compared to the rest of the world.

I understand their reasonings behind taking a job like that. China has some of the worst environmental manufacturing jobs. Its more like I can sit a safe environment out of the weather and play a game I like. Would you rather work a job for the same pay that will most likely kill you within 7-10 years?

The only reason they are making so much money is because of money conversion and cheap labor. American and Euro is worth more than chineese money. They sell it on ebay for american currency and convert it to chineese.

Who ever invented cloths is to blame for t-shirt and sneaker sweatshops. Besides they make less money then the farmers we are discussing. About 10-15 cent per hour. Those Blue sweat pants with the white strip at wal mart is stiched by a woman in india. The price that wal mart sells just 1 pants for is equal to 1 week pay to that woman. Its a shame really.

Individually they're not making millions, their profit may be high, but a sweatshop comprises of many individual farmers, each employing their own bot programs. It is the accumlated sweatshop profit that ranges in the millions.

Not comparing it morally of course... sweatshop farming is far from that level of depravation, but the fundamentals are all there: An illegal economic system driven by the difference and indifference of an upper class and lower class society, where the demand is high and the transfer of goods kept underground to avoid detection, a black market of sort.

the part that i think is most important is the part of the game makers. They are stupid and bad business people.

the game makers are stupid and didnt capitolize on the real market of these games, in-game items. Its the game makers fault they don't make money on this. If they had these for real money auctions and controlled them they would be the ones raking it all in. They could control the process how they wanted to. but instead they didnt and jsut complain about something they could have prevented to begin with

I really think the MMOs could end these bots and sweatshops just by changing the way people are able to trade items.

The question is, would we be willing to accept it? For the record, I would.

Yeah, prices in other parts of the world are really low too. I had a friend that went to India with a big group of people. At least a dozen of them went to a nice restaraunt and stuffed themselves silly for something like 4 US dollars.

The obvious solution, of course, is to have a real economy where gold doesn't just appear out of thin air, and item values are determined not by their characteristics, but in the same way dyes and runes are (e.g. - supply and demand). Obviously, this would have to be adjusted in pre-searing since nothing would ever be worth anything otherwise.

Either that, or strictly limit the amount of gold people can horde by "taxing" them.

The only way you're going to get rid of farmers is if they can't just generate infinite resources through patience.

I wonder if those people enjoy playing the game; This may be a little heartless, But I still dislike them. Even if it is their job. I remember back in Lineage 2, while I'd be leveling and killing monsters; the chinese players would run up and snatch my gold drops while I was being chased around.

Remember, not everyone has the same laws regarding minimum wage and unless you can comment specificially on the economic system of a particular country, you would do well not to criticize them.

Regarding .56 an hour, what is the standard rate of pay for that country/region? I know that in Paraguay, the average personal income is about $185 a month, which comes to $1.15 an hour. While that may seem drastically low for people in the US, that might be perfectly livable in their country.

It is not for us to judge them based on our standard of living and economic situation.

Don't forget that many many US companies "farm" out their own business to other countries because of the cheaper labor costs.

Although the outcome for refusing a sweatshop farming job would probably be less favorable, I'm sure there's no need to shoot someone in the head for it.

I tend to agree with you but how in the world would a game change the way we trade with others?

You can't just get rid of gold or such, the community would just come up with its own form of currency (like runes in D2 or ectos in GW). A game would still have to allow players to trade or else MMO's would be just like playing single-player games with other people running around.

I just can't seem to wrap my brain on a way to get around farmer, dupers, hackers who sell in game items for real world cash. Is there a way for a game company to copyright the entire contents of a game and therefore making it illegal for places like eBay to host the selling of in-game items. For example, I know the NFL and MLB have very strict copyright infringement laws to protect their offical merchandise. This may be a stretch, but am I making sense? Likewise, the movie studios have protection against black market sales of DVD's; you can't legally sell a copy of a movie on eBay. I don't know if this is the same thing as selling in-game items but I think that this is the direction that game companies need to be looking. Block the sale of items and you may be able to decrease the number of farmers, not completely but you could dent them quite a bit.

