This morning I was up early at 7am in the morning
A friend sent me this link
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KH1LGdjZUKQ&feature=related
It is basically an interview with what us gamers refer to as a "Chinese Gold Farmer"
What is a Chinese gold farmer? It is a man whose professional career operates in the virtual world. He plays an Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) and farms gold to sell in the real world. This trading of virtual gold for real cash also known as Real Money Trade (RMT) is a big (and growing) industry especially those from China. What these gold farmers do is that they camp at a spot where a monster spawns and kills it over and over again to get a certain loot. When they do, they sell this loot for gold and than sells this gold back to the gamers for real cash.
This obviously annoys the gaming community since they spoil the gaming experience for many by hogging on to a camp spot for 24 hours a day. Is 24 hours possible? Yes it is. Each gold farmer has a 12 hour shift and they play the game in 2 rotations a day. Very, very hardcore farming I must admit.
Anyway this violates the End User License (EUL) agreement that the players have volunteerily accepted when they signed up for the account. Most service providers of MMORPGS says that
all accounts and items belong to the service providers and buying and selling of accounts is not permitted.
I have never ever really disliked a chinese gold farmer and have actually talked to many of them before. They always like to start the day by going
"Nihao"
or "Hao a"
or "gan she me a?"
When I was playing FFxi, mixing with those people were a taboo. If anybody caught you partying or playing with them, you were either a Chinese Gold Seller too or you were a friend of a chinese gold seller which is equally as bad. I had an RMT friend, his in game name (IGN) was Roland. Really liked that fellow together with his female colleague Velma. Once we were partying and camping some monster in a temple, some guy came by and caught us partying. That troubled me since if you get blacklisted by the gaming community, its impossible for you to have a fun time playing the game anymore. Roland and Velma told me that they understand and asked me to sort of "kill them" so I could defend myself. I did and swore nasty words at them to put up an act. That actually troubled me further. Here I am with genuinely nice people who was playing the game with me during their "Off-working" hours and I'm ashame to be hanging out with them.
I loved playing with the gold farmers, and helping them out whenever they needed. The point of this post is that although the gold farmers are violating and spoiling the fun of many of us, this does not make them bad people. They are real human beings, with real blood in their veins and real feelings. If you ask me, playing the game 12 hours a day at the same spot, killing the same monster is not exactly fun or challenging.
This youtube video was a really inspiring one. Don't get me wrong, i'm not going to become a chinese gold farmer when I graduate! hehe. It's just that it frees us from our myopic view of how we think those RMT guys are the evil ones. If you think about it, we are playing games to have fun (that's optional), while many of those guys are playing because they are unable to get a job because they were too poor to get proper education because of the poverty and undesired circumstances. . .
Anybody could have been a chinese gold farmer. If those fat asses (I think of Cartman from southpark's WOW parody) were not born into an American well-to-do family and instead the circumstance and environment of a chinese gold farmer, he might have become one too. And than there are people who argue that, "Hey, they are breaking the law by not following the EUL established. Yes that is true, but so what? This does not give us the right to refer them as Chinese Gold Farmers. Like what was said in the video below, they see that as a degredory term (which as a matter of fact, it is). They see themselves and call themselves a professional gamer. Once, I asked Roland why he chose to be a gold farmer and to my surprise he got offended and told me not to call him that. But anyway to answer my question, he said he was 16 years old and he was playing the game because he couldn't find a job because of his low educational background and needed the money to support his little sister and pay for her schooling fees so she could have better career options in the future.
Doubt he would lie to me on that.
So anyways, there was this post in youtube by Arare66 and he said this:
"MOst of them are kids/teens without proper education because they are too poor.This is reality.
You think everybody has the same god damn equal fucking opportunity to survive as you do in your comfortable little world?Pathethic.
They do what they can do to survive.Period.I played with farmers in WoW before(I know a little chinese) and trust me,they want to raid,they want to PVP,they want to do all the fun stuff that others gamers want to do,but they are not allowed too."
and I felt that there is a lot of truth in this statement. I can actually feel the anger that Arare66 has considering what many other gamers have posted
The other gamers who saw the same video said stuff like
" Fkin noob chinese gold farmers"
""Give him some space"? The single most harmful thing to the economy of a videogame is a bunch of ****** called farmers. I played wow, l2 and every time i saw a bot/farmer i tried my very best to make his life miserable. Camping his body, forcing him to move, following him, killing again.. and again. Until he logged/switched char. If that ****face looses his job - all the better. Game is made for fun, bots&farmers destroy it."
