The real cost of buying game money
By
all_hell,
Posted on: 2011-05-26 24:51 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Cool. prisoners get to play MMOs inside instead of back breaking real mining.
I'm ok with that.
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^ /Thread.
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Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
Cool. prisoners get to play MMOs inside instead of back breaking real mining.
I'm ok with that. |
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Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
Cool. prisoners get to play MMOs inside instead of back breaking real mining.
I'm ok with that. |
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But it was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real. "If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said |
@Demobot
Also on Steam
I assume China's prison system isn't just going to say "Welp, guess we'll do without."
If they weren't gold farming, however unpleasant the experience, they'd be stuffing teddy bears with asbestos or putting lead paint on action figures during that time period.
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I never said I cared about them. Forced labor camps suck. I'm blessed to not be there. |
Originally Posted by Demobot
Agreed, Chaos. That sounds like so much fun.
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Play?|
Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
Cool. prisoners get to play MMOs inside instead of back breaking real mining.
I'm ok with that. |
Play???
Really?? You're going to call forced repetitive clicking 'play'? Really?
That's like calling back breaking real mining 'exercise.'
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So that's how you climb out of an economic recession. Someone call Obama.
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But it is...
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Play?
Play??? Really?? You're going to call forced repetitive clicking 'play'? Really? That's like calling back breaking real mining 'exercise.' |
Issue 16 made me feel like this.
Warning: This poster likes to play Devil's Advocate.
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Originally Posted by Zombie Man
Play?
Play??? Really?? You're going to call forced repetitive clicking 'play'? Really? That's like calling back breaking real mining 'exercise.' |
And getting a blister on the thumb or forefinger is slave labour?
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Call him what?
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Originally Posted by ChaosAngelGeno
Someone call Obama.
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Depends, is it to his face or behind his back?
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Originally Posted by Navy Spider
Call him what?
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Why does it matter. He's not someone scary like Mike Tyson or Chuck Norris.
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Since there are multiple faces to choose from, the back would be the easier choice, for most.
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Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
Depends, is it to his face or behind his back?
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It's not a foced labor camp. . .It's a Behavioral Adjustment Facility.
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According to the article, they're actually playing MMO's in ADDITION to the back breaking real mining. Work all day in the mines, forced (insert random MMO here) playing at night for 6-8 hours per sitting. |
Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
Cool. prisoners get to play MMOs inside instead of back breaking real mining.
I'm ok with that. |
Personally I'm not terribly surprised by this, as first hand accounts I heard from some close friends of mine reflect this exact type of behavior even in the "legit" gold farms.
Andy Belford
Community Manager
Paragon Studios
Paying a 3rd party for in-game virtual goods like gold or influence or levels is just lamely stupid and the lengths the gold-farmers go through to hijack accounts and advertise their business is the price we players pay for other player's stupidity. Apparently now we see that stupidity has an even darker side. It's all starting to sound like illegal drugs.
And just like with illegal drugs - if there was no market, there would be no problem.
I hope the devs keep the incarnate stuff off the market. The moment we can trade those among ourselves is the same moment we'll get hit hard by RMT's again because some idiot will pay them for it.
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China wasn't in recession |
Originally Posted by ChaosAngelGeno
So that's how you climb out of an economic recession. Someone call Obama.
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So I guess buying gold (or inf or PLing or an epic mount or w/e) means subsidizing a brutal penal system. I guess that should bother one in proportion to their opposition to corporal punishment in general.
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Don't want to get all political, but I think the history of prohibition and legalization of alcohol and other drugs show how faulty this reasoning is. Driving an activity underground means that the underground can use that activity to subsidize itself. Organized crime was the real winner from alcohol prohibition and the Mexican drug mafias are the real winners from the war on drugs. If you want Chinese gold farms to be driven out of existence, then you need to offer a legit alternative, not just moralize in louder tones.
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Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
Paying a 3rd party for in-game virtual goods like gold or influence or levels is just lamely stupid and the lengths the gold-farmers go through to hijack accounts and advertise their business is the price we players pay for other player's stupidity. Apparently now we see that stupidity has an even darker side. It's all starting to sound like illegal drugs.
And just like with illegal drugs - if there was no market, there would be no problem. |
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If people didn't pay for RMT there would be no market for their virtual goods. I don't see how that can be disputed.|
Originally Posted by Pampl
Don't want to get all political, but I think the history of prohibition and legalization of alcohol and other drugs show how faulty this reasoning is. Driving an activity underground means that the underground can use that activity to subsidize itself. Organized crime was the real winner from alcohol prohibition and the Mexican drug mafias are the real winners from the war on drugs. If you want Chinese gold farms to be driven out of existence, then you need to offer a legit alternative, not just moralize in louder tones.
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Is it naive? Yes but that doesn't make it any less true. It wasn't like I was saying we need to wage war on chinese gold farmers or RMT in general. I'm advocating that people be smarter about who they do business with and let the chips fall where they may. Something everyone should do all the time anyway.
But the fact that it is SO profitable that people are resorting to criminal and immoral activities to sell virtual goods to people who could very well go get it for themselves boggles my mind and raises my hackles.
Now, if you want to call my desire to have the merits and incarnate salvage stay off the market as "waging war on chinese gold farmers," then ok, I'll take that label. Whatever it takes to keep RMT'ers away from me while I'm trying to relax with my game of choice.
The only part I'd take back in my original post is the comparison to illegal drugs. There's a difference between a person physically addicted to a drug and a dumb/lazy/frustrated/whatever player playing a happy-funtime-game who just wants to skip the "boring" stuff and get to the "good" stuff NAO!
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To be fair, the President's job is never to be scary.|
Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Why does it matter. He's not someone scary like Mike Tyson or Chuck Norris.
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It's all the black suits around him that get to be scary.
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So the Devs should make getting Influence easier.|
Originally Posted by PoisonPen
Those of you who quietly purchase game money and think no one is really being hurt, you need to read this article. Your fun is being purchased through the use of slave labour.
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Think of the Chinese prisoners!
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It also said that prisoners were making seat covers for cars. So buying a car means subsidizing a brutal penal system. If they can't make money off that, it'll be sewing athletic shoes or filling disposable lighters with butane or assembling DVD player components.|
Originally Posted by Pampl
So I guess buying gold (or inf or PLing or an epic mount or w/e) means subsidizing a brutal penal system. I guess that should bother one in proportion to their opposition to corporal punishment in general.
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I'm not defending illegitimate RMT sales. I'm saying that the problem in the article isn't gold farming, it's China.
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It's a good thing no one was disputing that, then.|
Originally Posted by Golden_Avariel
If people didn't pay for RMT there would be no market for their virtual goods. I don't see how that can be disputed.
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Are you familiar with the phrase, "if wishes were horses then beggars would ride?" I think it's pretty relevant here. Wishing that people would stop buying game money does nothing to solve this, no matter how hard you wish.
edit: re-reading this, it sounds snottier than I meant. No offense was intended.
Those of you who quietly purchase game money and think no one is really being hurt, you need to read this article. Your fun is being purchased through the use of slave labour.