What's What! Video Game Facts (53/365)

Virtual gold collectors exist almost from the beginning of online multiplayer games. The thing is simple: a subject plays a lot, a lot, a lot, with the only objective of collecting coins. Then, sell those virtual coins to other players for real US$, involving monetary transactions with credit cards through bank accounts around the world.

The British daily newspaper Theguardian towards a great denunciation, Liu Dali, a Chinese prisoner who was imprisoned in Jixi prison in 2004 complaint that while serving his sentence, he and other inmates were forced to farm, that is to collect gold from World of Warcraft. Dali claimed the heads of the prison make more money forcing the prisoners to play than doing manual jobs.

According to him, about 300 inmates participated in this, playing in 12-hour shifts, detainees endure hard labour by day, online 'gold farming' by night and with a earned about 6,000 yuan a day around US $ 930. The prisoners of course never saw real money, the guards received all the profits, unlike other work programs within prison where the inmate receives a percentage of his work, they had to comply with virtual gold quotas, otherwise they received punishments.

In 2009 the Chinese government implemented laws that made it illegal for companies to negotiate with virtual currencies, Liu Dali is convinced that inmates continue to be exploited in this way.

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