Gold Farmer Documentary Preview

There's a preview up on YouTube of an upcoming documentary on Chinese Gold Farmers. Terra Nova links to the video in a discussion on the hypermobility of labour in the 21st century. From the discussion: "In watching the video, I am most struck by the intertwined empowerment/disempowerment that is occurring simultaneously for these Chinese workers. Their lives in these virtual worlds are brighter, but yet their interactions with American players (and associated slurs) are a constant reminder of their inferior socio-economic status. The disembodied hypermobility granted by these virtual worlds is, to a certain extent, dispelled when they are labeled as 'Chinese gold farmers'. For them, it is a double-edged sword."

Comments

Fascinating

[blunte]

Looking forward to a complete documentary.

Just like with "normal" players, there's a great variety in the behaviors. Some gold farms are friendly, even fun (and some are quite skilled in PvP), but some seem ignorant robots that do the same things non stop and repeat the same phrases in horribly broken English.

I've grouped with a few farmers before - even communicated to some degree with them (google for english to pinyin dictionary), but there are some universal behaviors they have. First and foremost, they will roll NEED on any item that drops, regardless of whether they can or would use it. As far as I can tell, they don't understand the difference between NEED and Greed.

In some respects they've done less damage than some of the other entrepreneurs - the ones who troll the auction house all day buying up every single item and repricing them higher. There's some guy on Eredar alliance side named Plate (and Platejr) who literally buys every single item within a range of levels and then reprices it roughly 4x higher than what it would normally sell at. That guy is far more despicable than people who churn away at Tyr's Hand all day.

Why would it not be ?

[Programmer_In_Traini]

Tsk, behind gold farming, there's a lot more than gold. Why do they do it ? Why do we buy gold if we hate that ? Why do we hate that ?

Its basically putting a human side on gold farming. Most of these chinese farmers folks live in the worst kind of situation and they do what they do for a living. You gotta do what you gotta do to put bread on the table right ?

Most situations in the world would be quickly solved if we'd at least try to get a good understanding. Personally, ever since I've started thinking about the why of gold farming, I've found myself struggling between grinding my ass (and keep my pride?) or just buy gold (and play more!) to do my part to help these guys.

So to answer your question, I will be watching it....

Double-Edged Sword

[kidcharles]

[Ironforge - Trade Channel] xengzi: u buy [Double-Edged Sword] 600g?

Re:Empowerment in real money that is

[vertinox]

How is this empowering? Sounds more like selfish to me. Stop playing my game!

If you live in China or some other nation where $.25 per hour for a job is a dream come true, this is very empowering. Its either this or work a slave wage job in an unsafe factory or mine. That or turn to crime...

Sure it ruins our games, but we are talking about people who don't have it good as us that have more money than we know what to do with so we spend it on "virtual" items.

These people aren't doing this for fun... They are doing it to feed their families or eek a living. (well maybe not all of them)

I don't blame them because they found a way to exploit a living.

I blame the game companies for making a game that is so tedious to play and level that people are willing to pay others to do it for them.

Re:No, we are tired of the grind.

[vertinox]

You're placing the blame on the wrong people. The blame is with the Me generation who want everything right now. Instead of working and EARNING things from their effort, they'd rather spend cash to get instant gratification. If you want to play that type of game, go buy a single player game with built in godmode.

Truth be told, I don't play MMOGs anymore, but I can tell you that it results from the following two reason (which are related to gold farming).

1. I'm tired of killing things over and over again to level.
2. I'm not willing to spend money on paying other people to do this for me.

I've been playing MUDs since Legend of the Red Dragon and I'm sick... so sick and tired of the same old formula. Kill 1,000 rats and get to level 10. Kill 10,000 Goblins and get to level 20. Kill 30,000 orcs and get to level 30.

After Muds, UO, EQ, Shadowbane, and WoW I am just sick and tired of killing things with not a simple damn end game or something like direct player interaction.

Truth be told, Ultima Online was the funnest MMOG I have ever played until they care beared and tried to copy EQ down to every last detail. I want to play a game for at the most 3 months and have my characters stats to what I want to be. The rest of the game should be a sandbox and player interaction (housing, crafting, player vs player, factions and basically player made content).

If I want to kill things over and over again to get a higher level so I can get a more powerful sword so I can kill more powerful things so I can level to get a more powerful sword yet again... You are right, I can play Diablo 2 or Baldur's Gate... Or maybe Fallout 2 which has more story and enjoyment than most of thes MMOGs today.

Ralph Koster is right... We need to shift focus away from mass genocide of rats and orcs and make the games more than just leveling. We need virtual worlds. Not single player hack and slash games with a chat interface with other players.

The games are broken and until they find a better system of advanment, neither the MMOG companies nor the gold farmers will see any of my money.

Like momma used to say:

[Kelz]

"Don't loot that! There are starving people in China!"

Re:breaking of rules = OK!

[_xeno_]

Are you paying 12-15 dollars a month to play a game?

Actually, yes, I think it's $14/month for my two characters in FFXI. By the way, FFXI is a lot more fun when you don't take it so seriously.

