World Of Warcraft Slaves In China

[_liam_]

just saw a report on ITV news, some dude in china runs sweatshops full of people who play warcraft on 17 hour shifts, so he can monopolise the gold on sell it online. has made millions apparently. how bizarre is that? along with the guy who collapsed in that cafe and the dude who killed someone for a sword, w.o.w seems to be generating some pretty bizarre incidences...

[CoinReturn]

just saw a report on ITV news, some dude in china runs sweatshops full of people who play warcraft on 17 hour shifts, so he can monopolise the gold on sell it online. has made millions apparently. how bizarre is that? along with the guy who collapsed in that cafe and the dude who killed someone for a sword, w.o.w seems to be generating some pretty bizarre incidences... Thats crazy, I found a preview for a documentary about this on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ho5Yxe6UVv4

[Danny]

im a big fan of mmorpg's and i just dont see how anyone could get that into a game, cus it is just a game. some bloody people, takes all sorts though i guess

[_liam_]

yeah i always thought the video games industry was one thing that didn't screw anyone's life over, but i guess if there's a buck to be made...

[Adrenochrome]

I know a guy that divorced his wife because she asked him to only play that silly game on the weekends.

[radiokill]

Reading this thread has severely depressed me... I can't stand to think about people valuing a game more than their spouses or human life. I makes me wonder how much do I really care about horror movies and music....depressing

[Adrenochrome]

Reading this thread has severely depressed me... I can't stand to think about people valuing a game more than their spouses or human life. I makes me wonder how much do I really care about horror movies and music....depressing Not all gamers are like that, just the mindless simpletons.

[radiokill]

Not all gamers are like that, just the mindless simpletons. I don't think all gamers are like that, but if people are able to become that consumed by something they do for fun, what's my suceptibility, or have I already been consumed by something?

[Khardis]

I played WoW for over a year, I finnally got the hell away from it not so long ago. I had to sell my desktop computer ot keep from playing it. its a really addicting game. That being said I dont buy into ALL of these stories about sweatshops in China. I have been to China I was in China in the summer of 05 (well into WoW's life) and I met a number of "gold farmers" and while some did work in ****ty conditions, they werent slaves. They were free to go if they pleased. The only thing is that they made American money working in a lot of these places which is much better than making RMB. Its about 8 RMB = 1 Dollar. Anyway, the majority of the ones I met were college students and did this because they could do it in thier dorms or in internet cafes. They actually made a pretty decent living off this stuff... think about it. An average job in China is about 5 RMB an hour. say they work 50 hours a week thats 250 RMB a week, or they can farm gold and get paid 5 or 10 bucks a day it works out to about double to what they would make without a degree doing construction or working retail which most of them would be doing anyway. I know its nuts for us as Americans or Brits even to look at that kind of lifestyle and be like... "wow thats bad" but you have to understand that China is still a developing nation. Most of its population are still farmers. Life is very cheap over there and there is a lot of hardship, but I never met a more optimistic and warm people in my life.

[Tricky]

What do you actually do on world of warcraft?its not a game ive come into contact with,apart from reading about how its taken over peoples lives!

[Khardis]

Its an RPG, I have always been a sucker for RPGS and such. But you basically go around killing monsters and demons and stuff and gaining levels, building new talents and spells. Getting new items and weapons. I was mostly into the PVP (player vs player) aspect of it because I am competitive. But its a pretty addictive game and its pretty fun. I played for over a year with my girlfriend. We both played together which is probably why I was able to play so long. But I mean i got too much going on in my life that I can be arsed to worry about a game ya know? So thats why I quit.

[Tricky]

Ive just found this site & its pretty tragic that some people have actually lost everything in their real lives over this game! http://www.wowdetox.com/ Ive always liked my games,but its rare that i ever play anything for more than 2 hours before i go and find some real life stuff to do!

[LouCipherr]

heh, I dunno, I've spent HOURS upon HOURS playing FPS games with a friend of mine - of course, we were honing our skills for an online competition, but regardless, even with FPS games its very easy to get "sucked in". It happened to me with BF1942, BF:V, FarCry UT2004 and Quake4 - the wife finally asked me one day "umm, haven't you been playing enough of that stuff?" and I had to take a step back and look at my gaming time. At that point I realized "holy sh*t, i'm in this too deep" and took a break for a few months. Then I eased back into it and try and keep my playing time down to 2-3 hours if I'm playing with a friend (usually on a friday or saturday night). If I'm playing by myself, I usually only last an hour then get bored and come back the next day or later in the week. WoW, I'll never understand. Real-time games like that seem to be boring to me only 'cause, I dunno, maybe 'cause I actually have a life to live outside the game! but I can understand from first-hand experience how easy it is to get addicted to a game and put a LOT of hours into it. LC

[slickwilly13]

I have been big gamer for most of my life. But there are others who give people such as myself a bad rep. Not all of us are dorks with no life.

[Khardis]

heh, I dunno, I've spent HOURS upon HOURS playing FPS games with a friend of mine - of course, we were honing our skills for an online competition, but regardless, even with FPS games its very easy to get "sucked in". It happened to me with BF1942, BF:V, FarCry UT2004 and Quake4 - the wife finally asked me one day "umm, haven't you been playing enough of that stuff?" and I had to take a step back and look at my gaming time. At that point I realized "holy sh*t, i'm in this too deep" and took a break for a few months. Then I eased back into it and try and keep my playing time down to 2-3 hours if I'm playing with a friend (usually on a friday or saturday night). If I'm playing by myself, I usually only last an hour then get bored and come back the next day or later in the week. WoW, I'll never understand. Real-time games like that seem to be boring to me only 'cause, I dunno, maybe 'cause I actually have a life to live outside the game! but I can understand from first-hand experience how easy it is to get addicted to a game and put a LOT of hours into it. LC I love Day of Defeat Source. I play that still with all my boys. That game rocks so hard