FLEFF Blog

Hey, all. It’s Peter. Just posted a blog about the lab we had in the morning…

Gold Farming Lab

Check it out.

ARG Credits

In case you haven’t figured it out (maybe you didn’t read the About page), this blog is part of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG), which is now concluding. While the issues are real and the reference materials are authentic, some of the people and organizations you encountered (specifically: ICSAGF, David, and Ryan) are fictional characters. While the game has concluded, feel free to continue to post comments.

As a way to explain why we did this, here’s the blurb we used to promote this ARG.

‘Stop Gold Farming!’ is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) developed for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival. It could be called an experiment in collective storytelling, a radical new media project, or an internet ‘hoax’ with a social message! Anyone can play (participants interact with the narrative in real-time using a variety of communication technologies such as email, blogs, SMS, digital video, podcasts, etc.), and therefore anyone can shape the outcome. The game revolves around a fictional controversy unfolding at Ithaca College related to the issue of gold farming, or the practice of selling virtual goods that can be used in massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) such as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy. These goods are often produced under sweatshop conditions in developing countries for the consumption of First World clients. ‘Stop Gold Farming!’ is the story of a student organization demanding that an IC student engaged in the distribution of virtual goods be expelled from the college. As part of the ‘Trade’ stream of FLEFF, the goal of this ARG is to engage students and festival participants in an exploration of gold farming as an embodied economic practice in a gaming context characterized by virtuality and disembodiment, and in the context of globalization and trade as a process that reinforces “unequal human relations rather than merely intensifying connectedness” (Biao, 2008). By framing the experience as an ARG, this FLEFF LAB involves various communities in analyzing a real-life problem, collectively articulating a multitude of realistic and possible responses to it, and examining the ethical question of what form action should take after the game. This FLEFF LAB was conceptualized and is being coordinated by Prof. Ulises Mejias from SUNY Oswego, and produced in collaboration with FLEFF interns. You can join the experience by visiting stopgoldfarming.wordpress.com.

Many people were involved in making this ARG and FLEFF LAB possible. Thanks to the following individuals:

Ithaca College FLEFF Interns:

Peter Srinivasan
Michele Maciejewski
Giovanni N. Colantonio
Mohit Kukreti.
Michael Kmet

SUNY Oswego Team:

James Bolen
Michael Molina

Shanghai Team:

Laura Kissel
Remko Tanis

Special Thanks To:

Patty Zimmermann
Tanya Saunders
GreedyAlgorithm

It was a pleasure to work with you all.

-Ulises Mejias

Fair Trade Gold Farming?

David here. Whew! Launching this organization and maintaining this blog has definitely been a learning experience, at least for me! All my initial assumptions have been called into question. Some of my beliefs have been redefined, and others I feel more strongly about than before.

In case you missed it, GreedyAlgorithm helped us formulate a concise definition of gold farming as “any portion of the entire process whereby someone plays WoW/etc with intent to resell some portion of the earned gold, the earned gold is through some process made available to be resold for some amount of hard currency, and someone accepts the offer and buys the gold.”

He then asked the following questions:

• Is buying farmed gold unethical? When yes and when no?
• Is coordinating efforts to farm gold intrinsically unethical?
• Is coordinating efforts to farm gold by providing X social and business connection, Y economy of scale, etc. and paying yourself $D + $G/gold for your efforts unethical? For which values, and why?

Professor Laura Kissel and journalist Remko Tanis posed some additional questions:

• Do Westerners believe that workers involved in gold farming are victims?  Is there another way to understand the work that gold farmers are doing?
• What role do western businesses play in encouraging the low prices for virtual gold or other products?

And (former?) ICSAGF member Peter argued that perhaps “instead of discouraging this new economy, we should treat it as, well, a new economy. Perhaps we should find ways to feed it?… legitimizing ‘gold farming’ might make it into a stable, useful economy” [BTW, I hope you stay in the group, Peter, and help us change its name and its mission].

Here’s an idea: Should gold farming be legitimized along the Fair Trade model?