I already posted some ideas in my [above]* post.

You could ban trade altogether (or limit it to item for item trades).

Or you could work out a complex program that won't allow players getting gold or items for "nothing". You'd have to offer up an item that's worth gold in a certain range (decided by the market and Anet). This is more susceptible to exploiting, so it won't be perfect, but it would probably cut down on ebaying gold and items. It would also end scamming, but at the cost of "free trade."

These are just a couple ideas off the top of my head, I'm sure a designer working full time could come up with even a better solution.

*(OK, this was merged, so it now looks I just repeated myself on the same page - apologies)

Personally If I had to choose...I would rather sit on my bony little arse playing video games for 58 cents on the dollar than having to sit hunched over sewing god knows what piece of substandard crap... so walmart can sell it enmasse..and make....guess what...pennies on the dollar. Calling sweatshop workers bad names is about as appropriate as calling migrant farm workers pathetic losers who have no ambition. They are doing what they are able to do and they are supporting themselves to the best of their abilities. I don't personally understand the need to purchase money from ebay, etc....but if for some strange reason my husband felt he "needed" to purchase money with real life cash (which just for the record would never happen as neither one of us take this game very seriously), I don't think I'd have to much to say about it. It boils down to the fact that as a business professional he makes a very good wage...and the time spent farming is worth more money than the few bucks it would cost to purchase it. Now the only "solution" I can think of would be for Anet to sell gold or items via their website. Sure we could argue the fact that sweatshops are unethical, and there is exploitation going on...but again...what do you think you're doing when you go to a walmart or another store of that caliber?

Bah.

Just FYI, they aren't actually "playing" the video game. They are babysitting bots.

But, yeah, still better than glueing shoes for 58¢ an hour...

There's basically two discussions going on here: How morally wrong is "sweatshop" farming? To me, you'd have to prove that these people are being treated worse than at other factories. You'd also have to prove such actions are somehow causing drastic harm to MMORPGs. Are they raising prices by flooding the market with gold, or lowering prices by flooding the market with items? Or do these effects balance out?

Second discussion: If Anet is as against farming as they say they are, then why not implement some tough policies regarding in game trades? Sure, it will piss people off that they just can't "give" someone 1 million gold anymore. But isn't that a small price to play, IF this is a big a problem as people state? This is actually something I'd like more feedback on: Would you as the player accept restrictions on trades in order to limit and/or stop these practices?

For the record, those that are appalled by sweatshops should look at the real world products they are buying. If it says: Made in China , there's a good chance it wasn't made by someone making $10 an hour.

Wait I have it, the perfect solution! Nobody, pay real money for in game items/gold. Wow that was simple, all problems solved. Seriously though, I think the players are equally responsible. Their purchasing of in game items/gold enables people to sell them. I think if you start banning the people buying rather than just the people selling, then the community would wise up and stop doing it. I mean if I got a 6 month ban for buying 100k, I'd probably see that it isn't worth it. As you can easily make 100k in 6 months. Either that or that 100k just got 50$ more expensive. What needs to happen is ban both sides of the trade not just the sellers.

I don't get all this but you real want to know something you can make more money from selling or just exporting it out.I am talking about real world Narcotics here as you can make more than farming for gold in 1 day selling than selling gold on GW for a week or month.Then working in a Hong kong brothal pays real well.In essence crime pays untill you do the time but you get 3 meals a day and a bed to sleep in.

I don't know about all these people that have all this time on their hands, that they would want to spend their time doing this.....but I can attest to the "GREED" that these ingame economies can create. With GW as with others I have played, a person can easily get bogged down in the aquisition of wealth within the game communities. Although it adds to the games' realism and is a necessary part of the game, a person has to remember it is only 1 part of the whole. To fully appreciate the entertainment value, you need to play the game as it was meant to be played, taking in all of its content, and also remember..."it is just a game!"

