Gold farming makes the NYTimes

[Qhue]

In a front page article in the NY Times we have an interesting take on the whole 3rd world gold farming / power levelling service industry. They refer to it as a form of "outsourcing" which it IS but which is a term I hadnt seen associated with the practice before.

Interesting that these things are being picked up in mainstream media now that the gaming industry is a mega-bucks venture.

[Agraza]

I don't see that it is outsourcing. That is meant to describe a company replacing domestic employees with foreign ones right? The entire affair has been international since its inception.

It does make a nice headline though, which I think is the biggest reason they're describing it that way.

[oknedark]

"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."


Does anyone know or have any idea relatively how much $250/month is in terms of living expenses there? It sounds very sweatshop-ish, but I have no idea about China or its economy to judge how sweatshop-ish.


'By some estimates, there are well over 100,000 young people working in China as full-time gamers, toiling away in dark Internet cafes, abandoned warehouses, small offices and private homes. '

Also, if they mean there are 100k farmers total, across all games, then its much smaller than I thought.

[Suineg]

Pretty sure this has been an article in the Times before but I could be wrong.

Not yelling at you Qhue but you know it is sad when they are rehashing stuff like this.

[Gar]

Originally Posted by oknedark

Does anyone know or have any idea relatively how much $250/month is in terms of living expenses there? It sounds very sweatshop-ish, but I have no idea about China or its economy to judge how sweatshop-ish..

Shirt you buy in Walmart is made in china by worker whos salary is around 25$ a month. Depends heavily where you live in china, same way as it does in western countries. 3500$ a month might be fuckton for Texas hillbilly in trailerpark, but small amount for silicon valley guy.

It's impossible to judge quality of living just by "salary". You must first know location, education and standard cost of living. In country of 1.300mil people, there is no way to say is it "alot" or not.

[Iannis]

Yeah, Big Brother is going to get involved in this shit if the gaming companies don't get their shit together and crack down on rang rangs.

"Y HELLO THAR, I'M FROM WHITEHOUSE.ORG. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BUY GOLD WAR BONDS TO SUPPORT IRAQ? CLICK OUR "BUY IT NOW" LINK ON THE BOTTOM!"

[Hozz]

On a related note...I found this to be hilarious:

http://www.wowgoodness.com/farmer.html
http://www.wowgoodness.com/talents.html

H

[Lyrical]

Originally Posted by oknedark

"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."


Does anyone know or have any idea relatively how much $250/month is in terms of living expenses there? It sounds very sweatshop-ish, but I have no idea about China or its economy to judge how sweatshop-ish.


'By some estimates, there are well over 100,000 young people working in China as full-time gamers, toiling away in dark Internet cafes, abandoned warehouses, small offices and private homes. '

Also, if they mean there are 100k farmers total, across all games, then its much smaller than I thought.

Last time I looked (last year), in China, people had an average YEARLY earnings of $400. Of course, there are still alot of farmers in China with almost no earnings that pull down that average. $250 a month is wealthy or poor depending on where you are. Remember, China only allows capitalism in certain cities in China. The income is much higher in areas where there is capitalism. In the communist areas, the people are still very poor.

The income I quoted may be outdated, since inflation is rampant in China (since every company in the world is trying to open up there).

[Darkmyst]

Originally Posted by Agraza

I don't see that it is outsourcing. That is meant to describe a company replacing domestic employees with foreign ones right?

Outsourcing doesn't have to be international. It's just a term to describe a company contracting out some service or function it used to do internally with its own staff. Plenty of U.S. companies outsource thier Human Resources functions to U.S. firms that specialize in HR for instance.

[AngryGerbil]

"Gold Farming" is a lie started by our liberal media overlords at the NYTimes.

[Qhue]

There's also now an audio slideshow on the subject and a second article : http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/09/te...9gameside.html which talks about getting spammed in game by people who are selling gold.

Funny how this spam is widespread enough that its showing up in the popular media yet Blizzard still refuses to do anything about it. Even though its annoying to the gamer playerbase its still account revenue for the company so why should they do anything?

Must burn Tigole and Furor up to get tells like that in the game and be utterly powerless to do anything about it.

[BruuceWarduck]

gay

[Cedil]

No offense to either party but, Tigole and Furor are pretty much now a joke to the MMORPG community now.

There's something about having a noose preventing you from communicating anything that isn't at the official WoW Boards (the most holy sanctum of mmorpg discussion, clearly) that makes their acclaimed opinions somewhat... meaningless?

[Mkopec1]

I dont know, it just seems, like with EQ and the other games before WoW, so many people frowned on this whole concept of gold buying and selling.

But in woW, people are openly admitting they purchased gold and have no shame that they did. At least the folks I hung with in my guild. Which most bought money for their epic mounts.

Its scary but its becoming the norm in mmorpgs. And IMO a new money model should be introduced to these games which cannot be easily farmed, traded, or at least crack down on this shit with a vengence.

Another thing which deterred people from purchasing money in games in other games up untill WoW is that it was reather expensive. But in WoW its so cheap its a no brainer. Lets see, farm myself for a few weeks of boring ass mob kiling, competing with others in a relativerly small world with few good farming spots? Or just get a K for $80?

Maybe its the ease and lack of any risk farming, why the gold in Wow is so cheap.

[Lambourne]

Originally Posted by Mkopec1

Another thing which deterred people from purchasing money in games in other games up untill WoW is that it was reather expensive. But in WoW its so cheap its a no brainer. Lets see, farm myself for a few weeks of boring ass mob kiling, competing with others in a relativerly small world with few good farming spots? Or just get a K for $80?

Maybe its the ease and lack of any risk farming, why the gold in Wow is so cheap.

That, and the fact that farming gold in WoW is incredibly boring. In EQ, there was always another AA to work towards, giving you some sense of character progression.

Basically it's just another symptom of the 'nothing to do at 60' problem.