Chinese Prisoners Forced to Game

If there is such thing as modernization of forced labour, this would be it. Prisoners in a labour camp in north-eastern China have allegedly been forced to play MMORPG’s, like World of Warcraft, to build up online credit that prison guards would then trade for real money. Netting the prison guards approximately $800 to $900 a day, it is said to be even more lucrative than the manual labour prisoners are traditionally forced to do.

Identifying himself as “Liu Dali”, a former prison inmate told the Guardian that guards forced upwards of 300 prisoners to work 12-hour gaming shifts “gold mining”. This monotonous procedure essentially requires long hours of playing time in order to build up game credit which can then be sold for hard cash.

The prisoners never saw any of the money. Failure to accomplish their virtual quotas was met with very real, physical punishment, Liu said.

The trade in virtual assets is nothing new. It is, however, very difficult to regulate as it is outside the game makers’ control. It is fuelled by the fact that millions of gamers around the world are prepared to pay real money for online credits, which are used to help them progress in the games.

China’s central government tried to regulate this shadow industry in 2009, requiring businesses to acquire a license before they can trade in virtual currency.  But Liu believes the practice of prisoners being forced to earn online currency in multiplayer games is still widespread.

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