In Malaysia you get paid about $1.30 USD per hour to work at a Pizza Hut, and you do not get to keep any of the tips. (Malaysia is fairly well developed for a 'third world' country) So I guess 56 cents is appalling, but not as bad as it might seem if you were brought up in a developed Western country. 56 cents is a realtively decent salary for an untrained position; some people get exploited far worse while doing harder labour.

I'm not condoning sweat shops. Just keep in mind that given their circumstances it could be far more viable to play a game rather than work a more labour intensive job. In addition to that, welfare states are virtually non-existant so the unemployed do not get benefit. (Every once in a while I meet someone here in the UK who refuses to get a job just so that he/she can keep collecting benefits)

Arguing about Real Cash for Money is pointless, because the people who hate the secondary market REFUSE to ever even consider any point by someone who is even the slightest bit different in opinion.

Arguing with Secondary Market haters is like arguing with a brick wall, just don't bother.

As I understand copyright law all facets of a given piece of software are covered if you copyright the software itself. that means it is illegal for them to do what they do...that is it would be if they did it in the US or in countries where copyright law is actually enforced. As it is now though most of these places that you find farmers and the servers that these second party sites sell from either do not recognize the legitimacy of international copyright or they just do not enforce it.

For what it's worth, I see sweatshops as the beginning of a capitalist system. Sure, the wages suck right now, but as more and more people take interest in what they see as easy money to be made, they'll have to fork out more of their own profits to keep themselves in the game.

Damn interesting article.

As much as I dislike it, makes me want to do it myself.

Wow, all this arguments over something as trivial as buying online gold. Its not illegal, no one gets hurt because of it, it actually helps people get better jobs. There are a lot worse things in the world then this.

You're right, there are a lot worse things, but it's still wrong. And you are defeating the purpose of the game through doing so. You lose the replay value of a game by buying ingame items for offline cash(is that the right term?). Achievements like FoW armor are meaningless if you can just buy the gold neccesary to buy the ecto and pay for the crafting of it, all without breaking a sweat. What's the point if you can get the best stuff by spending $20?

Making a living from farming in an Online Game, now that really says how greedy, lazy & opportunists humans are.

About that part that the opportunists pay 4x money to the Chinese than China's own average, that ain't any excuse to cover their business idea.

Sometimes I'm really ashamed how spineless westerners are.

Don't worry, a lot of us Westerners are as ashamed of having so many of our people defend this crap.

The biggest laugh is when I hear someone say thse people are "better off"

How many here have played for 8+ hours straight, repeatedly. I have on various occasions.

When I'm done, the only feeling in my fingers is pain. I can't move my wrists for almost a day, because the ungodly pain in them is to much to warrent it. My eyes are so blood shoot I look like the living dead, and they're so sore I usually have to shut them to quell the symphony of hammers cracking my skull like an egg from the inside. Chances are I've been so diligent I haven't had much to eat or drink, so I'm all but starving.

And I'm not even a sweatshop worker. I only do such extreme things during the preview weekend. Imagine doing that day in, day out, for months, years at a time...then when the bad medical complications of such extreme gameplay set in, you can't go home and take an Aspirin...or afford good medical attention. You definitely can't take a break, you'll lose your "job," so you suffer...you screw up your body, and waste your life away in a worthless, dead end job, to line the pockets of people who don't give a ---- about you, so a bunch of people on the other side of the world can be callous, soul-less, moral-less retards who say everythings "Ok" this way because instead of buying a game they could afford to spend the time on and play legitimately, they would rather cheat their way to the top.

Oh yeah...these people are SOOOOO much better off....

If our government and our people could stop pretending the world consists of the next reality TV show, big truck, and what country we're about to needlessly declare war on, and actually freaking pressure these countries to reform their economies, and get these people REAL JOBS, then...THEN they would be better off...


If people would quit trying to justify bad things with "shades of grey" THEN these people would be better off...

No, not everything is Black and White....but there are things in this world that are inhierantly evil...no matter what lame excuses you come up with to justify it or pretend you aren't responsible.

So all you people "being punished because you have lives" you go ahead and buy your eBay gold...and you go on pretending you're doing a good thing...pretending that it's "OK" to buy sweatshopped gold because you are so immature that you can't handle the process of getting something done the right way, even though you KNEW when you bought the game it would take you longer because you have lives...

