# Chinese prisoners used as slave labor--Gold farming in WOW

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-prisoners-used-as-slave-labor-gold-farming-in-wow/583483>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Created:** [May 27, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-prisoners-used-as-slave-labor-gold-farming-in-wow/583483 "2011-05-27T20:54:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2011, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-prisoners-used-as-slave-labor-gold-farming-in-wow/583483/1 "2011-05-27T20:54:07Z")

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I guess this story, while bizarre, shouldn’t be much of a suprise. Goldfarming and prison labor. Two great tastes that taste great together.

> [@The Guardian](#):
>
> Memories from his detention at Jixi re-education-through-labour camp in Heilongjiang province from 2004 still haunt Liu. As well as backbreaking mining toil, he carved chopsticks and toothpicks out of planks of wood until his hands were raw and assembled car seat covers that the prison exported to South Korea and Japan. He was also made to memorise communist literature to pay off his debt to society.
> 
> But it was the forced online gaming that was the most surreal part of his imprisonment. The hard slog may have been virtual, but the punishment for falling behind was real.

Full story here:

> **[China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam)**
>
> Labour camp detainees endure hard labour by day, online 'gold farming' by night

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-prisoners-used-as-slave-labor-gold-farming-in-wow/583483/2 "2011-05-28T00:29:54Z")

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chinese-prisoners-used-as-slave-labor-gold-farming-in-wow/583483/3 "2011-05-28T01:31:56Z")

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That said, this one pegs my bullshit meter. I knew a couple of “friends of the family” that did time in various prisons in China. Most didn’t know what a computer was and prisons as a rule don’t have a lot of PC’s. And the article isn’t real clear on details. 300 “miners” working 24/7 and made about $900/day total gross profit (it cannot be $900/day/prisoner).

“There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”

While the above may be true, China’s a big place and you can never definitively say something is impossible \*somewhere \*in China. But I don’t think I’m going out a limb by saying this is probably not a widespread prison practice.