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China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work
Precusor
Member UncommonPosts: 3,589
Chinese prisoners were forced into 'gold farming' – building up credits on online games such as World of Warcraft.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam
Random quotes:
"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "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 [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."
"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,"
Comments
This wouldn't be happening if gamers in general (Westerners primarily) weren't so lazy that they'd pay money for ill-gotten gold. But the more restrictions you put on it, the worse it will get. Just like drugs and alcohol. The best thing, unfortunately, that game companies can do from a humanitarian perspective is to offer in-game currency in their shops =( I absolutely hate the idea from a player's perspective, but I'd rather get killed by some rich douche with a fat wallet than hear about sweatshop laborers being beaten senseless because they didn't make enough fake money for their sleezy bosses. Then again if China had a real government this wouldn't be an issue anyway....
Or they should start banning players for buying gold, which a lot of companies don't want to do.
Make it very clear when a player logs in that buying gold is against the rules, and you'll rule out the ten year olds who buy it or ask for it for Christmas thinking it's a legit service.
I knew something was going on but did not know it was this horrible wow.... SICK! This is an idea that should now be created into our online gaming now that we know the truth.
"Make in-game currency BoP."
Can not be traded via player to player.
Can not be mailed.
Can not be drop.
Here is the solution to the problem , this works against gold sellers, and works against Hackers/Cheaters but no company does it.
1. Restrict Servers based on country, you can't play on any U.S servers unless you are in the United States of a America therefore U.S Laws apply, and are easy to deal with, anyone caught using a proxy to illegally play, Instantly banned.
2. Require use of Credit Cards on P2P games, and games like Gamers First in APB, Restrict the game to United States Servers, and One for Europe and such this is because Europe sites are the ones making all the hacks and selling the to U.S for cash, and require of Credit Card even for $1 charge would keep hackers out not 100% sure people could bypass but would be a lot better than it is now.
3. Now if the chineese want to illegally use their prisioneers to farm gold for them they will have to sell it to their own country.
4. Any Company Located in the U.S caught selling gold inside U.S Servers would be SUED for illegally profiting off other peoples Intellectual property and virtual game cash, The TOS and game itself would say, You cant sell anything, not even the time you have put into the game and by playing you agree to this.
5. Restricting Mailing of Gold, Player 2 Player Transfers does not work, the Gold Sellers just contact you by phone, or outside of the game and tell you to put an item on acution for that ammount, and they buy it from you to deliver you the gold so there is no point in that.
This would keep hackers and cheaters restricted to their Country/Region when they play the game and keep cheaters from ruining any U.S Games, In addition any sites like Google, Msn, Search Crawlers would be required with Court order by Law to remove any links or advertisments for hacks, as well as the hackers sites closed down and siezed by the U.S And ISP ban notices aka Pink Slips given to those ISP's to give to those people who are doing illegal actions.
No More Cheaters, No more gold sellers problem solved.
6. They could Add Global Servers for those who really don't care and want to play across the world, but I know I would stay in a U.S only server.
Congratulations, you just killed every MMO'S economy.
Is this really worse then making car license plates?
Just don't buy gold and no one will do like this.
Frankly, I still think this is better then the other current trend that is hijacking the accounts, steal the gold and then sell it.
You can still use the AH.
Lets see.
1. I do agree on IP restriction to an extent. if it's a game labled and marketed towards either NA/EU/SEA then thats who should be allowed in.
2. Quite an idiotic suggestion and would kill every game out there. Also you are quite misinformed.
3... dont even know why this one is numbered.
4. They can do this anyway.
5. Same as the guy earlier. Congratulations, you just killed the Economy of every MMO. Also you just violated the 1st ammendment rights of dozens of Fortune 500 companies... Enjoy living in a cardboard box.
6. This is already being done.
If a gaming company does that, it will create a ceiling price for what the gold or currency is worth. So the gold farmers can not sell more than the company is selling, but they can sell under, and as long as they can attract customers with a more attractive price, then there is a business to make out of it.
