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Sweatshops and Lycan lap dances.
Alhmador
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article648072.ece
As if gamers didn't have enough to worry about. Now people who play WoW and other MMOs didn't have enough to deal with. Now we're (indirectly) responsible for putting people into sweatshops in China. Honestly.
In any case... While I was reading the story I saw some interesting things written. It's odd. I personally never knew of anyone who received a lap dance from a lycra-wearing werewolf in an MMO. Also... I don't believe that it is possible to *mug* a character. At least not in the way these people are describing. Food for thought. Pretty weird stuff.
As if gamers didn't have enough to worry about. Now people who play WoW and other MMOs didn't have enough to deal with. Now we're (indirectly) responsible for putting people into sweatshops in China. Honestly.
In any case... While I was reading the story I saw some interesting things written. It's odd. I personally never knew of anyone who received a lap dance from a lycra-wearing werewolf in an MMO. Also... I don't believe that it is possible to *mug* a character. At least not in the way these people are describing. Food for thought. Pretty weird stuff.
Alhmador on
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If you buy gold, then yes - perhaps.
Maybe you need "Fair Trade" farmers.
1) The quotes selected misrepresent the playing experience and the impact of gold farmers on the every day experience of gamers
2) The writer has little to no experience with MMOs
3) Any article that lumps Second Life and WoW together is doomed to failure
Playing WoW has nothing to do with it; buying gold and/or power leveling services drives these markets.
Edit: As for using these services, these are some reasons why I think they should be stopped:
By paying for gold and/or power leveling services, you're also negatively impacting the game experience of others indirectly. In WoW, gold farming causes AH prices to rise, sometimes beyond the means of players who do not use those services. FFXI is actually a great example of a game in which the economy was essentially destroyed by gil sellers. It was well nigh impossible to buy anything at an affordable price because of the rampant inflation caused by them. Blizzard wants to get rid of gold farmers to prevent that sort of inflation spiral that ruins the experience for gamers who actually play by the rules.
As for power leveling, it also causes massive gameplay issues since you can have players at cap who have absolutely no idea of what they're doing or of the social rules in use. One of the important parts of WoW is learning how to play the game (or class, if you're already experienced) as you level. I've definitely been in parties where one of the people has absolutely no clue how to play. It was pretty obvious he had been power leveled to cap since he didn't know how to speak only in the party channel, control his pet, or have any basic sense of the aggro system. He managed to wipe us 4 times (at significant expense of time and gold to everyone else) before we kicked his dumb hunter ass out of the party.
Oddly enough, the article didn't address any of this. Rather, they mentioned "mugging," which you can't even do in WoW or EQII as far as I know. I don't think you can do it in Guild Wars either. So I have no clue where that crap came from.
Ultima Online my good sir.
Shogun Streams Vidya
They didn't mention that game. And does anyone play UO anymore?
It still has a small following yes, but I believe the majority plays on privately-held shards. As everyone has pointed out the article is garbage to begin with so I think the author may have fudged some small details to give it some more meat.
Shogun Streams Vidya
First it was video games make people violent. Hopefully we won't be thrown under the bus with this sweat labor thing.
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They have AC christ
Shogun Streams Vidya
The people who are going to be inclined to both believe this and care are the people who are so blinkered and anti-gaming anyway that they were probably already thinking this was the case before they read the article. Some guy who hates gaming wrote an article so a bunch of other people who hate gaming can nod their heads and go, "Ayup, ayup."
This is roughly the equivalent of some guy posting on Free Republic about how Democrats drink the blood of aborted fetuses to maintain their youth. It just adds to the noise.
They put tiny little AC units on each computer that pump heat directly into the faces of the gamers. It costs a little more, sure, but it's just not a real sweatshop if the workers aren't falling over from heat exhaustion.
Yeah but when you say air conditioned shop no one will know what you're referring to.
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No they'll just think its in America instead.
Shogun Streams Vidya
Americans work insanely long hours with relatively low pay? You just proved that they won't know what you're referring to. If I say "apple" and you think "banana", you don't know what I am referring to.
You're absolutely right; non-gamers who talk about gaming are like illiterate people who talk about books. For me this article drives home the fact that gold farming has gone from a few guys to several large scale operations; it also illustrating the futility of trying to prevent it. I suppose to the average reader the article simply translates as "games are evil".
*Edited for clarity.
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EDIT: If you add up the cost of the box and all my monthly fees, I still sold my UO account at a profit. And I was never a power-gamer, I just played recreationally. The market for this stuff is ridiculous.
It's about finding that tipping point without harming the in-game experience. Cracking down on gold farmers actually improves the vast majority of users' experiences so I'm all for stricter enforcement.
And anyway, you can't find the best items on the AH anyway; you need to run instances or PvP like a madman
Power to them and I hope anyone who buys gold/uses powerleveling services gets hepatitis.
I was under the impression that at least compared to most other 1st world countries, we do work far more hours with far less awesome benefits.
Do you have any concept of what a sweatshop is? Here's a hint: your average American in those low-paying jobs probably makes as much as every employee in a sweatshop COMBINED.
If you're able to support yourself with 40hrs of work a week you're doing a lot better than most of the world.
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I was responding to Vincent Grayson's post regarding other first world countries. It's true that compared to the rest of the world we are extremely well paid. Our idea of long hours is completely different based on our own society, but don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be here in the States. We have it better than a lot of people and I don't mean to put anyone else's predicament down, wherever they may live.
I missed that, NM.
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