[MUD-Dev] Sweatshops?

[Tess Snider]

New Scientist has a news item today about virtual goods breaking the
$100 million barrier:

  http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996601

I couldn't help at reflect upon this quote:

  "For example, 'virtual sweat shops' or 'farms' have emerged in
  Hong Kong and Mexico, where armies of players are assembled to
  build virtual objects such as swords or simply to amass credits
  within a game by superior play, solely to sell those items in
  online auctions."

I knew there were farms out there, for certain, but was I usually
pictured was based on certain biases of my own.  I somehow had
utterly failed to picture a Mexican MOG sweatshop. I had missed the
memo about this being the primary labor force behind the much
maligned Blacksnow Interactive:

  http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/blacksnow.html

(The Mexican connection was also mentioned briefly in a paper that
JC posted back in May.)

Man, I would love to see a human interest story done on these
sweatshop workers.  How were they recruited?  What were they doing
before they were recruited?  How old were they?  How much were they
paid?  What sort of training were they given?  What did they think
of the work?  Where are they now?  How would they have felt if they
knew how much money they could've made without the middle man?

Tess
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