Slashdot Mirror
Third-World Sweatshops Producing Virtual Goods
prostoalex writes "MSNBC points to the court cases spawned by virtual worlds. Recently, Tom Loftus notes, a virtual island in one of the MMORPGs sold for $30,000, enough to attract commercial attention. Apparently, some businesses create third-world sweatshops, where low-wage laborers are being paid to play and accumulate enough virtual merchandise, so that an eBay sale of it makes the operation profitable. 'One such business, Blacksnow Interactive, actually sued a virtual world's creator in 2002 for attempting to crack down on the practice. The first of its kind to center on virtual goods, the case was eventually dropped,' MSNBC says." Update: 02/06 18:59 GMT by Z : We ran a story about the sale of the virtual island, and Terra Nova has a lot of commentary on the sale of virtual goods. For comparison, the economic impact of this phenomenon is roughly equal to that of Namibia or Macedonia.
I love how the definitions of various words have become so watered down over the last few decades making them nearly meaningless. Torture, which used to mean intense physical pain now means keeping someone awake for too long or insulting their cultural sensitivities.
Now, playing a video game in a small dark room for hours on end is a "sweatshop".
The fact is that most countries, even in the third world have employment laws that require better employment conditions than in the US. They may not always be observed but the fact that a company is in India does not automatically mean that the working conditions are like the black hole of Calcutta. There are sweatshops in New York City, they are not unique to the third world.
As for taking jobs from American workers, most of the lost jobs are in the red states. Sorry, but I would rather send my money abroad. If people can't tell the difference between the Clinton economy and the Dufus economy then they deserve everything they get.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
What a load of BS, do you actually believe everything you read at democratic underground?
What's the difference between the Clinton economy and Bushs? Bushs isn't artificially inflating to the point of causing a stock market crash and recession. Bushs economy is adding jobs at a rate faster than any time in history.
This is exactly the point.
The average person in a "call center" is stupid. There are a few gem employees who belong much higher up - like engineering, but for whatever reasons have not had the chance to muddle through to a better position. But for the most part, they're just people who can type, read a manual and read a script. Often people in call centers have almost no real technical experience or even an interest.
Now, if you're stupid but speak the language natively, you can at least muddle your way through and sometimes figure something out. But if you're stupid AND can't even speak the language (or very poorly), you come across even stupider and nobody wants to deal with you.
"The condescending attitude and disrespect of "blue-staters" toward the "red-staters" is one of the biggest reasons why you are losing election after election. "
"We" may not have lost the elections had the Secretary of State of Ohio had not "saved the country from liberalism" by thwarting every call for investigation of the games the pubs played with voting machines last November. Let's not even talk about Catherine Harris, who outright stole the election by selectively obeying the intent of the law. Oh, BTW: The SofS of Ohio is vindictively sanctioning the lawyers who had the temerity to question his criminal behavior. This is now a one party dictatorship, using the law as window dressing to get anything it wants and destroy whomever it hates.
As for the "condescending attitude": Karl Rove spawned horseshit. This "problem" with blue "attitude" was never mentioned by a damned soul until the hours after the election was called for Bush, in the wee late night. I witnessed the meme insertion by selected pundits, the "they condescend against poor christian believers" fabricated idiocy which was picked up by the usual Republican Wurlitzer the next day and accepted by the Katie Courics of the news media almost immediately. Rove had this PR campaign ready to go the instant they won the election, with the goal of deballing even what pitiful sway the Democrats could hold on the public imagination after they were "hugely defeated".
Excuse me: Bush had the lowest public approval of any reelected president after his "win"; he squeaked by in Ohio by tens of thousands of votes, he had no "mandate". He barely won, using the vilest personal attacks against Kerry's military service and congressional record, while simultaneously smothering what pitiful handful of journalists found about his desertion of the National Guard and his arrest record for drunken driving and cocaine use. This bastard has completely wired the national media to shill for him. It's a Randolph Hearst wet dream. They Bush team has used America's worst personality traits, the jingoism, laziness, bigotry, xenophobia, superstition, and hatred of the wrong sort of people to barely win a squeaker.
Now they are going to absolutely steal social security and divert funds to brokers. As Great Britain and Argentina showed us, much like the HMO fiasco, when allowed in, the con men rob 20 - 40 percent of the "private" funds for "administrative costs", AKA outright theft. No normal mortal can stop them, and a right-wing president has no desire to. It's his goal.
NOW, back to point: if ya'll think everyone in the "blue" states is laughing at you, you might want to collectively head for some psychiatrists, cause baby, you have some major doubts about your belief systems if you think everyone thinks you dumb. Get help. But don't piously murder brown people abroad and steal my cash and constitution while you are at it.
Knock of the Rove meme campaigns. No one cared or even much knew about "red" attitudes until you collectively started weeping about how the class was laughing at you. You suck at being winners; even as you take over my nation, you still play the victim card. Grow up.
Namibia or Macedonia are not whole countries. they are just, like, crap or something.
One of the weakest parts of MMORPG's has been the lack of emmersion. Everone want's to be the kick ass jedi or whatever. No one want's to be the bartender NPC or innkeeper. So what you get is a bunch of bots with limited responses and an empty simulated city. I say if these people in third world countries want to get paid for it then let them play the NPC's. It's a much more useful and less boring job than making items. The game will be much better and being a bartender in Everquest sure beats sewing sneakers all day. Think of all the Chinese political prisoners we will save from sewing volleyballs with their teeth. I personally think it's a win-win situation. They become actors in a sense. It could even become entertaining. We have fun being Neo and kicking ass. Just imagine the whole NPC social underclass that would be created. Their interactions alone could feul a psych thesis.