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Virtual Farming Firsthand

Posted by Zonk on from the a-sad-state-of-affairs dept.

This past weekend we discussed virtual sweatshops, and the legal issues they bring up. Today Terra Nova has a discussion in which Julian Dibbell, noted VW economics researcher, asks do such things really exist? Firsthand experiences would seem to indicate they do, with extensive chat logs (via Broken Toys) and the experiences of players documenting farming behavior.

3 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. Almost as prevalent by Sparr0 · · Score: 2, Informative

    At one point in time people running macros and scripts (controlling their characters) to produce game-money were almost as prevalent as the sweatshops. Sadly I was stuck on a sub-par internet connection at the time, and not old enough to move out on my own, but I made about $10000/mo for just shy of 8 months running a pair of computers playing Everquest for me while I slept. Today the sweatshops have taken over, but once upon a time it wasnt so.

  2. Re:Even more conspiracy by realdpk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Sure that guy wasn't just a AO/DAOC employee trying to catch people in the act of buying?

  3. Re:virtual economy... by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Informative
    The fact of the matter is, you are paying the game company to use their service. You are agreeing to a contract with their rules in it.

    In other words, you are not entitled to ANYTHING. They can make those rules for whatever reason they want, but as long as you pay them and are under that contract, you play by their rules or you don't play at all. There really is no point in debating this.

    --
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