At least you have lives...which is probably more then what most sweatshop workers have...

Achievements? Like you can get a "Certificate of FOW Armor of Outstanding Achievement"? How are you achieving this FOW armor? Mindless grinding for money. Takes a lot of skill doesn't it? This achievement...

Way to go to generalize Westerners. Humanity FTW! You couldn't even add one word.
"...spineless some Westerners..."
I suppose I could generalize all the people from Finland now, since you are from there, and like you to have one view of all Westerners - I suppose I can have the same view for all those from Finland? Way to go representing your native homeland!

Get off your soapbox. I would assume the people that buy gold via eBay don't care about defending their actions, and don't care what others like you think. They do what they want to do, and if that means violating the EULA, then they will, whether they know it or not (I'm sure every human-being reads every word of a "license agreement" for everything they install). Secondly, you don't know the work conditions over there. You are relating your lone, uncomfortable experience.

I don't ebay for gold and I don't care what others do either if they ebay for gold or not. It is an aspect of online gaming that exists regardless of whether you like it or not. Whine and cry all you want.

One of the way to solve problem like this is to force people who determine to achieve special/rare items (eg. fow armor), earning it by themselves. By gaining points or factions from participating in some competitive quests, alliance battles, whatever. These points are used to trade for these rare items instead of golds and materials.

XeNoGeArZ, shove it. Just, shove it.

You're probably right, most eBayers DON'T care, and I won't change most of their minds. But absolutely NOTHING changes if people don't speak out, and perhaps some of the eBayers will be jarred from their comfortable little mental shell if they read the post and think for a moment "Dear god, that really is awful..." and maybe just maybe they'll change their minds and stop eBaying.

Don't know the working conditions? Oh well gee, because I don't work there myself I must obviously know absolutely NOTHING about the inhumanities that greed and obsession for money cause. It must mean I know NOTHING about human nature.

Perhaps, I can't give you every little detail but I have a pretty good idea of what it's like. As for "my lone unpleasant experience." it was an example of how a normal person feels after an only slightly extended period of playing, the purpose of which was to give a standard to expand upon to give the reader and idea of how bad the effects of such a job would have on someone. Then to subsequently tie those things in with the inability to fix them, ultimately giving a pretty clear picture WHY this is not a "good" thing.

But frankly, I only explained that for the sake of people who needed help connecting the dots. You however, are a lost cause. A coward. You figure because you don't have the nerve to crawl out of your hole and say that this is wrong, that no one else should. Don't rock the boat right? Don't be confrontational or people might dislike you...better to jeer at the guy who sticks his neck out, pretend he's the bad guy. Screw you...I'll get off my soap box when I please, and no stinking coward like you will cause me to do otherwise.

Save the images into your computer...it will make reading much easier.

Anyways...I'm actually deciding to make some money just by farming...even though I'm 13, I am in heavy need of money for investing. Yes. Investing.

I wished I cared about the market, but allas, I don't. I play, have fun, play and have fun. You may call me spoiled, but I don't care about that whole farming stuff.
I do Glint quests all the time and it gives me a cool 600g every time. I already have more than 5K in my stash. That makes me feel rich

Buying game gold IS NOT pointess, buying gold for rares is about a sense of satisification. Think about it, if you drive a Porsche you gain a sense of satisification and confidence, which is completely equivalent to the case when you carry a full set of fissure armor. It is nothing wrong with spending money for satisification, just like you do in reality.

woah talk about threadomancy, ebay gold will continue to exist unless the community do something against it as a whole (unlikely). But i dont think inking down your support of it is a very good idea :P just though i mention for those who type and post faster than they can think.

Although you made several good points, this is where you are rong. Nothing is inherantly evil - reason being is good and evil are intelegent concepts/choices based on ethical views - therefor NOTHING can become eather good or evil unless they make a decesion to be - and to our current knowledge, only humans have this capability.

