Monday, February 26, 2007
Video Game Sweat Shops
Wow! I just read this article from the New York Times.
This is an amazing example about the creativity that opportunistic capitalism can unleash - we ain't in the 20th century anymore.
"Worlds of Warcraft" is a popular on-line, multi-player "Dungeons and Dragons"-type game. It seems that Western gamers are impatient to build high-level characters, and the Chinese have figured out a way to exploit this.
They now have "Gold Farms", where young Chinese make a living by "playing" Warcraft 12-hours a day. They kill monsters, get gold, magic items, and experience. The companies pressure them with quotas.
Then, through ads, the companies sell gold and experienced characters to gamers in the West.
This is outsourcing meets Dungeons and Dragons ;-0
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1 comments:
I find it troubling that people would pay for characters What makes games like WoW fun is the sense of accomplishment when you level your character up. What fun is it if you just buy a character?
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