That Plat Farmer may be a Convict.

[FrancisP.Fancypants]

Let me ask you a question....

Would you rather be forced to play a video game 18 hours a day or do 18 hours a day of hard labor?

Seems MMO farming would be the less cruel option lol

I thought about that. But when it comes down to it, China's not known for their cushy prisons. I imagine the punishment for failing is just as bad.

[paraplegic]

if they ban all china ip , sarlona will be shut down, any it will be a empty server. (almost empty)

[TrinityTurtle]

THe problem with the original article is that, at it's core, it's basically an anecdote. THere was actaully NO proof offered up, just one former prisoners word. We the reader have no idea of the persons character or motivation, or of any recompense from the reporter for the story.

It's POSSIBLE that it happens the way the person said, but it's also got some questionable factors. While we're used to computers and internet access in our prisons, this is somewhat unusual for the rest of the world in my understanding. And seems even more unlikely in a country like China, where it really is kind of like the spokesman (who obviously also we don't know the motivation of) said in the other piece, they really DON'T want their prisoners interacting with the world based on past history, therefor giving them means would be a really unlikely event in China. The reporter also only ever cites the one source, he does not cite ANY independant factchecking.

So I question the validity, even though it all sounds very plausible.

Also, I wonder what effect it would have if it were true. Do people who want to buy rather than spend their own time really care where it comes from? I kind of doubt it. Is it really something anyone wants to get involved in shutting down if the alternative is worse? Personally I would find the coal mining and other hard labor types far far worse and more likely to cause physical harm or death to an inmate than this. Shouldn't our attention be on the more immediate danger to life and limb to people first if we're going to interfere with another countries penal system? The abuse has nothing to do with the gold farming, they get abused for not making quota's on labor to, and that should also be addressed. But is sitting at a computer for 12 ours as was stated in the thing worse than physical hard labor for the same amount of time?

Another question, our own prisons put the prisoners to work to earn their keeps, including using them in call center/survey/and catalog type operations. Other than the abuse, which as I already pointed out is a separate issue gold farming or not, can we really say there is a difference in how the money is generated? Playing mmo's versus call centers? This is a huge do as we say but don't look at what we do issue for me. WE haven't even controlled our own abuse in prisons very well it seems, even though we're talk about it a lot and make a lot of laws that often don't get enforced.

I'm done thinking now, time to go play the game.

[killerzee25]

Agreed.

However, I would add; in-humane, exploitative tactics.

What do you expect? It is China and this does not surprise me.

Infuriate, yes. Surprise, no.


Question is;

Will Turbine, or ANY American MMO company, do anything so the player base is no longer unknowingly supporting the mistreatment, abuse, and immoral actions taken against these persons?

Far as I am concerned, BAN all China IPs.

This is completely ridiculous, sure there may be things wrong with the Chinese government but banning millions upon millions of people from the game because of something their government is doing is not the right solution.

[Postumus]

Chinese prisons are now not only forcing their prisoners to do harsh physical labor - but also to farm currency in MMOs, according to The Guardian. Prisoners play the game "until we could barely see things" in the words of the interviewee. And should they fall behind on their quota, they were harshly punished.

What, did they make them switch to Farmville?