14 DAY TRIAL // A report from an ex inmate from a Chinese labor camp suggests that those kept there have been forced to play popular MMOs, like World of Warcraft from Blizzard, in order to farm gold that could then be turned into real world money for the prison bosses.
Liu Dali, the pseudonym for a prison guard that was himself thrown in prison in China, has said, "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000 RMB a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”
He added, “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.”
From the statements, the former prisoner has made it seem that in a lot of ways the forced gold farming done in the camps was more profitable than the other economic activities that took place there.
It also seems that most of the money did not enter the Chinese government purse but was passed along to so-called “bosses,” officials that had the power to control what happened in the work camps and could siphon the profits made.
China has announced that it was cracking down on the practice of gold farming during 2009, but the practice is still thought to be widespread in the country, with many MMO players generating their daily income from selling in-game currency for real money.
MMO developers tend to ban gold farmers as fast as they can, but this does not deter them in the long term and it seems that only establishing an official market to convert real world money into in-game currency can stop the phenomenon.