Notes

Inside World of Warcraft Gold Farm, Future Of Work



Inside World of Warcraft Gold Farm, Future of Work

Wagner James Au, November 26, 2006



If you want a glimpse of the future of work in the age of broadband you can find it, among other places, on the MTV website. To my knowledge the recent news segment about gaming, "Is Mining Virtual Gold Exploitative?" features the first video footage from inside Chinese gold farms, the grey market companies that collect and sell virtual gold (primarily from World of Warcraft) to wealthier gamers in the developed world. (The New York Times filed an article on the subject last year, but the company's managers were much more cautious about speaking on the record with that reporter.)



Ge Jin, a UC San Diego grad student has written an interesting MTV segment that features interviews with managers and workers of several gold mining farms. The segments are based on Ge Jin's documentary (YouTube video here). According to the segment, half a million Chinese earn money from WoW sales to the US and EU. This is the future of online work. Take into account the youth and low wages of gold farmers as well as the increasing interest in outsourcing online tasks. Amazon recently launched an app called Amazon Mechanical Turk that isn't an actual game.



In Second Life, a Hollywood production company has decided to outsource its Second Life projects to its Vietnamese branch, where highly-skilled workers can create professional 3D environments at a fraction of the cost, were it done here. It's easy to envision how the Chinese farmers of Warcraft might evolve into the blue collar workers of the 3D Internet.



Matt Sunbulli, the MTV's producer put us in touch to Ge Jin. We asked Ge Jin questions regarding the phenomenon and sought his views about how it is related to the future work online.



How did you find these gold farms?



Ge Jin: I have a friend who had been operating a gold farms in Shanghai since 2003. This is why his gold farm was the first one I visited. The gold farm that my friend was in closed in 2005, as did the majority of gold farms in Shanghai. Many of them moved to smaller cities that have lower housing costs and more human resources.
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So I made contact with other gold mines through my friend's old network... I was lucky enough to find several gold mines that were open to me in Jinhua, Nanjin, Lishui and Hangzhou. Again , I was fortunate to win their trust. It could be because I am from the same family as a lot of gamers (many owners of gold farms were gaming workers).



Are gold farmers afraid of the Chinese government will shut them down?



GJ - The people who let me to film there didn't seem to be scared because they live in cities that are open to this type of business. There is no national policy to regulate this new industry so it's left local governments to make the final decision.



Gold mining farms can reduce the rate of unemployment and decrease crime by keeping young men from the streets and out of jail. Local governments rarely have the incentive to shut them down. Some gold mines refused to let me visit for a variety of reasons, whether it's because they don't want to pay tax or because they are concerned about their work practices.



What does WoW Gold Farming reveal about the future of work and the implications?



GJ I believe these gold farms prove that the game platform is able to bring more people into an internet-driven economy. The gaming workers in China don't have skills like English software, or graphic design to participate in other forms of online-driven work, but they do communicate and navigate the 3D game world that has tools and routines they're familiar with... If more social and economic activities happen in an accessible 3D game world, those who aren't able to access other culture capital but have gaming know-how will be more likely to participate in global interaction.



- Category: Online Featured Games Tablet PC





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