The gaming company can keep lowering the prices to make it less worth the while of gold farmers, but then that means the worth of gold, or time spent playing the game becomes much lower. This might not mean much to some, but it might have a huge negative impact on the game, and it's customers to think that thier time is worth very little despite the humanitarian approach.
Also really cheap gold provided by the gaming companies would mean a lot of people will resort to it, and take short cuts and not enjoy the game with the usual multiple raid runs for some. While for others, or the majority, will have to raid and deal with drop rates since this actually could increase the demand from the auction house for rares, which would mean the rares, will become much more rarer since poeple will have the gold to buy it, or it will cost more gold, and therefore making things cost even more. However, the gold collection rate would stay the same, which would mean gold farmers would still not be interestered in theory, but that would ruin the in game economy for rares by being extremely expensive with a lot of demand for it.....for those who would prefer not to raid and just use real money for gold to buy those items and it will turn into a real auction house with people bidding extremely high prices for those rares.
Here is an example of how it works... I think:
End game gold collection rate = 1000 gold
MT sells 1'000'000 (1 million) gold for 5 bucks
Lets says that a rare takes 20 hours to get. So let us say that a rare will cost around 5$ a piece, which seems reasonable and might cost more, but let us say that in real money terms it costs that.
So a rare will cost 1'000'000 gold per item in the AH.
However, a regular gamer will take them 1'000'000/1000 = 1000 hours to make that gold. So it is not worth it for the gold farmer since it would be 5$/1000 hours = $.005 per hour.
So therefore they have the option to buy gold, or raid for that drop. However buying gold will increase demand which will increase the price, so it might be more than 5$ bucks over time.
Of course these are just made numbers to make a point, and could be better adjusted for the real game.
The benefit of such a wallet draining system would be, for those who have the money, there is a very expensive option to buy thier iotems and not have to raid multiple times.
The gaming company makes the money associeated with thier product instead of other grousps aka gold farmers.
It is humanatiarian, although one article is not convincing. There are going to be people who are hoing to say: pictures, or video or it did not happen.
Those who do not resort to the auction house trading for rares, which is normally very expensive as it is, will not be bother by a super hyper inflated price, since they can farm it themselves.
Also a good solution would be not to make the rares so freaking rare. That way the demand wont be so high, and in game currency wont be bought in large multiple chunks to buy those rares.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
In WoW used to profit by buying massive quantities of cheap ore from people and reselling at higher prices on the AH... By restricting currency transactions to only the AH you have sucessfully eliminated a large portion of a games economy. Not to mention the people who help their friends out when they start by giving them a starter package of gold and gear. Your solution is not a very well thought out one.
I don't think so. If you can buy gold from the company without risk of getting banned or having your credit card hijacked most of the players will go for that even if it cost a bit more.
Killing the economy is better than killing a human being farming that shit!
Thats probably true. However, the market for them exists despite the threat of ban or credit card hi-jacking. So it could mean the gold farmers will exist, but the gaming company will be making most of the money if there is a potential for gold farmers to make money.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Feel sorry for prisoners I do not.
Yup, punish innocent gamers because someone somewhere did something crappy.
Why not kill every computer because someone uses one to stalk and kill someone else.
Apparently stating the truth in my sig is "trolling"
Sig typo fixed thanks to an observant stragen001.
You do not know why they were imprisonned. Maybe they are poltical prisoners who beleive in freedom of expression, basic rights, rule of law and all the things a totalitarian government would consider disrupting the peace for thier wishful thinking.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
And this is the country that has 'Most Favored Nation' status with the UN, folks. Wake the fuck up.
