Maybe get a blister on your little finger,
Maybe get a blister on your thumb
That ain’t workin’, that’s the way to do it 
For some time I’ve been keeping an eye on gold farming, the business of paying kids to build up loot in online games and then selling it for real money to Western marks. Although some entrepreneurs use automated scripts, most use humans: 100,000 kids in China, South Korea and Indonesia supposedly work in the industry. In a recent crossover into real life, someone in Shanghai murdered his buddy for selling a virtual sword he wasn’t supposed to sell.
Most of the players here actually make less than a quarter an hour, but they often get room, board and free computer game play in these “virtual sweatshops…” “They say that in some of these popular games, 40 or 50 percent of the players are actually Chinese farmers.” [Link]
The economist Edward Castranova has calculated that if you took the real dollars spent within EverQuest as an index, its game world… would be the 77th richest nation on the planet, while annual player earnings [per capita] surpass those of citizens of Bulgaria, India or China. [Link]
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p>Most stories I’ve read treat gold farming as a curiosity, which is a bit of a paradox. One, journalists think of valuable property in games as an oxymoron, even though they earn their own living from intellectual property. Two, many journalists are non-technical, even though their work is often published online:
The idea that sums of money are being paid for what appears to be an unproductive economic activity will cheese off traditionalists who believe that unless a job is located in an industrial factory, it serves no good purpose. [Link]
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p>As long as gold farming doesn’t violate a game’s terms of service, I’m all for it. Even gaming sweatshops, 24/7 Internet cafés where kids sleep and work in shifts, are easier work than your average rug or shoe factory and no more repetitive:
“For 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, my colleagues and I are killing monsters,” said a 23-year-old gamer who works here in this makeshift factory and goes by the online code name Wandering. “I make about $250 a month, which is pretty good compared with the other jobs I’ve had. And I can play games all day.” [Link]
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p>Some players complain that being able to buy your way to the top violates the spirit of a game, but if you want to bypass 100 hours of online drudgery by paying some kid thirty bucks, that’s your business:
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Please go read… about the Air Force jocks piloting arned Predator unmanned planes over Iraq from comfy armchairs at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada… then consider the possibilities for future techno-mercenaries. [Link]
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p>But in all the stories I’ve read on this industry, I’ve never seen a mention of gold farmers in India. This is a country which has managed to get paid every time a parking ticket is issued in New York City. So why isn’t gold farming big in India? You’d think geek sweatshops would be right up their alley. As Russell Peters once joked, ‘My people were not built for physical labor… Accounting, yes.’
An obvious factor is the lack of broadband relative to East Asia:
“… the number of Internet users in India remains relatively low, but it has soared 54 percent over the past year to 38.5 million, and will jump to 100 million in two years… The number of cybercafes in cities and towns across India jumped from 18,000 in 2001 to 105,350 this year… In comparison, China already has 100 million Internet users… [Link]
And because more Indians speak passable English, call centers pay better than gaming. But these aren’t satisfying answers. Here’s a silly rhetorical question: are the Chinese intrinsically geekier than Indians?
Hmmm…I don’t know. I’ve played Everquest for about two years and now Everquest II so it may not be necessarily a geekier issue, but rather cultural. The games seem more in line with I think with the types of movies that Chinese and Japanese have often put out. Not to mention Anime. Also, Everquest has been owned by Sony Online Entertainment for a number of years, not to mention quite a few other games similar in nature. And they have servers available in Europe and Asia. Perhaps they just never marketed it to India.
Those guys must work in shifts though because their characters are always in the game. Although, there are some immensely clever people who created scripts and macros to run multiple accounts.
I heard a report about this on the NPR show All things Considered last month I think. I found it preety interesting. I have no insight on why no such activity in India.
crappy dial-up access, power cuts and other outages?
All the graphics and code are client side, so a majority of people actually play on dial up still. The problem typically occurs with the PCs. If you don’t have at least 1g ram, decent processor, and decent graphics card …it’s just not worth playing. I can see this as more of a valid reason than any other for Indians not playing.
As DD mentioned, can’t forget the unpredictable electricity factor, either!
Did this story remind anyone of Veruca Salt? I can just imagine huge warehouse factories with little kids being paid crap to play for the children of rich factory owners. Aside from the reality factor, it’s a funny thought.
i was actually thinking about writing my comment [for law journal] about the theft of e-gaming property.
i’d read cases about how gamers spend hours and hours earning all these cool things for whatever game they’re playing only to have a hacker take it.
i never really thought about how far the e-property thing could really go…
food for thought
I think either CNN or Nightline had run a segment last year about the growing online-RPG communities and how people would get married within the game, how people would destroy everything they had going on IRL because of their obsession with the RPG world… It was both ridiculous and sad. But, but… you can’t fire me– I’m a level 900 Mage! So what if I haven’t been at work all week…
I can only speak of Everquest, so it maybe different for other games. But people spend an insane amount of time in this game. And I don’t mean 1 or 2 hours, I mean nearly 6-7 hours a day. Technically there isn’t an easy way for some one to steal something that another person has once they have it, but rather if they are competing for a similar item within the game then there are ways to cheat. Or much like doing people hacking and doing a bait and switch.
