Chinese labour camps are said to be forcing prisoners to farm gold for westerners too lazy to do it themselves, torturing prisoners who do not earn enough, the time spent playing apparently not punishment enough.
The allegations were made by a former prison guard who was jailed and sent to a re-education camp for 3 years as punishment for complaining to the central government about local corruption.
In addition to the usual regime of punishing physical slave labour and communist brainwashing, he reports being forced to farm gold for sale to lazy westerners who cannot stomach the soul-destroying tedium of MMORPG gaming themselves:
“Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour.
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 ($800-$900) a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”
He was tortured for not farming enough gold, he says:
“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.”
China, the world’s gold farm, has enacted legislation intended to regulate the trade in virtual currencies, but inexplicably nobody seems to take any notice of them.
As the pay and conditions (for the voluntarily employed at least) are said to be significantly better than slaving away in a mine, farm or factory, and western demand for help in bypassing meaningless timesinks is as strong as ever, it is hard to see the practice ending any time soon – save perhaps by the simple expedient of Blizzard selling gold and items straight to users.
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If you can't keep the quota, you're forced to play Farmville...
Anything but that!
Beating by plastic pipes is fine thanx.
lol best reply ever
Sometimes I wonder how that country stays afloat. Then I remember.. There are so many of them. If a few thousand die.. there are more to replace them!
In China a million people is just a small amount.
they laugh at the saying "over nine-thousand"
As if anyone cares about the inferior 8000 compared to the superior 9000.
Who doesn't? The original phrase was 8000 after all.
are you trying to sympathize with criminals? criminals deserve it. also this article forgets to mention how japan abuses and kills criminals too, japan has a death penalty and it is widely known criminals are abused.
You mean that "criminal" whose crime was complaining about local corruption to a higher level government?
In Japan though, you don't get jailed that easily... Community service and fines are much more common penalty for crimes there. The people getting jailed in Japan are people who have done something big like murder or attempt of it. But yeah, the jails in Japan are pretty bad places but that's what they're meant to be, especially when only the real crooks go there.
In China however you can get jailed just by standing in a wrong place at a wrong time.
"...former prison guard who was jailed and sent to a re-education camp for 3 years as punishment for complaining to the central government about local corruption."
Really, you call this person a criminal?
yeah, that guy who got 3 years for complaining deserved what now?
Kinda like the Imperium of Man in Warhammer 40k but more evil.
everything in the Imperium are driven by frantic towards Emperor
and everything in the Chinese are driven by frantic towards money
Well, considering that the 40k timeline is nowhere near the golden vision of the God-Emperor... pretty much that.
you probably me Imperial Guard
I'm not surprise the only one who gets rich is the one in power. Filthy Shit Nation thinking high about themselves while other neighboring country and the low class Chinese see them as Trash. Wish and Pray a Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Leak upon THEM CHINA!
Like or hate them, but damn this is a smart way of doing it.
I'm watching Kaiji 2 now and it makes me giggle thinking about Kaiji freaking out over an intense MMORPG battle.
can someone say "chinese farming" :P (yeah i know completely different from the real term, i just find it ironic lol)
WOW (no pun intended) talk about being productive, now I guess the only thing they have to offer next is a weight loss program for the inmates who are sure to gain weight from all that playing MMORPG, provided they even get fed at all.
But damn, it'd be some kinda sweet punishment if it happened to the prisons here in our country its expensive enough to just play on official servers, let alone play all the time
No human rights and no labor laws. What a revolutionary idea!
California should really learn from China.
In a state where billions of dollars (8% of our state's budget) gets thrown down the endless well that is our prisons which are overcrowded and dysfunctional, we could be making a hefty profit out of them...
But wait, making criminals play games is a human rights violation!!!!
Well the idea of them cleaning roads, making license plates and generally doing minor manual labor grants a return, but of course the levels of some criminals make it dangerous to keep them near machinery. Costs of repairing machinery damaged by unruly prisoners in this day and age of political correctness where they can't beat them anymore is probably a bit exorbitant. But one would hope minimum security prisons and juvi prisons would at least put these people to work so they can put back into society, and get some kind of work experience in doing some things for the state.
yep an idea so revolutionary it has a name: it's called chinese revolution! :P
Or looking at drawn characters having sex...
Or you could stop locking people up for trivial shit like smoking pot.
for once i encourage a chinese practice, i don;t play, but i am way glad to hear they are doing this instead of pirate merchandise that ruins the market.
You wouldn't be encouraging it if you played the game, believe me. The amount of spam these chinese gold farmers produce is beyond a joke.
smart but evil
The Chinese are the Ferengi in disguise and are applying all 285 "Rules of Aquisition". They should change the title of China's President to Grand Nagus!
Profit, Profit and more Profit!!!!!
SOOO, if ill find one of those chinese diggers online and kill them all the time, they will get their asses beat?
...:)
lol
Great plan there!
I don't believe it.
I do believe that the actual gold farming businesses over there would like to get some sympathy for their otherwise horrible reputation however.
Conclusion: MMORPGs are as bad as going to prison or even worse. You heard it from the prisoners themselves.
The allegations were made by a former prison guard who was jailed and sent to a re-education camp for 3 years as punishment for complaining to the central government about local corruption.
That's some Stepford Wives nightmare fuel right there
I was forced to have fun OMG
This is not enough golds.
Hell, if you live in America your roads a generally maintained my non-violent offenders from county jails. It's not much different from slave labor. You get to pay taxes to the privately owned jails for keeping them in there and for the county highway department to buy their work from the jail. Only y'know, the slave labor in America is real and that's a game.
What a fuck up country.
What's your country then coward anonymous? I'm from England and I hate this country to hell as is. China definitely has it's problems, but I'm no bloody cherry picking hypocrite like most posters are from this site.
its those in the west their fault asking for others to farm gold
Um no one ask them to farm gold. I live in the west and play MMOS and I GD hate people who buy/sell gold.
Carry on being ignorant and in denial, fact is most of the profit these gold farmers gain are from us Westerners. Stop pretending that as if "NO ONE" from the West who plays MMORPG's don't use gold farmers...
Fuck me. Who needs Mad Magazine, The Onion, SNL, Comedy Central, or ANY of that shit? The regular news is becoming enough of a satire as it is!
China do treats most its ppl like trash, why they should have care with its prisioners?
criminals must be killed like animals not treated nicely.
I don't know that China how to treat it's people ,but by your comment I just learned that you are a cruel person absolutely.
You call that a punishment?
They have MMORPGs on CHINA?!
I thought this was gonna talk about an actual gold mine run on slave labor. I wouldn't put that passed China.