The comments are even worse in another Video that another guy made
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0dkkf5NEIo0
but anyway, I got offended when they sung along in that video that 10 cents an hour is good money for a chinese. Sometimes it seems like we gamers and consumers are too spoilt for our own good. The only thing we think about is how those gold farmers are spoiling our fun and that's the only concern we have.
I posted a comment on youtube disagreeing that that video was humorous and I was told that I was lacking a sense of humor. Either that or we're lacking some sensitivity here. It seems to me that for these people, because we are virtual, we are given the right to post anything that comes to mind. Would they dare go up to the those chinese living on straw mats farming gold 12 hours a day and call them "Fking chinese gold farmers."?
I have this little fantasy that there are two places in the world.
One is heaven, and the other is Earth
Before we are born all the souls are gathered into one place and we are all brothers and sisters and friends.
We come in a pairs, and for each pair, God asks one of us randomly which family we would like to be born into:
1. A wealthy family
2. A poor family
The great thing in heaven is that there is no place for selfishness - It is a place where we do not wish to see our friends suffer and so the soul that is given a choice always chooses to be born into the poor family.
His other friend from the same pair, because of his choice gets to live a life of comfort. But as soon as they are born into the world, they forget what happened and the sacrifice his friend had made.
Than I think of how the guy born into the rich family is scorning at that poor Chinese gold farmer- " Fkin chinese gold farmers go back to farming your rice." That feels me with great anger.
It's not like we do not want to be playing the game for enjoyment purposes only.
It's not like we get to choose which family we get to be born into.
Even if we did get a choice, I want to believe in my little fantasy, that it's because our friend (our 2nd half of our pair in heaven) chose to make that sacrifice so that we could live a better life.
If we can believe in this little fantasy I just shared, than maybe it would be easier to love the people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
A friend sent me this link
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KH1LGdjZUKQ&feature=related
It is basically an interview with what us gamers refer to as a "Chinese Gold Farmer"
What is a Chinese gold farmer? It is a man whose professional career operates in the virtual world. He plays an Mass Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) and farms gold to sell in the real world. This trading of virtual gold for real cash also known as Real Money Trade (RMT) is a big (and growing) industry especially those from China. What these gold farmers do is that they camp at a spot where a monster spawns and kills it over and over again to get a certain loot. When they do, they sell this loot for gold and than sells this gold back to the gamers for real cash.
This obviously annoys the gaming community since they spoil the gaming experience for many by hogging on to a camp spot for 24 hours a day. Is 24 hours possible? Yes it is. Each gold farmer has a 12 hour shift and they play the game in 2 rotations a day. Very, very hardcore farming I must admit.
Anyway this violates the End User License (EUL) agreement that the players have volunteerily accepted when they signed up for the account. Most service providers of MMORPGS says that
all accounts and items belong to the service providers and buying and selling of accounts is not permitted.
I have never ever really disliked a chinese gold farmer and have actually talked to many of them before. They always like to start the day by going
"Nihao"
or "Hao a"
or "gan she me a?"
When I was playing FFxi, mixing with those people were a taboo. If anybody caught you partying or playing with them, you were either a Chinese Gold Seller too or you were a friend of a chinese gold seller which is equally as bad. I had an RMT friend, his in game name (IGN) was Roland. Really liked that fellow together with his female colleague Velma. Once we were partying and camping some monster in a temple, some guy came by and caught us partying. That troubled me since if you get blacklisted by the gaming community, its impossible for you to have a fun time playing the game anymore. Roland and Velma told me that they understand and asked me to sort of "kill them" so I could defend myself. I did and swore nasty words at them to put up an act. That actually troubled me further. Here I am with genuinely nice people who was playing the game with me during their "Off-working" hours and I'm ashame to be hanging out with them.
