Posted on 05/26/2011 6:01:15 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Chinese labour camp prisoners forced to play online games
After a long day of hard labour, scores of Chinese prisoners are now being forced to spend their nights playing online games in order to win credit for their guards, a former inmate has claimed.
By Malcolm Moore, Shanghai 9:22AM BST 26 May 2011
A 54-year-old prisoner at the Jixi labour camp in the northern province of Heilongjiang said he was forced to play games on the internet in order to build up credit that was traded by his guards for real money, a practice known as “gold-farming”.
In many online games, such as the enormously popular World of Warcraft, players who spend hours accumulating gold inside the game then sell their achievements to other players who do not have the time or patience to earn their own online currency.
Although the practice is technically illegal, it is widespread. Typically, players in developing countries sell their gold to players in the United States or Europe.
In an interview with the Guardian, the prisoner said online gaming was a far more lucrative activity for the managers of the labour camp than the physical labour the inmates were forced to do.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," he said. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
P!
I dont know much about online gambling so this is news to me.
Gaming, not gambling
It’s not gambling.
For those who don’t understand it, let me explain it. In games like World of Warcraft, you can do things like finish quests, mine ore or find treasure that you can sell to other players or the game system itself for in-game currencies of copper, silver or gold coins.
Since the cost of some higher end items in the game cost thousands of gold, some players (in breach of game rules) will buy the in-game gold for real world cash. They will send someone their paypal payment and the person will send them the gold in the game.
This creates a real-world exchange rate for the currency “World of Warcraft Gold”. The current exchange rate is around 1 cent for 5 gold at some of the bigger illegal sellers. So a Chinese prisoner who can “farm” 500 gold in a 12 hour session, can earn $1.00 per session for their guards.
thanks, the most I know about WoW Warcraft was the South park classic parody which won the Emmy for best animated episode.
Obviously, the authorities don't want to end the practice, as it keeps their guards well paid without the State having to ante up the cash.
Ummmm, it’s morally objectionable to use prisoners as slave labor.
“And we do not allow our prisoners to have any contact with the outside world. If they were playing these online games they could easily communicate with other people. We would never allow that.”
All you’d have to do is disable the keys not needed to play. And the microphone jacks.
I think you missed his point.
No, it is easier than that. If you enable the parental controls it turns off all chat features. That is so some parent can let their 8 or 10 yearold kid play in a reletively easy portion of the ‘game world’ without them being able to join a ‘general chat’ channel. If the guard activates that on the account they can’t communicate.
That would be “onRine gambRing...”
Well there you go! :P
” That would be “onRine gambRing...” “
You betta off onrine!
Nobody a botha yu.
ruh-roh...it da Hooka from “Full Metal Jacket”...
She ruv you rong time!!!
I've never played an online game like Warcraft but that sounds like a job I wouldn't mind. Probably a highly competitive field. ;d
They’re also forced to eat with spoons, and stop whatever they’re doing at random intervals and run around yelling and waving their arms over their heads.
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