Chinese Communist MMORPG

[Adrian II]

That was interesting, but when you think about it these people are paid alot in their own currency.

Ge Jin, theD student from the University of California San Diego who made that video, had this to say about the general atmosphere in the workshops:

When I entered a gold farm for the first time (tietou's gaming workshop in the preview), I was shocked by the positive spirit there, the farmers are passionate about what they do, and there is indeed a comraderie between them ... I do see suffering and exploitation too, but in that place suffering is mixed with play and exploitation is embodied in a gang-like brotherhood and hierarchy. When I talked with the farmers, they rarely complained about their working condition, they only complained about their life in the game world.

Although they have to work/play for 12 hours a day, they take pride in what they achieve and they seem eager to escape into a virtual reality richer, brighter, and more exciting than their impoverished real world lives.

[Crazed Rabbit]

AdrainII, you sir, are a regular fount of information!

I have't watched the video, but I can't say I'm surprised that the 'workers' aren't real sad. After all, making a living playing computer games half the day is't that bad of a job in China.

It will be interesting to see the affect of increased outsourcing of games, and whether the content production becomes huma factory based or more procedural.

Crazed Rabbit

[Adrian II]

It will be interesting to see the affect of increased outsourcing of games, and whether the content production becomes huma factory based or more procedural.

Because some of these farmers are actually darn good players, one idea that is being kicked around at the moment is that they could become personal 'game managers' for regular players. It would work like this. Players pay $2 to hire an experienced gold farmer from China or India who manages their gaming environment for, say, 12 hours. During that time the GM embodies non-player creatures like monsters, wizards and talking trees; he acts as a director of their quests and adventures; and he makes sure that player X or Y in the end gets the girl, the jewels, the superior level or the magic sword, even though he plays like shit. However, a major problem with this would be the outsource contracts that would probably cause an uproar similar to the one about the Nike sweatshops. Another would be the language. The English language skills of Western players, even the Anglo-Saxon ones, are bad enough. If they team up for 12 hours with Qiong Gang who doesn't even possess a dictionary, you get monsters that speak like Chinese assembly instructions - 'Fasten screw on inkling lightly, important minding fingers'.

On the other hand, it would be brilliant if talking trees went 'Door of opportunity swing both ways, brother Wizard'.

[Keba]

Because some of these farmers are actually darn good players, one idea that is being kicked around at the moment is that they could become personal 'game managers' for regular players. It would work like this. Players pay $2 to hire an experienced gold farmer from China or India who manages their gaming environment for, say, 12 hours. During that time the GM embodies non-player creatures like monsters, wizards and talking trees; he acts as a director of their quests and adventures; and he makes sure that player X or Y in the end gets the girl, the jewels, the superior level or the magic sword, even though he plays like shit.

Isn't that D&D (or any other of a plethora of similar pen and paper games)? Or are you meaning in computer games?

If it is computer games, Neverwinter Nights already allowes for the ability to create modules, in essence, creating situations like the above.

[Major Robert Dump]

I met a farmer once

When I played SWG, they had looping macros enabled which allowed you basically take a bunch of AFK players with you to do stuff, follow you, share rewards etc as long as the macro functioned and the connection wans't lost.

I came a cross some guy who was killing stuff with 7 toons following him in a tight line, a sure sign of macro. He saw me and asked me "You help me kill nightsister Quenn but no in group I share reward K?" (the group was full of AFKers, if he let me in he would have to kick one of his other accounts)

I responded "People like you ruin the gam"

To which he responded "Chinese"

To which I responded "And?"

To which he responded "I very hate you"

To which I responded "Bite me" and rode off.

He then sent me a tell saying "I bite the dead you"

At the time I had no idea how prevalent such things actually were.

[Adrian II]

When I played SWG, they had looping macros enabled which allowed you basically take a bunch of AFK players with you to do stuff, follow you, share rewards etc as long as the macro functioned and the connection wans't lost.

I met some farmers too.

