Virtual Sweatshops: Affluent Online Game Players Outsource Game Playing to China

[mandy]

One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of "World of Warcraft" and "Magic Land" hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.

...from Seoul to San Francisco, affluent online gamers who lack the time and patience to work their way up to the higher levels of gamedom are willing to pay the young Chinese here to play the early rounds for them.

...the creation of hundreds--perhaps thousands--of online gaming factories here in China. By some estimates, there are well over 100,000 young people working in China as full-time gamers, toiling away in dark Internet cafes, abandoned warehouses, small offices and private homes.

Most of the players here actually make less than a quarter an hour...

full article: http://news.com.com/Ogre+to+slay+Outsour...tag=cd.top

[Kristijntje]

A related article:

It was an hour before midnight, three hours into the night shift with nine more to go. At his workstation in a small, fluorescent-lighted office space in Nanjing, China, Li Qiwen sat shirtless and chain-smoking, gazing purposefully at the online computer game in front of him. The screen showed a lightly wooded mountain terrain, studded with castle ruins and grazing deer, in which warrior monks milled about. Li, or rather his staff-wielding wizard character, had been slaying the enemy monks since 8 p.m., mouse-clicking on one corpse after another, each time gathering a few dozen virtual coins — and maybe a magic weapon or two — into an increasingly laden backpack.

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...

For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour...

full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/magazi...ml?ei=5088&en=a6282d1ddf608fc1&ex=1339732800&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all