Don't you think being unable to progress in a game not because the game is hard, but because a outside entity has decided to make it so that you cant progress in the game without either working way harder than you should or paying them money is not extortion in a way?

Who made the game like that? Did the gilsellers? Nope. Did Square-Enix? Yep. I remember years ago people were complaining to GMs about players monopolizing spawn points, and Square-Enix's response was "that's fair play." Take it up with Square-Enix, not the players playing within their rules.

While it might be a new type of crime, whats going on IS a crime, but the same courts who would rule that extortion is illegal in real life, when it comes to the internet gets all fuzy since it is real money converted to fake money converted to real money again.

I disagree that it's extortion. Poor game design, maybe, but not extortion. It's a game! You don't have to play it. You can just quit, like I've done twice and my brother does weekly. (It's becoming a bit of a joke. "That's it! I'm never playing FFXI ever again!" Fast forward to the next day. "So, whatcha doin'?" "Um, hunting pirates in FFXI." "I thought you quit FFXI?" "Yeah, well, shut up.")

Back when it was released in the US, FFXI was set up such that it made gilsellers able to monopolize content. Square-Enix has slowly been changing the game to try and make up for this flaw in their game. But it's Square-Enix's job to police their game and not the courts. If the player's get fed up with the game world, they can just quit! No one is making you play FFXI. You're free to play any other MMORPG. Maybe World of WarCraft is more your speed. Maybe you'd rather play EverQuest II or Guild Wars. If you're that upset with the way Square-Enix is handling gilsellers in Final Fantasy XI, stop playing!

But please, don't involve the real-world legal system in a problem caused by poor game design.

Gold Farmers give Chinese players a bad name

[blindauer]

It turns out, not all Chinese WoW players are gold farmers. Maybe they're the exception rather than the rule, I don't know the numbers, but allow me to share an experience I had just a few days ago.

I'm killing gorillas in Un'goro crater, grinding my hunter up to level 54. I've been doing this for about 30 minutes now, and I find myself in front of U'cha, a gorilla boss who lives in this cave. There's a quest to kill him, and I've done it probably a dozen times on various other characters. Right now, on this character, I don't have the quest, and no real reason to kill U'cha. Except for the fact that I love killin'. So I am gonna kill him.

Just as I place my hunter's mark on U'cha's soon-to-be-departed ass, I get a group invite from a player named "Xiojuang", or some such Chinese sounding name. Now, I normally decline unsolicited group invites without a second thought. If you don't have the courtesy to ask me if I want to join you, I don't want to help you, it's just common courtesy to ask first. Also, the very Chinese sounding name reminds me of a gold farmer. Between trade channel spamming and spawn point camping, I generally hate gold farmers. I'm reasonably sure this guy is a gold farmer who needs my help (he's a warrior, several levels below me, and there's no way he's gonna take down this big ape on his own). But at this point I'm bored, so with a grin on my face, I accept the group invite to see what he wants.

We stand there in silence for minute, he and I. Then he says, "i am chinese friend". Fuck, I knew it, gold farmer. I respond, "umm... ok". More silence. Still standing just out of combat range of U'cha, my Chinese friend finally says, "i need kill him you help me plz". Well, you know, I was gonna kill him anyway. What's the harm in helpin this guy out? None, really, and I am bored, so I respond, "ok". "go go go", he says. Damn, he's impatient, as I'd have guessed. Fine, I'll kill. I send my pet after U'cha and, after giving him a few seconds to establish aggro, I open fire. Within 20 seconds U'cha is lifeless on the ground, and Xio is looting his corpse, picking up the quest item he needed.

Are ya happy, ya goddamn chinese gold farmer? See, this is where things change. Nearly as random as his unsolicited group invite, he opens a trade window with me, and without a word, places a pair of pants into it. They're mail pants, with +agility on them, pretty nice gear for a hunter of my level. It so happens that my gear is better, but I'm not going to turn them down, so I accept them, and, wondering why he did this, I message him with a simple "?". He responds, "i give you". Hmm, that's not what I expected at all.

Now, U'cha may be eating the floor, but my Chinese friend and I are still in the back of this cave, with at least a dozen gorillas between us and daylight. We're both going the same direction, so I figure, why not fight our way out of here together? In the battles which ensued during the course of our exit from the cave, several "green" (uncommon) items are dropped by various gorillas we kill. When grouped with strangers in WoW, it's generally accepted that any green or higher items are simply greed rolled by all members of the party, and the high roller gets the item. You can generally expect farmers to always roll "need", in order to get the items, whether or not they actually need them. They're going to put them up for sale in the Auction House. But this guy didn't roll, neither need, nor greed, he PASSED on both items. The first time, I messaged him, "hey, don't you want that? just roll greed...". He responded, "no you have". Whoa.

Finally we get to the exit of the cave. He messages me, "i go now". And then, "good bye friend". Then he mounts his horse and rides off.

Now, this guy was either NOT a gold farmer, or maybe just a really crappy one. Giving me items? Passing the roll on items? No, farmers would NOT do that, certainly not good ones. I think this was just a regular Chinese guy playing WoW, just lik