Here is a rough cut about Chinese gamers who export gaming accounts to American gamers at the Tietou Gaming Workshop. They are called "gold farmers," and they are hired to rack up in-game currency and objects for games such as World of Warcraft, to be sold to American players. This service industry slightly mirrors production of Gap clothes for example, where workers are hired in China to produce clothing, to be sold to American consumers. The owner of Tietoe says, "I suddenly realized that exporting virtual items through the Internet is the same as transmitting Chinese labor to America." However in this case, the production chain start in China. Just like many other Chinese labor recruiting companies, Tietou provided housing and food. One of the gamers said they chose to work at Tietou gaming company because they could not set up an account on ebay or paypal for lack of social security numbers and other pertinent info. Watch the preview on youtube to see what happens. Ge Jin‘s thoughts:

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. Ge Jin.
Other issues that Ge Jin is also thinking through are:
- the role of brokers in this system (auction houses, gold farm owners, etc.)
- is this a new kind of labor based on disembodiment and pleasure?
- how do these Chinese workers interact with American gamers?
- what does this all mean to the Chinese worker?

The documentarian, Ge Jin is a PhD student at my alma mater, UCSD. Hopefully I get to meet him soon when I go down to SD.

-------Originally from Youmeiti
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