The Life of the Chinese Gold Farmer

Gold farming in MMO games is nothing new. It’s been around for as long as the games themselves have been. However, there is no doubt that it’s a bigger business than ever, with the CEOs of these companies earning a massive paycheck by hiring countless people to do the grunt work for them. This article goes into great depth in the life of one of the gold farmers for WoW, which is enough to make any straight-thinking person cringe.

Twelve hours a night, seven nights a week, with only two or three nights off per month, this is what Li does — for a living. On this summer night in 2006, the game on his screen was, as always, World of Warcraft, an online fantasy title in which players, in the guise of self-created avatars — night-elf wizards, warrior orcs and other Tolkienesque characters — battle their way through the mythical realm of Azeroth, earning points for every monster slain and rising, over many months, from the game’s lowest level of death-dealing power (1) to the highest (70).

Source: NY Times