Fair Trade is defined as follows:

Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade Organizations, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade. Fair Trade products are produced and traded in accordance with these principles — wherever possible verified by credible, independent assurance systems.

Given the lessons learned from the Fair Trade exchange of other products like coffee and chocolate, these are some of the benefits we could expect to see:

• Workers engaged in gold farming earning a fair wage
• The work is legitimized and those engaged in it are respected
• Raises awareness in the consumer about UNfair gold farming practices
• Employers see a business case for treating their workers better
• Governments are forced to recognize the industry and grant workers the same rights
• New economic possibilities, new opportunities for development, etc.

What do you all think?

I hope you can join us tomorrow, Friday April 3, at 9 AM in the Park School soundstage (Ithaca College) to continue this conversation.

Join us for FLEFF Lab

Want to continue the discussion? Join us for a very special FLEFF Lab!

When: Friday April 3, 2009, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM

Where: Soundstage, Park School of Communications, Ithaca College

What: A discussion of the issues raised by this ARG, plus a gold farming demo, and a teleconference with Laura Kissel and Remko Tanis, live from China!

打金者 or 职业玩家 ?

(The following is an exclusive report filed by Prof. Laura Kissel, currently doing research in China. Join us for a live teleconference with her and journalist Remko Tanis this Friday,  April 3, from 9-10:30am at Ithaca College. More details to follow.)

Gold Farmer or Professional Gamer?  打金者 or 职业玩家?

Yesterday in Shanghai journalist Remko Tanis interviewed a 26 year old man, Mr. Wang, who runs a gold farming business in Shanghai called Company 580.  Mr. Wang sees nothing but potential for growth in the gold farming industry. He believes that gold farming should be considered a professional industry and hopes that the Chinese government will legitimize it one day.  His employees prefer not to be called gold farmers, but to be referred to instead as professional gamers.  Mr. Wang insists that his gold farming business fulfills a demand in the marketplace.  He now sells mainly to Chinese customers.  These customers may be middlemen– that is, they may turn around and sell again to westerners, marking up the price of virtual gold.  On Friday when we skype with your FLEFF LAB group, Remko will tell you more about Mr. Wang, his workers, and what he has learned from Mr. Wang about gold farming in Shanghai.

A few things to consider:

– Do Westerners believe that workers involved in gold farming are victims?  Is there another way to understand the work that gold farmers are doing?  Perhaps workers choose this career out of desire to make money at something they are already doing.

– Chinese labor laws are quite strong; Remko indicates that they are almost as strong as labor laws in France.  It is quite common for laborers to strike in China for back wages or increases in pay.  The government supports worker strikes, and there are strikes all the time.  Can we say the same for workers in the U.S. ?

– Young people in China are extremely ambitious.  There is high turnover in the gold farming business.  Workers may work for a few months and then move on to another job.  Workers across industries also commonly work 12 hours a day and give up their one day off a week to earn more money.

– There are now 27 million people unemployed in China (this is the newly released, official Chinese government statistic).

– What role do western businesses play in encouraging the low prices for virtual gold or other products?  If the price quoted by the western company is extremely low, companies here will try to meet the price.  Whose fault is it, then, if workers suffer from low pay?  Is it the fault of businesses here, who are trying to stay in business, or is the fault of western companies who offer an increasingly lower and lower price for the production of goods and services?

We look forward to skyping with you on Friday morning, 9:30 am — Friday night, 9:30 pm Shanghai time.

Integrate GFing into Business Models?

This is Peter again. I understand that I said this in a comment, but I figured I might as well use my power in ICSAGF to bump the thread before being kicked off…

An interesting question was brought up during a discussion between me and another member of ICSAGF. I mentioned that instead of stopping gold farming, perhaps it would better serve all communities involved if gold farming processes were built in to the business models of the games themselves. Perhaps, instead of discouraging this new economy, we should treat it as, well, a new economy. Perhaps we should find ways to feed it? (at this point, I’m pretty sure that my best bet is to leave ICSAGF, since this is directly against their views) To legitimize it, to make it thrive and become useful to a wider population.