I loved playing with the gold farmers, and helping them out whenever they needed. The point of this post is that although the gold farmers are violating and spoiling the fun of many of us, this does not make them bad people. They are real human beings, with real blood in their veins and real feelings. If you ask me, playing the game 12 hours a day at the same spot, killing the same monster is not exactly fun or challenging.
This youtube video was a really inspiring one. Don't get me wrong, i'm not going to become a chinese gold farmer when I graduate! hehe. It's just that it frees us from our myopic view of how we think those RMT guys are the evil ones. If you think about it, we are playing games to have fun (that's optional), while many of those guys are playing because they are unable to get a job because they were too poor to get proper education because of the poverty and undesired circumstances. . .
Anybody could have been a chinese gold farmer. If those fat asses (I think of Cartman from southpark's WOW parody) were not born into an American well-to-do family and instead the circumstance and environment of a chinese gold farmer, he might have become one too. And than there are people who argue that, "Hey, they are breaking the law by not following the EUL established. Yes that is true, but so what? This does not give us the right to refer them as Chinese Gold Farmers. Like what was said in the video below, they see that as a degredory term (which as a matter of fact, it is). They see themselves and call themselves a professional gamer. Once, I asked Roland why he chose to be a gold farmer and to my surprise he got offended and told me not to call him that. But anyway to answer my question, he said he was 16 years old and he was playing the game because he couldn't find a job because of his low educational background and needed the money to support his little sister and pay for her schooling fees so she could have better career options in the future.
Doubt he would lie to me on that.
So anyways, there was this post in youtube by Arare66 and he said this:
"MOst of them are kids/teens without proper education because they are too poor.This is reality.
You think everybody has the same god damn equal fucking opportunity to survive as you do in your comfortable little world?Pathethic.
They do what they can do to survive.Period.I played with farmers in WoW before(I know a little chinese) and trust me,they want to raid,they want to PVP,they want to do all the fun stuff that others gamers want to do,but they are not allowed too."
and I felt that there is a lot of truth in this statement. I can actually feel the anger that Arare66 has considering what many other gamers have posted
The other gamers who saw the same video said stuff like
" Fkin noob chinese gold farmers"
""Give him some space"? The single most harmful thing to the economy of a videogame is a bunch of ****** called farmers. I played wow, l2 and every time i saw a bot/farmer i tried my very best to make his life miserable. Camping his body, forcing him to move, following him, killing again.. and again. Until he logged/switched char. If that ****face looses his job - all the better. Game is made for fun, bots&farmers destroy it."
The comments are even worse in another Video that another guy made
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0dkkf5NEIo0
but anyway, I got offended when they sung along in that video that 10 cents an hour is good money for a chinese. Sometimes it seems like we gamers and consumers are too spoilt for our own good. The only thing we think about is how those gold farmers are spoiling our fun and that's the only concern we have.
I posted a comment on youtube disagreeing that that video was humorous and I was told that I was lacking a sense of humor. Either that or we're lacking some sensitivity here. It seems to me that for these people, because we are virtual, we are given the right to post anything that comes to mind. Would they dare go up to the those chinese living on straw mats farming gold 12 hours a day and call them "Fking chinese gold farmers."?
I have this little fantasy that there are two places in the world.
One is heaven, and the other is Earth
Before we are born all the souls are gathered into one place and we are all brothers and sisters and friends.
We come in a pairs, and for each pair, God asks one of us randomly which family we would like to be born into:
1. A wealthy family
2. A poor family
The great thing in heaven is that there is no place for selfishness - It is a place where we do not wish to see our friends suffer and so the soul that is given a choice always chooses to be born into the poor family.
His other friend from the same pair, because of his choice gets to live a life of comfort. But as soon as they are born into the world, they forget what happened and the sacrifice his friend had made.
Than I think of how the guy born into the rich family is scorning at that poor Chinese gold farmer- " Fkin chinese gold farmers go back to farming your rice." That feels me with great anger.
It's not like we do not want to be playing the game for enjoyment purposes only.
It's not like we get to choose which family we get to be born into.
Even if we did get a choice, I want to believe in my little fantasy, that it's because our friend (our 2nd half of our pair in heaven) chose to make that sacrifice so that we could live a better life.
If we can believe in this little fantasy I just shared, than maybe it would be easier to love the people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
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