My kids (8 and 10) play Runescape. Being a responsible Dad I decided to make myself a Runescape avatar last summer in order to see what the game was all about. Turned out it wasn't that hard. Inside one week I was a full rune warrior (level 70) with 1 million in game currency in the bank. Never looked at it again until some weeks ago. I was bored anyway. Runescape is simple and repetitive and like most MMORPG appears to be geared toward kids, because kids like repetitiveness and predictability which give them a level of control over their environment that they do not have in real life. Who'd have thunk most MMORPG players are over 25 years of age, eh? What does that tell us?

Anyway, last month my kids told me there were robots at work in Runescape. They had names like Yyy748 and Qqq398 and all they did was mine. I did some research and consulted a first generation Dutch hacker whom I happen to know since the 1980's and who is now a global computer security guru. Dutchie discarded the notion that these were autominers, i.e. macros that mine ores 24/7 which are then conferred to the developer's account by mule and sold by him for game currency, which he then uses to buy rare items that can be sold on eBay for real $$.

However, autominers don't work in RSII the way they worked back in RSI. Jagex have introduced too many random events for the autominers to work for more than 20 or 30 minutes. So either these Yyy-avatars were a new generation of autominers, representing an amazing advance in software development, or they were real people.

I revived my my old avatar, added Yyy748 to my 'friends list' and snooped on him for about an hour. He reacted intelligently to random events and even took two or three minute breaks. Then I started talking in friendly fashion to him by PM. Lo and behold, the third message of 'hello China' got a response from Yyy748 saying 'Hello America'. He couldn't say much, but he told me he had mined 50.000 runes in one week. I asked if his friends were all Chinese, but he declined to answer. It is still possible that part of these Yyy-farmers are bots, though. You never know. It would be a very clever move if the developer used some human farmers along with a host of intelligent bots... But it is highly unlikely. It would take a professional team of software developers weeks and months to make it work. If you look at the huge problems encountered by professional MMORPG trackers like PLayOn, you can imagine the problems in developing intelligent macros.

Anyway, Major, could you tell me if these farmers on SWG are paid by the AFK in game currency or in real $$? I haven't discovered a meeting board for real currency MMORPG service deals yet. Goods exchange, yes. But not service exchange -- like the shared adventures and rewards you mentioned. Do you know a URL?

[Adrian II]

Isn't that D&D (or any other of a plethora of similar pen and paper games)? Or are you meaning in computer games?

Do the guys in the video look like pen pals to you? As it says in the title and opening post, this is about EQ, WoW and other MMORPG's.

If it is computer games, Neverwinter Nights already allowes for the ability to create modules, in essence, creating situations like the above.

I believe NN's so-called 'Aurora Toolset' allows you to create (a large part of) your personal gaming environment in the shape of territorial or campaign modules. The difference with having a game manager is twofold: in a managed game there are genuine surprise elements and those surprises are genuinily animated as well. Of course the difference is threefold when the manager happens to be Chinese. Not only will the fierce level-147 dragon on top of the rock actually turn out helpful and benign, but after you save the incarcerated princess she wil turn into a demon that goes 'Qilin pissed off, kwai-loh have ten seconds to kiss ass goodbye'.

[Keba]

Hm, I would have to say I like the idea. It would solve a lot of the problems with MMORPGs. I've played some, but grew tired quickly, it is so repetitive, there is no story behind things. Go to village/town/spaceport/whatever get quest/mission/task, kill critters, get item, solve quest/mission/task, get new quest/mission/task, and so ad aeternum. Having a human running a campaign with a story would be more entertaining.

[Adrian II]

I've played some, but grew tired quickly, it is so repetitive, there is no story behind things.

You are right that the game dynamics and environment are boring, but in the end the nature of your game depends on you. It turns out that on-line gaming is a highly social activity, much more so than other video games. Many people play them in couples (man-woman) or peer groups. So they log in to 'meet' people whom they also know in real life, and they go on a quest or raid together with their IRL friends. These are the die-hards of on-line gaming: they make up their own story as they go along and meanwhile they deal with IRL issues. There are stories of people who dissuaded a troubled friend from committing suicide by chatting to them in the game. On the other hand, people who are isolated IRL will be alone as players too, so they tend to get bored real quick. Or they become a nuisance to fellow players, inviting teh ban from the in-game mods.