The Communist MMORPG…
sigh There is so much inequality in the world of MMORPGs. Big first world firms eploiting poor kids in thrid world countries.
What we need is a workers revolution in MMORPGs (MMMORPGS).
I envision a virtual world where all virtual goods earned by gamers are donated towards the common good rather than being concentrated in the hands of a few.
Yeah… that would work.
You know you always wanted one that comes with a Drakefang Talisman. And it’s only $609 (and counting):
World of Warcraft Level 60 Human Rogue Gurubashi
Wow… killed for a “virtual sword”. I think there has to be a new term coined for this new generation of plugged-in gamers:
Generation iDiot.
There are two important differences though. Firstly, games are supposed to be entertaining, and why would you pay somebody to consume for you? It’s like paying somebody to watch your TV or eat your desert. Second, journalists are presumably adding value, being creative in some way whereas the virtual items in games have no value for being creative, they only have value for being in the game.
I’m not sure if I was clear with that second point, though.
If some one is allowed to buy his way to advance stages or collect widgets without playing, the gaming companies themselves should sell those items. Who needs manual labor when an automated system that works instantly can be created. If your buying virtual things you are not looking for competition but psychological satisfaction, so i can see the gaming companies themselves setting operations where some one can buy widgets or advance to nextlevel just by paying extra.
Seriously though video game addiction is a pretty big problem in China, the country has video game addiction clinics. Also lately the Chinese government propoganda news agency has been running lots of articles on game addiction on its site supporting the recent decision to curb online gaming.
Actually, that’s a question that attracted my curiosity for quite some time, since I’ve read about the phenomenon. I’ve been doing some asking around in India about the gaming scene (not a gamer myself).
I’m actually seeing more and more cybercafes in India, particularly in Bangalore, which advertise multiplayer gaming. However, lack of universal affordable broadband access seems to be the major limiting factor. For example, I have a 64kbps cable modem account here in a Mumbai suburb, paying Rs 700 ($15-$16) a month. That’s the best I could get here so far without a commercial line. However, that is changing, with companies promising 512kbps at half the price in a few months, as soon as new cables are laid. Also, high-end gaming computers are STILL out of reach for many youngsters.
It is easy to blame electricity issues, but frankly, if you can afford a top-end comp in India, you’re probably living in a posh area where electricity is not that much of an issue. There are some other problems like service and maintenance (which is always a problem in India!)
My friends living in Bangalore tell me that gaming is slowly but surely picking up. In most computer stores in Bangalore, I did see game sections last week, though nowhere as big as those in the US.
In addition to electricity/broadband issues in India, it’s also worth noting that most of the best online MMORPGs (in my opinion) originate in Korea and China. In fact, even regardless of this article, online gaming is culture of its own in Korea. I’ve heard of huge Starcraft and Counterstrike tournaments in Seoul with prizes worth thousands of dollars.
This is fascinating.
I am not with the times when it comes to online gaming so there’s a learnign curve for me. Pls correct me if I’m getting this wrong.
Here’s what I’ve gathered so far – there are a lot of people that pay money to acquire virtual property that they can use to build a profile online. Growth through acquisition.
There’s another way to acquire the virtual property – by getting a bunch of grunts to work a profile and through their online labors – grow their positions. Growth through ‘manufacturing’.
If this is correct then this is not much different from trading in collectors’ items like baseball cards, celebrity clothing etc.
As an example, here’s something I came across the other day. This guy is swapping goods with plans to buy a house some day. He started with a little red paper clip – he is up to a snowmobile now – not bad eh? It’s all about perceived value.
i think this is a pretty interesting issue…on some level its a microcosm of the new economy. who produces and who consumes. its also a kind of sci fi come to life. i think i’d rather be a player than a payer
I looked in to starting a mining thing , but the numbers dont work, cause we cant get an unlimited bandwidh connection. You have to pay as you use, and that makes it unviable.
Sony finally caved in and did this; well, that is it allows players to sell virtual property and coin in auctions.
I totaly agree, Make more workshops so i can buy gold cheaper. WORK YOUR ASSES OFF!
This article mentions “kids” working in these “sweatshops” a few times. Watch what you write, because I think it is inaccurate to call them “kids” ad it is defiantly inaccurate to call these game workshops “sweatshops.” Check this blog for my opinion on the matter:
http://www.mmovp.com/zraythe/
Now, to address the point of this article…you ask a good question. Why do game workshops seem to be more popular in China than in India? At the moment I can’t think of anything that has not already mentioned above, but you ask a good question that I will begin researching now….
goes off to research