Chinese Prisoners Forced to Play World of Warcraft, Detainee Says

Chinese Prisoners Forced to Play World of Warcraft, Detainee Says

A former prisoner of a Chinese labor camp claims guards are forcing detainees to play online games as part of a huge money-making scam.

Liu Dali toldThe Guardian websitethat guards traded the credits inmates built up playing games such asWorld of Warcraftfor money.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," he said.

"There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5000-6000rmb a day.

"We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Dali -- not his real name -- is aged 54 and was sent to Jixi re-education camp inHeilongjiangprovince in northeastChina, in 2004.

He said he would spend his days either breaking rocks or assembling car seat covers and his nights playing computer games.

Dali said that if he didn't complete his credit quota, the guards would punish him: "They would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."

The building up and trading of game credits is known asgold farming. Millions of gamers around the world pay real money for the credits in order to save hours of playing time.

Gold farming is rampant in China and other developing nations. Many Chinese gamers have full-time jobs as gold farmers but The Guardian story highlights the first time it has been practiced in labor camps.

Quoting figures from theChina Internet Center, the paper says almost £1.2 billion ($1.65 billion) worth of virtual currencies was traded in China in 2008.

If I had to play WoW 12 hours a day I would beg for the death penalty...

That's needlessly cruel and inhumane. Why not just execute them?megagene

I never would have thought that some of those gold farmers on WoW were forced to do it

Having a hard time believing this.

Wow, their complaining about playing a game? Would they rather break rocks for 12 hours straight? Or clean toilets?

Wow, their complaining about playing a game? Would they rather break rocks for 12 hours straight? Or clean toilets?

GrodyBean

At least let them playing soemthing fun...

LOL all these prisoners who get out of jail end up superaddicted to WoW which in turn increases the likelyhood of them returning to prison.....

Anyway i'm a big supporter of forced labor in prisons if the forced labor increases the likelyhood of getting a job after being released from prison.
Obviously playing world of warcraft doesn't offer a decent future prospect so i am against it, besides that the farmed gold is most likely used to sell for real money which is illigal according to blizzard policies.

These prisoners are forced into Gold Farming

That's hardly considered "playing" and is definitely NOT FUN. Imagine grinding the same monsters or doing some mundane task, over and over again for 12 hours. Most gold farmers use automated bots to perform these tasks, they're using human beings.

These prisoners are forced into Gold Farming

That's hardly considered "playing" and is definitely NOT FUN. Imagine grinding the same monsters or doing some mundane task, over and over again for 12 hours. Most gold farmers use automated bots to perform these tasks, they're using human beings.

Blue-Sky

Ha, I'm sure there are plenty of WoW players that would love to do this type of "manual labor".

Ha, I'm sure there are plenty of WoW players that would love to do this type of "manual labor".

THGarrett

Every single wow player out these hates farming, so no there won't be any WoW players who would enjoy this kind of labor.

Wow (pun intended :P) that sucks. Sounds like they never get to sleep and if they fall asleep, they get beat for it.

I always wanted to try WoW... Then again, I don't want to go to a Chinese prison.

The word "play" in the headline is not exactly appropriate here.

Chinese Prisoners Forced to Play World of Warcraft, Detainee Says

A former prisoner of a Chinese labor camp claims guards are forcing detainees to play online games as part of a huge money-making scam.

Liu Dali toldThe Guardian websitethat guards traded the credits inmates built up playing games such asWorld of Warcraftfor money.

"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," he said.

"There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5000-6000rmb a day.

"We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

Dali -- not his real name -- is aged 54 and was sent to Jixi re-education camp inHeilongjiangprovince in northeastChina, in 2004.

He said he would spend his days either breaking rocks or assembling car seat covers and his nights playing computer games.

Dali said that if he didn't complete his credit quota, the guards would punish him: "They would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."

The building up and trading of game credits is known asgold farming. Millions of gamers around the world pay real money for the credits in order to save hours of playing time.

Gold farming is rampant in China and other developing nations. Many Chinese gamers have full-time jobs as gold farmers but The Guardian story highlights the first time it has been practiced in labor camps.

Quoting figures from theChina Internet Center, the paper says almost £1.2 billion ($1.65 billion) worth of virtual currencies was traded in China in 2008.

Blazerdt47

ha hah wow, they are lucky.

Wow, their complaining about playing a game? Would they rather break rocks for 12 hours straight? Or clean toilets?

GrodyBean

Ha, I'm sure there are plenty of WoW players that would love to do this type of "manual labor".

THGarrett

Not really. That's why gold farming is so big, as players hate grinding to build up gold.

Playing a video game for 12 hours is considered forced labour? Before I found a girlfriend and lived in my parents basement, I used to play video games for 12-14 hours FOR FUN. I could see 24+ hours... pumping caffeine into them to keep them awake... but to me, this seems an odd claim for "forced labour" when under the Nazis, people suffered quite a bit more and weren't even fed. foxhound_fox

It said in the article the spend all day breaking rocks and doing manual labor and then all night playing WoW. If they didn't meet a quota they were beat. How is that not forced? Woking all day and then having to play a video game for 12 hours straight. All grinding too.

I cannot believe you compared yourself in your comfy basement playing video games to people in prison being FORCED to play and they CAN'T STOP if they want too or they'll be beat. Not to mention it's illegal.....

Wow sucks for them.

At least they're doing something productive that benefits society :Pmattbbpl

It said in the article the spend all day breaking rocks and doing manual labor and then all night playing WoW. If they didn't meet a quota they were beat. How is that not forced? Woking all day and then having to play a video game for 12 hours straight. All grinding too. I cannot believe you compared yourself in your comfy basement playing video games to people in prison being FORCED to play and they CAN'T STOP if they want too or they'll be beat. Not to mention it's illegal.....howlrunner13