Edit - forgot to mention that what you talked about for them playing that long being horrible conditions - also not entirly correct, as most simply monitor bots or macro's, and do minimal acual playing, simply being there to ensure the programs work, and gm's or mods for the games will get an acual responce - this information is available through the articals at the begining of this forum, as well as fairly easy to obtain from many other sources if you bother to look.

This thread should also be stopped here - I read the entire first page, including the articles, and the first few posts on the last page. Most valid points had already been covered, and im asuming the rest where covered in the 6 pages inbetween them - and I regarded most of it as a waste of my time - I will not be checking back on this thread again.

Although ShadowMagnus states he won't check back in, I'll argue some points for the sake of arguementation.

First of all, yes there are things that are inheirantly evil, things which, the bad consequences outwieght the good by such a large margin, or when there are no good consequences. Things that most people with a decent moral center can look at and say "That's just wrong."

The second point brought up was, once again, the conditions under which the workers work. While true some may have it better then others, all the conditions are pitiful compared to what they could be, and I will guarentee there are those working under conditions as I described. I felt it best to describe a worse case situation so as to present the best mental image, but that doesn't make it any less true.

Last, in my previous posts my tone was most likely self-righteous, and belligerant. I assure you, my objective is not to be an over zealous crusader. However, I do not deny or appologize for my basic humane respect for people, especially those put in less then favorable situations. I also take great offense at people who do not attempt to even care about something that should be of at least moderate importance. It's even worse when they back up their general apathy with even poorer excuses.

Perhaps it is "unfashionable" to try and be the good guy or the defender of the weak and the purveyor of important issues. It might be "bad form" to be the guy who stands on the soap box and tells a lot of people something they might not want to hear. And yes, it might even seem "silly" or even "sappy" to make a moral stand in a game forum of all places. However, none of those things are enough of an excuse to be disuaded from doing the right thing, and don't give me the "good is relative" arguement. Trying to help people better themselves through words is a good thing.

So, when there's the opportunity to speak out against something bad, to stand on the soapbox and try and change peoples minds for the better, I will probably be there, or at least backing up the guys who got there first.

That's my bit, now hopefully the thread can go back to figuring out what to DO about the sweatshops, the gold they produce, and curbing the demand.

we all should be happy because in GW, the rare items are just rare skins, not rare stats.

so the online purchasing gold doesnt really put u into a serious disadvantage situation against other ppl.

Yeah, I like how the way the drops go in GW allow everyone the opportunity to have them, either by getting the drops their way or using their gold to buy them. Combined that system with Anet's will to crack down on bots and other such things, it is a good thing compared to some other MMO worlds.

I can see why publishers of MMO grinder games want to get a piece of this. But at the same time, it is this secondary market that is ruining the economy of these grinder games; that was one of many turn-offs that took me away from EQ and over here to GW. I can understand why some gamers do what they need to do, using real money and all. But at the same time, it takes so much away from those seeking to play the game legitimately, like I do. I am not one with millions of gold on hand, or have a "Fort Knox" account on a grinder game. No...I play the game the way it was meant to be.

Ehh..great flaming.

Well reading my post you should understand that I'm not generalizing Each and Everybody. I'm only speaking about the guys behind this kind of business and refering to the greed-factor and use of low-price labour.

Yeah for sure if you rip only that part of my message and make it own then it can be understand wrongly.

Don't be so rude.

First off,

Jackie, despite whatever way you want to spin it, your statement -is- an all-encompassing generalization that says westerners are spineless. In fact, it implies that westerners are always spineless--but, sometimes, youre just really ashamed about it.

You're not ashamed about how spineless westerners can be sometimes, or how spineless some westerners are, you're ashamed about how spineless westerners are.

If you didn't mean to say that, that's fine. Just say so. But don't spin bs about how people are reading what you said wrong. Maybe you mistyped what you meant to say.

Now, that being said, I don't know westerners are spineless for taking advantage of a market that exists. People will pay for it. People will work for it. If anything, I think it's a very ballsy venture. Kudos for the entrepeneurs.

You criticize these people for being greedy, lazy, and opportunistic--but this is exactly what the current system encourages: to do as little work as possible for as much monetary reward as possible.

