Chinese sweatshops employing gamers to work for people to play games for prizes and virtual money. They allegedly get paid £2 a day and the staff have to live on site.

Oh dear.. :loopy:

I would have been tempted by those low wages had it been in Thailand.

My son plays online & I've played a few games.
Not sure where the girls are from but do look oriental.
They also seem desperate to be loved. They must think every player is male the way the thrust their boobs out & mock a kissing action, it looks so degrading.
My son also works in a casino & he doesn't act like that.

I would also like to add the site in question is owned by a very well known British gaming company.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/08/business/gaming.php

I've not heard of this story. I've not played an online game at all, but many of my friends do. I've been told that, some people use online games to sell and trade real land. Then there's also some people who were killed for their profiles, in real life ! Some people also sell the more powerful profiles online in Ebay. It's a whole different world out there. People try to make money out of anything and everything. Eeery.

If the money was a bit better and the conditions considerably better than those of a sweat shop, I would willingly do a job where I get paid to play games all day.

Meh, it's a job.. Which certain people on here keep telling me I should get and stop bleeding their taxes dry whilst I remain on benefits :rant:

Killed for selling his "virtual" sword!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4072704.stm

Meh, it's a job.. Which certain people on here keep telling me I should get and stop bleeding their taxes dry whilst I remain on benefits :rant:

if your on the dole then your getting about £55 a week. Thats roughly £8 a day!
you get your house paid for and its probably better than a sweatshop...
as you dont work you have all day to play games!!

so if you think about it your already doing your dream job :thumbsup:

If the money was a bit better and the conditions considerably better than those of a sweat shop, I would willingly do a job where I get paid to play games all day.

Meh, it's a job.. Which certain people on here keep telling me I should get and stop bleeding their taxes dry whilst I remain on benefits :rant:


what you expect!! why the f**k should I carry you. What cheek.

Many games publishers are actively involved in attempting to shut down gold-farming operations where ever possible. However, since most of these operations are in China and other far eastern countries, there's not a lot they can do.

To understand the problem, 'gold farming' does not affect all online games. It's predominantly confined to massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft, EverQuest II, Lineage II, Guild Wars and so on. Many gamers don't want to put the time and effort into the game that would yield them lots of in-game money, items (such as armor and weapons) and levels (e.g., there are currently 60 levels in World of Warcraft). So, to 'cheat' these players pay a gold farming service for in-game money or items or even to 'power level' their character for them.

I've read many reports on gold-farming companies and the people employed by them seem very happy in their job. 2 pounds to them is a lot of cash.

However, understand that I'm not defending the practice since I work for a MMORPG developer/publisher and have to deal with it every day.

In regard to in-game money and items, some governments are investigating the possibility of taxing in-game income. This really doesn't apply to the average gamer playing WoW since most of them earn and use the money they have in the game - in the game. A virtual economy.
However, some people have made a real-life fortune in certain games buying and selling virtual land, services and items. They money they make in game can be converted to real cash. Should people be taxed on that? Interesting question...

I can't believe you can make money from such games.

World of Warcraft rings a bell. My friend is addicted to such games. Play on it all weekend, and all spare time he has. He has no life !

Yeah - they can be a proper time sink/addiction.

Of course, since I sell these games, my opinion is that everyone should play and they're good for you. Excellent exercise for the...umm...fingers. ;)