Chinese Prisoners Forced into MMO gold farming

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Oh China! You manage to make even video games morally wrong!

Seriously though, this really sucks.

...That is sad. Seriously.

... The fuck?

...who buys fictional gold in an MMO?...gold in a game that already forces you to pay monthly?

Bringing the word "industry" to the video game industry.

You'd be surprised. There's a huge black market for in-game gold for World Of Warcraft alone, despite it being HEAVILY discouraged by both the community and by Blizzard themselves.

But wait, didn't they illegalize Gold Farming last year?

Ban the guy making them do that. That'll stop him.

Just shows you how enjoyable this sort of grinding is that they have to use slave labor to accomplish it.

As someone whose nationality is Chinese, I have to say... this doesn't surprise me at all.

Call me a bastard, but my reaction to this when I first read it was "eh, they're prisoners, I don't care."

I mean yeah it is a bit dodgy, but...

This is hilarious in a sad way.

...Good God.

I guess it's the digital age sweat shops.

Who needs cheaply made shoes when you can get virtual gold?

Wow, this is seriously a new low for the dignity of the Chinese government.

On the other hand....they're just criminals...

I like it! It's like putting prisoners to manual labor without them actually getting muscles as a result. Sounds like a perfectly good way to repay back debts while in prison. It's strange but definitely not cruel or without reason, especially since, you know, MMO gold is worth something in meat world now.

Considering that we are talking about China here, I doubt that all of them are people who would be criminal here.

Wow. Just wow.

So remember - if you buy gold, you're supporting communist dicatorship.

China isn't like how Sankaku Complex depicts it you know...or Coldwar era depictions.

Granted they do have some censorship issues...and something against time travelling in fictional works...

But their treatment of criminals is one thing they know how to do right. Now if only they could get over their censorship addiction.

edited 27th May '11 12:04:50 AM by Signed

Granted, I never really visited the site and most of the things I know about them is second-hand information...

That sites mostly about China nowadays...

And back in the Axis Powers Hetalia anime incident, it also talked a lot about Korea as well. But they stopped talking about Korea after everyone forgot about the anime and the incident.

Oh, and the occasional anime/gaming news...

They don't do much galleries anymore. The one thing the site did right. And they stopped doing it.

edited 27th May '11 12:06:57 AM by Signed

So I'm guessing gold farming is the new pressing license plates.

I don't think you read the article... The prisoners, apparently, are required to do their gold farming after their daily quota of physical labor... And the prisoners never saw a dime of the money.

... Although, I have no real problems with the report. Seems like a perfectly viable way of making money and using prisoners. So long as the state is getting the money, and it's not being embezzled by the prison warden/staff...