As for what they pay the Chinese, shrug. He has no reason to pay them five dollars an hour or whatever. What he does pay is on par with other jobs in that particular area, and it is apparently enough to live on. While it seems small to us, figure out the cost of living before you go screaming about how awful this is.

Just so everyone knows, one American dollar translates to roughly eight yuan. From what limited poking around I've done on the internet, it seems your average restauraunt meal in China will run you about sixteen yuan.

So, let's see. Twelve-hour day. About fifty cents an hour. About six dollars a day. About 48 yuan a day. Three restauraunt meals a day.

And all for monitoring a bot.

Monitoring a bot.

He doesn't play the game. He doesn't type on the keyboard and move the mouse or whatever for twelve hours straight. He monitors it. He types in a reply when someone asks him if he's a bot.

And don't believe for an instant he's staring at that screen for twelve hours. He's probably got a book or some friends or whatever to occupy him.

That sounds awful.

"The average annual disposable income of Beijing's poorest urban residents in the first nine months of this year was 4,600 yuan (US$560), only 2 per cent higher than the figure for the same period last year, according to Yu.

In comparison, the richest group had an annual disposable income of 27,200 yuan (US$3,300), 24 per cent up from last year. Yu stressed that the municipal government has adopted measures to enhance the standard of living of low-income groups.

Farmers' annual income was 6,140 yuan (US$740), an increase of 10 per cent on last year."

http://www.china.org.cn/english/2004/Oct/109485.htm

Yes, the article is from 2004. However, I'll wager that 2006 numbers are roughly the same, if not slightly improved.

Now, WITH CONTEXT ESTABLISHED, let's see how much our poor sweatshop worker makes.

So, how much did he make in American dollars?

Fifty cents an hour.
Twelve dollars a day.
And, assuming he works every day with no holiday, two-thousand-one-hundred-and-nine dollars. That is, of course, without tax.

Christ, he's practically drowning in poverty.

To be more serious..

I don't agree with farming. It bothers me to see people who've put time and energy into a game be passed up by someone who simply has money to waste. It's a very frustrating experience, even moreso in other games where having UBEREQUIPMENT definately matters.

It's wrong. I agree with it.

.. inherenty evil though? Come on. Feel sensationalistic lately?

Ken Dei, seriously.

'Imagine doing that day in, day out, for months, years at a time...then when the bad medical complications of such extreme gameplay set in, you can't go home and take an Aspirin...or afford good medical attention. You definitely can't take a break, you'll lose your "job," so you suffer...you screw up your body, and waste your life away in a worthless, dead end job, to line the pockets of people who don't give a ---- about you, so a bunch of people on the other side of the world can be callous, soul-less, moral-less retards who say everythings "Ok" this way because instead of buying a game they could afford to spend the time on and play legitimately, they would rather cheat their way to the top."

You've just described every minimum wage job out there. It's shit work. It's dog work. It's menial, boring, repetitive. You get no respect. There's little room for advancement--unless, that is, you count shift manager as advancement. And who's making the real money? Some guy in a huge-ass building thousands of miles away.

Callous? Soulless? Moralless? Please cite for me the chapter in the Good Book where God says "Thou shalt not buy online videogame equipment for money, nor shalt thou sell it. Woe be to the seller, for his soul suffer my wrath. Blessed art the legitiment game players, for theirs is the kingdom of Ascalon."

And he's not even playing the game! He's monitoring it! Which means he can be doing anything he wants for those twelve hours, as long as he's smart enough to look back every once and awhile to make sure he's not being checked!

Seriously.

I mean, I'm not saying I condone the behavior. But, come on.

If someone wants to waste his hard-earned money buying shit, then more power to him. I won't like him. I won't approve of it. But I doubt he's going to be cast into hell.

As for something being inherently evil, no.

Remove humanity from the equation and nothing is evil. Why? Because -we- assign morality to things. Evil is a question of morality. Morality is a human convention. Morality changes from culture to culture. Morality is not static. Morality changes.

