Chinese gold farmers is nothing new. Now we find out that some of them were prisoners. Posted on the UK Gardian they have reports of one prisoner who told a reporter in Beijing how he used to do hard labor mining in NE China and by night he had to log into World of Warcraft and mine virtual gold for 12 hours.
Former prisoner, Liu Dali told of how “Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour,” “There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb a day, worth upwards to $900 USD. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”
Dali states: “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,”
According to figures from the China Internet Center, nearly $2 Billion of virtual to real money was traded in China in 2008 and the number of gamers who play to earn and trade virtual credits has been on the rise.
It has been estimated that 81% of all gold farmers are located in China. There is also estimated to be over 100,000 full-time gold farmers in the country.
I wonder if Leroy Jenkins knows about this?!?
