China using prisoner labor in MMORPGs to mine gold?!?

[*kjm]

Funny thing is Bliz could stop all this by selling gold themselves.... and make even more $$$

 

[PingSpike]

What would be the point for China in amassing unreal gold that can only be used in that one game?

WoW gold is a more stable currency than the US dollar.

 

[OutHouse]

Funny thing is Bliz could stop all this by selling gold themselves.... and make even more $$$

The in game economy would go to shit.

 

[zinfamous]

http://games.slashdot.org/story/11/...m_campaign=Feed:+Slashdot/slashdot+(Slashdot)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam

Wow! How advanced of them. I see nothing wrong with it from a morality point of view (except for the torture if not meeting quota).
I think prisoners should perform manual labor anyway. Gaming while in prison sounds awesome!

lolwtf.

 

[JimmiG]

This is why I don't play online games. To really succeed, you have to cheat, spend all your waking hours playing the game and/or pay your way to the top using real money.

I prefer artificial intelligence over real stupidity.

 

[Pantlegz]

My very first toon (4 years ago) got banned when I bought gold. 3 days after I bought it I had a email from blizz saying my account was on a 3 day hold pending investigation of... Sure enough 3 days later got a second email telling me my account was deleted due to violating the rules.

So go ahead and buy gold, let us know if your account gets deleted.

I bought gold on wow more than once and never had any sort of issues with it. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe you bought from the shitty seller...

 

[makken]

Back when I was in a raiding guild I did a little gold selling on the side (any decent raiding guild is going to be overflowing with gold from BoPs, achievement and mount runs, etc). You'll be surprised how many people actually buy gold. I only got a warning once (got greedy and moved about 500k gold a little too quickly)

 

[hanoverphist]

Well, the United States use to use prison labor to benefit the country.
Sadly, the "progressives" thought forced labor is prison was bad and now we don't have it.
Instead our prisoners just leech off the taxpayer while giving nothing back to the society whos social compact they violated.

az still has chain gangs cleaning freeways and demo stuff. kind of funny looking too, they wear the black and white stripes and everything, looks like right out of a movie.

ive never paid for gold, but i doubt WoW is the only game they are playing. lineage and lineage 2 were HUGE for that kind of farming as well, and im sure any new game that comes out with a monetary system will be a target for the farmers. we have kicked a few people out of our guilds over the years (and across 4 different games) for being gold/ character buyers. we have also kicked for using bots as well.

 

[hanoverphist]

So they ban all people who have received gold from gold farming bots?
What if you bought gold from a legitimate person who acquired the gold through moral means? I guess they wouldn't be able to detect that.

wasnt for buying from a specific person/ account, the bolded says exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy which puts it against the intended game mechanics, ie collect your own gold.

09/20/2007
World of Warcraft Account Notice - Final Warning
From:
"WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com" <WoWAccountAdmin@blizzard.com>
To: *******@YAHOO.COM
* * * NOTICE OF FINAL WARNING * * *

This is a notification regarding the World of Warcraft account ******. Access to this account has been temporarily disabled for exploitation of the World of Warcraft economy or for being associated to accounts which have been closed for intended exploitation. Based on a review of the information presented, this World of Warcraft account has been given a final warning and a 72 hour account suspension, in addition to any previous warnings issued. Until the suspension has been lifted, the account will not be accessible. Please note that Blizzard Entertainment will be unable to provide further information regarding the specific time an account will become accessible again.

 

[Jeff7]

Now that is a stretch...

I think you underestimate how little value some people place on the lives of others.

I'm not saying we'd get to that stage immediately, but eventually there would certainly be pressure and influence exerted by those who benefit from having an extremely cheap workforce at their disposal.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Well, the United States use to use prison labor to benefit the country.
Sadly, the "progressives" thought forced labor is prison was bad and now we don't have it.
Instead our prisoners just leech off the taxpayer while giving nothing back to the society whos social compact they violated.

Eh, the ones around here are always cleaning the base and what not.