Chinese prisoners were forced to farm gold on WoW so the prison guards could sell it.
About 300 prisoners at the Jixi labor camp, located about 18 miles from neighboring Russia, were required to play games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest to earn credits that could be later hawked online to other gamers for cash, former prisoner Liu Dali told the Guardian.
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," Liu said. "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 to 6,000 renminbi [about $770-$925] a day.
According to the China Internet Center, Chinese gamers traded almost $2 billion worth of virtual currency in 2008, the Guardian reports, and an estimated 100,000 people work full-time farming virtual gold in China. The central government has attempted to regulate the trade of such currency by requiring businesses to have licenses.
0 Comments