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Jul 7 2005, 08:13 PM

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Group: Dark Templar
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Interesting article on gold/gil "farmers"

excerpt

QUOTE

"Sack" is the only name I'm given for the person I'm supposed to contact. He lives in the Fujian province of China, but his place of business is online—he plays Lineage II. He's paid about 56 cents an hour to work in a videogame "sweatshop."

"I work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the U.S. Lineage II server," he says. He works long, boring hours for low pay and gets no holidays. Carefully constructed macros do most of the work; Sack is just there to fend off the occasional player itching for a fight or game master who's hunting for these automated farming programs. "Everyone knows where the good places are, and GMs know that your account has been online for a whole month," he says. "[A GM will] message me asking, .Hello, what level are you, please?' I know he isn't asking my level; he just wants to know if [there's actually a person at the computer]."

user posted image

The people in these pics taken at one virtual sweatshop make as little as 56 cents an hour
How does it work? The macros for World of WarCraft, for example, control a high-level hunter and cleric. The hunter kills while the cleric automatically heals. Once they are fully loaded with gold and items, the "farmer" who's monitoring their progress manually controls them out of the dungeon to go sell their goods. These automated agents are then returned to the dungeons to do their thing again. Sack's typical 12-hour sessions can earn his employers as much as $60,000 per month while he walks away with a measly $150.

This phenomenon is so prevalent now that everyone shrugs it off as just another occurance in any given game. If you think about it, it's really something you would read in a cyberpunk story. What's next?

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DarkEpyon View Member Profile	Jul 8 2005, 09:50 AM Post #2
Revolution to the Destruction Group: Paragon Caste Posts: 2007 Joined: 14-March 03 From: The Black Spiral Member No.: 21	Origin realized this was a fight they couldn't win, so they caved in and started selling "advanced characters" for UO a while back. I'm actually surprised others haven't followed suit. -------------------- "Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination." -Albert Einstein

Posts in this topic

Dive Wage Slave article from 1up Jul 7 2005, 08:13 PM

DarkEpyon Yeah, it does have that cyberpunk feel to it. Make... Jul 7 2005, 10:03 PM

HC82 It all just seems pretty fucked up. It also goes t... Jul 8 2005, 09:33 AM

DarkEpyon Origin realized this was a fight they couldn't... Jul 8 2005, 09:50 AM

Crushinator Very good read, good to see an actual investigativ... Jul 8 2005, 02:17 PM

HC82 QUOTE (Crushinator @ Jul 8 2005, 02:17 PM)It... Jul 8 2005, 04:08 PM

Crushinator I agree with you, that the time spent earning real... Jul 8 2005, 04:53 PM

Zorya I would never buy gil/gold/credits from any of the... Jul 11 2005, 11:08 AM

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