There’s a fascinating piece in The Guardian this morning reporting that many Chinese inmates (at least in Jixi labor camp) are forced to play online games to build up credit for prison guards.
One former prison guard cited in the article explains:
There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [$770-$925] a day… 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.
The practice is known as ‘gold farming’ and it has been around for a while. CBC Search Engine podcast (now on TVO) had one of the best overviews of this underground industry a few years back. The gold farming industry may be as much as a billion dollar industry, and for the sweatshop workers that it employs it’s no walk in the park.
You can hear the documentary here (mp3). Skip ahead to the 12:45 for the gold farming portion.
[Photo: Examiner]
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