David Barboza at the The New York Times wrote an article on people who outsource game playing to 'factories' in China. That's right, these 'players' want to win games...or at least acquire items without having playing the game themselves. So the Chinese have local 'gold farmers' who play games like World of Warcraft or Everquest in 12 hour shifts. The article says they make $250 a month.
The video game companies call it illegal, but what can they do?
I actually worked on a TV story about this more than a year ago. We found someone in Houston who pays for these services and had to conceal his identity for him to talk. Never thought I'd have to do conceal for a video game story. This player said it was a matter of time. He wanted to win, but just couldn't spend his time all day playing. I think his job got in the way.
When we produced the story, we didn't realize how organized this trend is. I figured it was just some kid who was trying to earn extra money. I should have known better. Globalization affects everything now.
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