The New New Slave Labour

By only

Wednesday June 20, 2007

We’ve been aware of and fascinated by the idea of virtual economies ever since our old music editor moved to Victoria and became a World of Warcraft junkie. The concept of paying real money for virtual/online goods is not a new one. Livings have been made off of it and books have been written about it for years. However, what is a new, crazy and scary concept for us is that this new virtual economy being outsourced to China, and into sweatshops.

Last weekend’s New York Times Magazine had one of the most fascinating pieces we’ve read in ages detailing this new Chinese labour force, know as gold farmers. These goldfarmers work 12-hour days, earning 25 cents-an-hour to play World of Warcraft non-stop and do nothing but collect virtual gold and other commodities to be sold on the internet to other players, the majority of which reside in the West. (There is a documentary on the phenomenon in the works, called Chinese Goldfarmers.) The subject is a complex one. The line between fun and work becomes blurred for these workers, and the practice of gold farming fuels animosity amongst other WoW players, which in turn breeds online racism.

Poor, Chinese people working in video game sweatshops, finding imaginary gold to sell to glassy-eyed man-children avoiding their lives in the developed world. If this isn’t the declining American Empire’s version of the vomitorium, we don’t know what is.