Chinese prisoners forced into online 'gold farming'

Who would have thought Internet gaming would turn out to be such serious hard labor, both virtually and literally? Detainees at a labor camp in China are being forced to play hours of "World of Warcraft," a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), in a "gold farming" operation, UK-based The Guardian reported. "Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," a former inmate told the Guardian. The former inmate had been detained at the Jixi re-education-through-labor camp in Heilongjiang province. He was released before 2009, The Guardian reported. Up to P40k a day He said that there were 300 prisoners forced to play games in shifts of up to 12 hours at night - after breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of northeast China during the day. The goal of "gold farming" was to build up credits on online games such as "World of Warcraft." Prison guards would trade the credits for real money, the inmate said. "I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb (P33,359 to P40,000) a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off," the 54-year-old former inmate said. Real-world punishments for virtual losses Punishment for falling behind in game-playing was real. "If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said. But the former inmate believes the practice of prisoners being forced to earn online currency in multiplayer games is still widespread. "Many prisons across the northeast of China also forced inmates to play games. It must still be happening," he said. The former inmate said this game-playing was the most surreal experience in the detention facility. During his detention, he had also carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of wood planks, and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorize communist literature to pay off his debt to society. Rampant trading in virtual currencies The Guardian report said the trading of virtual currencies in multiplayer games has become so rampant in China that it is increasingly difficult to regulate. In April, it said the Sichuan provincial government in central China launched a court case against a gamer who stole credits online worth about 3000rmb (P20,015). Such a lack of regulations has meant that even prisoners can be exploited in this virtual world for profit, the report added. The Guardian report cited figures from the China Internet Centre, indicating £1.2 billion (P85.881 billion) of make-believe currencies were traded in China in 2008 and the number of gamers who play to earn and trade credits are on the rise. Full-time gold farmers It also estimated 80 percent of all gold farmers are in China, where there are thought to be 100,000 full-time gold farmers. In 2009 the central government issued a directive defining how fictional currencies could be traded, making it illegal for businesses without licenses to trade. Jin Ge, a researcher from the University of California San Diego who has been documenting the gold farming phenomenon in China, noted China is the factory of virtual goods. "You would see some exploitation where employers would make workers play 12 hours a day. They would have no rest through the year. These are not just problems for this industry but they are general social problems. The pay is better than what they would get for working in a factory. It's very different," said Jin. — TJD, GMA News