"In international economic relations and international politics, most favoured nation (MFN) is a status or level of treatment accorded by one state to another in international trade. The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must, nominally, receive equal trade advantages as the "most favored nation" by the country granting such treatment. (Trade advantages include low tariffs or high import quotas.) In effect, a country that has been accorded MFN status may not be treated less advantageously than any other country with MFN status by the promising country."
From Wiki.
It seems that is related to business to give them this treatment. China is a major economy, and their instability would affect a lot of countries as they become some what dependant on China, and that is why it makes sense. Maybe countries around the world shouldt try to become a bit more self suffieceint, and the implications of this treatment would mean the difference in prices and humanatarian values, and therfrefore China wont need this treatment.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
What a coincidence. That happens to be this prisoner's case, according to the article.
And while I agree that in-game currency has a negative impact on in-game economies, I'm also aware that some companies did it in inventive ways. EvE online, for example. If I recall correctly (It's been a LONG time) doesn't EvE offer the option of selling game time for ingame currency? They let you buy a virtual item for the normal $15 for the month, and you can then sell it for any amount that you like for Isk. Basically, the players create the IGCurrency:RLCurrency ratio. No gold is created, but there is a legitimate way for players to obtain in-game currency (Purchasing game time) in a way that benefits the players on both sides and the company (more revenue). I believe Perfect World games do similar for their Cash Shop currencies.
Now that's not to say farmers don't still exist in these games, but it's a cool system that brings their ingame economy up another level on top of the price ceiling it creates (player created, unregulated). Does this still exist or am I talking about long dead information..?
I hope all the proponents of buying gold or virtual item farming companies or the members of the "it does no harm" camp to get a good read on this article.
That's where your money might be going.....
Another reason not to goldbuy.
Only thing I wonder about is : why do they use past tense.
Err ... what company has ever welcomed outside goldsellers ???
You are a little bit naive, I must say. Sadly no matter the restrictions or any idea that a company can come up with, there will always be ways around it. It is the same with hackers, they'll eventually find a way around it.
1.IP Restriction does not work. Proxys are meant to be undetectable so will rarely be noticed, thus allowing players from outside the IP restriction to continue playing. I've personally used proxies in the past to access IP restricted games in Asia (Japan and China), it's incredibly easy to use and you can get around any restriction.
2. Country restriction is usually a matter of licensing issue, or for more PvP-oriented games, to allow players to have a more stable experience. As for requiring credit cards, it will not matter. Must I remind you that Gold Farmers are already using their Credit Cards to buy the game and resub everytime they get banned? You'll only be bothering legit players.
3. Nothing here really. Doesn't fit with your post.
4. ToS already says that players cannot buy or sell virtual items or currency outside of the boundaries set by the company itself. Despite all of that, the Chinese governement has legalised Gold Selling, making it much harder for companies to attack Gold Sellers.
5. Congratulation, you've killed the economy.
6. Won't do anything again.
As another user mentionned, the main way to prevent players from buying gold is and greatly hurting gold selling in your games, is to actively ban the Buyers along with the Sellers. This will send out a clear message to the playerbase, and shoot the gold selling prices through the roof making them even less popular.
There is also another solution, which although doesn't 100% remove gold selling, does put a decent dent on the business. EVE allows players to trade a Subscription with other players through in-game currency. There are also F2P titles that allows players to sell Cash Shop items to other players using in-game currency. Both solution strongly encourages the players potentially looking for a source of virtual currency to buy from the MMO company and sell it in-game, rather than buying it from gold sellers and risking getting banned.
If it worked out well in other games then it should be implemented in future games to limit the potential for gold farmers.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
The only negatives I saw were players crying about the In-game currency price for RL currency inflating, which, as a game progresses is normal and necessary. Well and the "pay-to-win" mentality, which can be completely offset by not focusing all player progression on purchasable items. There are still Isk/Gold sellers in games that have this, but it's so much easier, better, smarter to buy from the company legally if you're going to do it (sportsmanship doesn't allow me to, ever). No ban risk, no hack risk, no scam risk.