Using Chinese prisoners as a cheap source of labor is nothing new, as a simple Google search will demonstrate. But a story appearing in the Guardian yesterday claims that Chinese prisoners are being exploited in a new way: Forcing prisoners to perform repetitive tasks in massively multiplayer online (MMO) games to amass treasure. The authorities then convert the collected virtual loot into very real cash, usually by selling it to Western gamers.
"Gold farming," as the practice is known, is big business. The China Internet Centre estimates that in 2008, nearly £1.2bn ($1.96 billion USD) of virtual currency was traded in China.
"Liu Dali" (an alias to protect his identity) was imprisoned at the Jixi labor camp for three years. Liu said as many as 300 prisoners at the camp were forced to play games in 12 hour shifts. While it may sound less onerous than actual mining - another common way prison workers are exploited - the consequences for failing to produce were just as harsh. "If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically," said Liu. "They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things."
Liu said the prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than from manual labour. "I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [$770-$925] a day. We didn't see any of the money," he said.
"The computers were never turned off."
Liu was released from prison before 2009, when the Chinese government passed a regulation restricting virtual currency trading. But the ban does not apply to items available in-game, or to selling accounts that have been "powerleveled" to allow the buyer to skip initial levels when the character is weakest. Liu believes prisoners are still being used for gold farming. "Many prisons across the north-east of China also forced inmates to play games. It must still be happening," he said.