As a response, a member asked me (loosely quoted) “Don’t you think it is wrong for people to be buying this stuff? I mean, it gives those who are rich an unfair advantage over those who don’t have money. Isn’t that unethical?” Essentially, this question leads to: if you feed gold farming you are feeding intrinsically unethical buyers (Greedy, that would be a little of issue 3).

My answer is “no.” It is capitalist (this isn’t about whether capitalism is “bad,” such is out of the scope of this blog). When personal computers first came out, I’m sure people complained about unfair advantages to the wealthy along with the question “why would anyone want one anyway?” Well, had we stopped PCs there, instead of feeding the “unfair, unbalanced” system, it would have either died, or never found the balance that it has. Now PCs are available for $200 if you know where to look. MOST people, at least in America and other decently affluent countries, have computers. Yay.

Well, legitimizing “gold farming” might make it into a stable, useful economy – it may develop business models for widespread, completely virtual products and services, able to cross country borders without customs. There could be numerous benefits from the current phenomenon known as “gold farming.”

To exploit or not to exploit?

David again.

Ulises recently had a good response to GreedyAlgorithm. Go read it.

This got me thinking: Is gold farming always exploitative? What do you think?

Comments from our readers (and more)

David here. I’m happy to report we are starting to generate some traffic and interest… and some controversy as well.

GreedyAlgorithm wrote to say:

Gold farming is incredibly far down on the list of things you should care about. To compare a Chinese gold farmer’s life to your own and on that basis determine that gold farming is deplorable enough to fight against is to make a category error – destroying the practice will not turn the exploited worker into a middle class American, it will turn the exploited worker into another exploited worker. And even that’s far better than being a “free” subsistence farmer.

Additionally, as felix & andaleeb’s write on their blog (looking at virtual gold farming):

the game world can be a space of empowerment and compensation for them [gold farmers]. In contrast to their impoverished real lives, their virtual lives give them access to power, status and wealth which they can hardly imagine in real life. This is a reason why they are so addicted to their job. This is a paradox that the term “sweatshop” cannot convey: in the gold farms exploitation is entangled with empowerment and productivity is entangled with pleasure.

BTW, they produced an awesome video that helps summarize the issue. Check it out.

It was also interesting to read the comment by Bolen, a gold farmer here in the US (I presume) who defends the practice in terms of the dynamics of a free market economy.

If you know how much someone will pay for an item, you can corner the market on that item. And if you corner the market on that item, you can control the distribution, the price, and the amount. so that’s what i did. I began buying up all the text i could find on the auction, while continuing to farm them. Soon enough, the market for these texts became fever pitched. People began to grab them for whatever price they could get them on the Auction hall because they were so sparse… So I decided what the hell, lets really go nuts. I inflated my product by more then 20 gold a stack, ballooning the price to more then 200% its original price. I held the market, so there was no danger of losing out among lower bidders. I was making enough gold that anytime someone did try to undercut my prices, i simply bought him out of everything he had. I OWNED this market.

Bolen does not employ/exploit workers in developing countries. He does all his gold farming himself. While I guess I have no beef with that, the problem I have is a) with the re-sellers who exploit cheap labor abroad to make a profit, and b) with gamers who outwardly condemn the practice of gold farming but secretly support it. According to an article by Nick Ryan (Gold Trading Exposed: The Sellers), gold farming is “a shady business that’s outwardly condemned by players whilst being supported by 30 per cent of them.”

Perhaps the contradictions behind the opinion that gold farmers in developing countries are better off having this ‘fun’ job  than no job at all is best illustrated by the passage below from the article Chinese Gold Farmers in the Game World by Ge Jin:

Most of the gold farmers I talked to love the job. In the gold farms, you can see they are enthusiastic about their job and they got a sense of achievement from it, which is rare in any other sweatshops… However, the virtual lives of gold farmers are not perfect either. Many gamers are hostile to gold farmers… many gamers see gold farmers as spoilers and intruders of their game world… many gamers assume gold farmers are Chinese and often call them “rats”, “disease” or “commies”. There are even gangs of gamers who systematically harass and massacre suspected Chinese gold farmers.

