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The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer
An anonymous reader writes "This weekend's New York Times Magazine puts a human face to the 'gold farming' profession. Virtual world economist Julian Dibbell travels to Nanjing, China, for a look at the working conditions and first-hand experience of farming gold from virtual monsters as a way to make a living. From the article: 'At the end of each shift, Li reports the night's haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20. The small commercial space Li and his colleagues work in -- two rooms, one for the workers and another for the supervisor -- along with a rudimentary workers' dorm, a half-hour's bus ride away, are the entire physical plant of this modest $80,000-a-year business.'"
At his workstation in a small, fluorescent-lighted office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sat shirtless and chain-smoking, gazing purposefully at the online computer game in front of him.
They've built a mom's basement in China where they can all do it better for half the price. Even geeks aren't immune from outsourcing.
If any of you have access to good prices for bulk tissue and lotion, I have a great idea for the next activity to outsource to China. Access to a tiled area with good drainage a must.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/14 Need to get me one of those... imagine the savings! :p
I keep telling myself I'm not the desperate type.
I don't think I'll ever get the stink of geekiness off of me after reading that.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
More importantly, economists need to start providing HBI (Hooker and Blow Index) numbers in these articles, so that we can adequately compare wages in different countries.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Yeah, and sell them at Whole Foods with a big poster showing one of the gold farmers and the story behind his life and his gold farming. It shows him staring passionately at a computer screen in some smoky room with a bunch of post-it notes on the monitor.
"This is Chang Lee. He helped bring this WoW gold to your local store. He works over 12 hours a day, part of which pays back the microloan he used to purchase the lvl 20 paladin he uses to harvest gold..."
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
At the bottom of the
Yeah. I'm sure "extensive knowledge of epic drops and mote grinding" will go real big on the resume.
if a rich guy buys a +5 sword of icefarting in WoW, or whatever, who fucking cares
"Are there any Orcs around? Because my dagger is +10 against Orcs."
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
For the most part, they use them to get something to show off their "e-peen".
If that's all it is, why not allow players to purchase a literal e-peen. For $20, your night elf has a conspicuous bulge in his/her pants.
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
No, because the person buying a Ferrari bought it to drive it, not clean it. Presumably if you pay to play a game, you're paying to play the game. Paying someone else to play a game for you is bordering on absurd. It would be like buying a Ferrari and paying someone else to dress up as you and drive it around town in your place.
What about the person who has someone else swim in their pool?
"Who's that swimming in your pool, Bob?"
"Oh, that's my pool boy. I don't have time to swim in it myself so I pay this Chinese guy to swim in it for $.30 an hour. Pretty cheap compared using my much more valuable time to do it."
"Gee, Bob, don't you think it is kind of silly to own a pool, not use it yourself *and* pay someone else to use it? I mean, shouldn't your pool boy be paying you for the privilege of swimmin in it?"
"Privilege? Swimming is a lot of work. My time is money. Swimming in that pool would actually be a loss of money above and beyond the cost of purchasing and maintaining it. It is much cheaper to pay my pool boy to do it."
"Then why'd you buy a pool then, Bob?"
"Because the pool looks good in my back yard and having someone swimming in it makes me seem more active to my neighbors. Did you notice that the Chinese guy kinda looks like me from a distance?"
"Oh."
Our friend Bob likes to sit around the pool and watch the pool boy swimming.
-matthew
"THERE IS NO JUSTICE, THERE IS ONLY ME." -Death
By your analogy, Bob must be getting a good tan and tone muscles, even though he can't use those muscles properly or efficently, he has the appearance of a seasoned swimmer. ~Kyle
Best. Post. EVER.
;)
God knows many WoW players need a RL peen leveling service, xp is hard to come by, although when you do the grind is fun.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.