Hence, nothing is inherently evil.

To summarize, 'cause it's a long post:

The Chinese Sweatshop situaton isn't that bad. The guy makes decent money. The room he's doing it in is probably somewhat comfortable, as it's probably located in a public cafe or whatever. If not that, he's playing it in his house--which means he has a house -and- a computer. He's better off than most Americans right there. And if it's that airplane hanger, so what? I'm still willing to wager it has some amenities to it, if only because the computers need to keep cool to run.

The article is SENSATIONALISTIC.

People who buy/sell stuff online suck. While they aren't going to Hell, let's hope some punishment will be meted out on them, either in this world or the next.

- edit -

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_40/b3701119.htm

That sweatshop is an actual sweatshop. Thank your local Wal-Mart.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/te...pagewanted=all

Here's a less sensationalistic article. Notice how it lacks the cool and sick wordage of the OP article. Notice, also, the lack of a guy with a whip.

It looks pretty comfortable. Beats standing in front of a fryer, if you ask me...

.. and apparently the Chinese guy agrees. Fuijan province, too, the same as our MYSTERIOUS SACK.

"If they didn't work here they'd probably be working as waiters in hot pot restaurants," he said, "or go back to help their parents farm the land - or more likely, hang out on the streets with no job at all."

Here in coastal Fujian Province, several gold farm operators offered access to their underground facilities recently, on the condition that their names not be disclosed because the legal and tax status of some of the operations is in question.

One huge site here in Fuzhou has over 100 computers in a series of large, dark rooms. About 70 players could be seen playing quietly one weekday afternoon, while some players slept by the keyboard.

"We recruit through newspaper ads," said the 30-something owner, whose workers range from 18 to 25 years old. "They all know how to play online games, but they're not willing to do hard labor."

Another operation here has about 40 computers lined up in the basement of an old dilapidated building, all playing the same game. Upstairs were unkempt, closet-size dormitory rooms where several gamers slept on bunk beds; the floors were strewn with hot pots.

Its a shame such a large percentage of online gamers are the type that likes to win rather than to play.
They have spawned uncountable cheat sites, walkthroughs, hack/exploit specialists, bot programs(i think if MMORPG's didnt put a scripting system in thier games this would be so much harder to code bots - it almost seems by putting in scripting engines the games creaters know they will sell more because of the huge market of cheaters/abusers), and over the last few years an alarming increase of game currency for real currency farming.
After reading the article and seeing the profits they can make err unbelievable, just no other words for it.
Its unbelievable people have made this kind of thing thier living, and exploited poor countries who are willing to do anything for regular work/money, that they boast about thier skills when in fact thier only real skill is in common criminal greed.
Its equally unbelievable that so many "players" , and i use the term lightly, are willing to pay all this real money for a false ego boost - they have no skill, no dedication(if they dont have time to spend hours they dont deserve the rewards that the time would bring.) These are the kind of people who use a walkthrough the first time they play a game, they buy thier in game currency so they can have everything they desire instead of earning it. They are the ones who will show off thier stuff - "hey look at me you noobs, i got icy sword" and yet in a fight he is useless as hes only been on the game for 20 hours.
The sad repercussions of this type of game demigod is that a majority of new online gamers see this as the norm now, and so everyone wants everything without any effort. There is a split in the players in GW, a small number of genuine players who havent bought currency, havent been run anywhere etc and a massive number of players who will buy with real money, run everything, bug a guild team into RA, bring IW and Droks armour to Ascalon lvl 10 arena etc... how very sad i would prefer NPC's to most players in GW. They would have more character, swear less, and i would never worry "did he just use a bug or hack to cheat me??"
So sadly now online games cannot give any real fair player a good representation of thier own skill, ladders are worthless because i am now rated against cheaters, dupers, people who bought thier power...

Ive said before anyone who pays real money for in game resources is the same kind of person who needs viagra - you cant perform naturally.

And i'm afraid the fair players are the smaller percentage, because like me they dont play MMORPG's for long. I wonder what the split might be like in ten years time when the larger percentage of online players are over 20 years old?