Exploiting and abusing workers while benefitting from their cheap labor. Where have we heard all that before? Is this something really not worth caring about, GreedyAlgorithm?

Ryan’s Blog

David here.

Ryan has started a blog, apparently for the purpose of discrediting this organization. Nevertheless, he does spend some time explaining some of the issues surrounding gold farming in the gaming community. I encourage you to visit his blog, and tell him what you think of him!

Gamers: We want to hear from you!

Do you play World of Warcraft, Everquest, Final Fantasy or any other MMORPG? Have you ever purchased any gil that you suspect was produced in a gold farm? Does gold farming raise any ethical concerns for you? We want to hear your story! Leave a comment here or send us a link to your own blog post, and we will make sure to feature it here.

i can haz gil?

photo by stacina

Gold Farm Sweatshops: The Documentary

Peter here.

Presenting a trailer for an incredible documentary about Gold Farm Sweatshops in China.

You might think that playing video games for hours on end… for pay… must be loads of fun. Think again. Think, hit the same button over and over again, performing the same tasks to collect gold, of which you see only pennies returned to you, all the while being virtually (in the literal sense) discriminated against during gameplay. It’s a hard, nasty, dirty life to lead, made only worse by employer exploitations, all of which Ryan, a Gold Farmer here in Ithaca, and the very purpose for this group, is openly supporting as life-style choices!

Ryan and other Gold Farmers can not be allowed to exploit people. Sweatshops are an infringement on human rights, no matter what kind of sugar you coat it with. Watch this doc. Be informed.

Is this blog necessary?

Hey, David here. I wanted to tell you a little bit about why some of us decided to form this organization, Ithaca College Students Against Gold Farming (ICSAGF). You might think that gold farming is an issue that has nothing or little to do with Ithaca College. But unfortunately, thanks to an IC student named Ryan, this is not true.

In case you haven’t heard about the controversy already, here’s an article from The Ithacan that discusses the case. Now, this article was pulled from the website, supposedly because of an impending lawsuit. But thanks to an internal source at the newspaper, we were able to obtain a copy of the cached web page:

(click on the image to open, and click again to zoom in)

The goal of ICSAGF is not to launch a witch-hunt against Ryan. We do believe, however, that his actions are unethical and constitute behavior unbecoming of an IC student (you can use our poll on this blog’s sidebar to agree or disagree with us). But ultimately, we are simply using Ryan’s case to raise awareness about an important issue.

Gold farming is real. There is a whole economy of “liminal ICT work” built around the sale of virtual MMORPG goods, as you can see in websites like igxe and gamepal. According to this white paper, since 2003 the industry has been employing tens of thousands of workers in developing countries and generating a global trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars. We join others in the struggle to raise awareness about the labor conditions that most of these workers face.  Join us as we explore some of those issues!

Welcome to our blog! We need your help.

Hey there.  Michele here.  How much do you know about gold farming?  MMORPGs?  How about labor exploitation, wage problems in China, and the trade of virtual goods?  Way too much or not enough?  Yeah, I didn’t either until I went to Singapore and realized that most young adults and 20 somethings there play World of Warcraft, Maple Leaf, or one of the other 80+ MMORPGs.  Some people play longer hours than they work or socialize with family and friends!

What’s more, is that much of the fun of these games has turned into an industry.  A big one.  And millions of dollars are being spent and earned for things that only exist in the virual world!  Crazy?  Maybe.  Revolutionary?  Certainly?  An important issue?  Definitely, and you should be in the know because this affects you!  Ebay, the original marketplace for virtual goods in these gold farms, recently banned the sale of MMORPG goods and companies owning the rights to these alternative reality games are trying to cut down on the industry where many Chinese gamers play for hours only to earn a few dollars, the working conditions could be considered comparable to the sweatshops of jeans and sneakers, and Europeans/Americans pay big bucks for virtual goods many of the developing world could not afford.  And these items don’t event exist!  Crazy!!!

Read more about it here and let us know what you think!