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Thursday, September 15, 2011

Games / Economy Video Game Auction House Could Ensnare Video Sweatshop Workers

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 4:20 PM

Posted by news intern Paul Holmes

Last month, Blizzard Entertainment announced the addition of an auction house to Diablo III, a multiplayer online role-playing game coming out next year that looks pretty sweet. What's interesting to me is the auction house, which essentially establishes a way to spend your time and money.

In games like Diablo III, people put a lot of time into characters that require very specific items (from the Stone of Jordan to Verdungo's Hearty Cord). These items are rare. More than that, it's almost impossible to find the best versions of the rare items you're looking for without trading. People are willing to pay real money for the best virtual items, and Blizzard built an ingenious auction house around that desire. If you pillage an item you think is valuable, you can sell it in the auction house for a list fee and a sale fee. If you cash out, Blizzard will take a small cut (if you don't spend that money in the auction house yourself).

These rare items are going to be worth a lot of money. For perspective, a third-party vendor of items for Diablo II has an axe on sale for $239.97.

For some players, this could literally be a full-time job and an income. Most likely, it would be a small income. So... most likely, it'll result in many more kids farming for rare items in video sweatshops in Asia. And because of historical game usage, Blizzard is specifically allowing gamers in Oceania and Southeast Asia access to the North American servers, creating a huge incentive to exploit cheap labor.

Comments (19) RSS

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Just a wee bit of a stretch on this one.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 4:26 PM

So... To be clear... Being paid to play video games is exploitation. Wow. Stunning.

Posted by You_Gotta_Be_Kidding_Me on September 15, 2011 at 4:42 PM

@1 a stretch? So all of the gold miners for WoW in Asia don't exist? If there's a way to exploit - people will find it. There is already an established problem with this in WoW, it's only a matter of time before it's done with Diablo 3.

You can't honestly believe that no one is going to try to take advantage of this to try to make money. If so, you're really fucking naive.

Posted by velma

on September 15, 2011 at 4:43 PM

@3 When I was a child I would have LOVED to be able to earn money playing a video, especially if the alternative was to work in horrible conditions farming soil that won't support crops .... so no, it's not exploitation, it is an alternative. I had to work as a kid in the US, not because my family needed but because my dad wanted us to learn the value of the dollar, we did. It was called "chores" ... eventually I opted for a paper route in place of chores, and that was real work. Got a real job when I was 16 and by the time I was 18 afforded my OWN apartment. If that was all exploitation then why don't you adopt a bunch of 20 year olds.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 4:48 PM

The market for in-game crap exists whether or not it's sanctioned by the developers of the game. This has been the case for bascially every MMO or multiplayer game with some kind of in-game economy over the past ten years. Blizzard- and every other company that's gotten aboard the cash shop wagon lately- isn't encouraging the tendency any more than their games already were, but now they're bringing the item market into a format they can oversee and manage themselves. They will also make a lot of money. Go them.

Also, the 'playin' video games is fun! this ain't that bad a job!' argument is stupid. Any repetitive task you have to do for hours and hours a day- and farming up the gold and items people want in these games is going to consist of raw, efficient grinding- is going to get old, especially if there are quotas to meet and consequences if you don't.

Posted by Zebes

on September 15, 2011 at 5:04 PM

Do a little research into gold farming before you go off spouting about "back in MY day..." etc

These aren't kids being punished by their parents. These are adults being forced to farm gold so their "employers" (or in the case of the Chinese prisoners who were forces to do this, their prison guards) can then turn around and sell that gold/item/whatever for real profit while the people who actually earned those items don't get shit. EXPLOITATION.

Posted by velma

on September 15, 2011 at 5:12 PM

Sorry, prisoners are prisoners, no, I have no sympathy for prisoners, especially in another country. If the majority of that country wanted change, it would change. I get no sympathy in the US, shy should I give any to anyone else? But "sweatshop" is not the same thing as prisoners working, very different situation.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 5:22 PM

@7 Hahahaha well I'm glad you now know what exploitation is - even if you just don't give a shit about the person being exploited.

Posted by velma

on September 15, 2011 at 5:41 PM

@7

It's true, everybody in prison in China is there for a good reason because they are a bad, bad person. All people in prison everywhere are bad guys.

Posted by Zebes

on September 15, 2011 at 5:53 PM

@9 As far as I know, yep, sometimes some are found innocent afterward, I feel for them but not enough to care about the ones that are guilty. But again, my "type" gets no sympathy from anyone, why should I give a shit what happens to anyone else? Since it's pick and choose who we care about with everyone, I'm choosing only the group I belong to. I know, how selfish of me to not care about the people that don't care about me.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 6:16 PM

Oh and @4 I'll have you know that playing video games and knowing real work are not mutually exclusive.

Posted by velma

on September 15, 2011 at 6:16 PM

KK is just hitting the blog running. I like this!

Posted by Beetlecat on September 15, 2011 at 6:32 PM

@11 I know. ;) There are careers that video games are either part of or are the main center of.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 6:42 PM

@12 Thanks for the encouragement, I just hate seeing anything that looks bad on video games being taken out of context. Personally, I don't like MMOS at all, but meh, since it's part of something I do care about, I can't exclude them and only defend the ones I do like, that would just be wrong.

Posted by KittenKoder

on September 15, 2011 at 7:05 PM

@2 The working conditions of the "gold farmers" as they are generally known is terrible. They either let their children starve to deal with working 14 hour shifts with 1 break to pee or eat.

Posted by Packeteer on September 15, 2011 at 8:55 PM

"But again, my "type" gets no sympathy from anyone, why should I give a shit what happens to anyone else? "

Spoken like a true conservative.

Posted by slings and arrows, slings and arrows on September 15, 2011 at 9:21 PM

They couldn't control the illegal po- I mean, gold farming, so they legalized it and taxed and controlled it on their terms. If only there was some kind of analogy I could use here.

Posted by prompt on September 16, 2011 at 12:12 AM