“Farmers” online

April 30, 2006 in WWW

遊戲噗 introduces a 6 minutes documentary depicting the new kind of job in China: Online “Farmers”.

These farmers are not growing virtual fruits or rices on virtual Internet farms; they are playing online games and gaining “levels” and “treasures” in order to make a living.

This documentary features some direct sayings from Chinese professional online gamers and their local managers about why they choose to become “farmers” working online for their Western employers.  The reason is simple: they get paid, and it is also entertaining when a dozen of co-workers play games together, live together, work together.

Unlike migrant workers, these Chinese farmers can still stay in China while working for their Western employers. However, according to 遊戲噗, some Western gamers often view all Chinese and Asian gamers as farmers and talk about them with discrimination and classism. However, “this cash-treasure market is completely supported by Westerners, regardless of buyers and sellers”, says 遊戲噗.

I was shocked when watching this short video, because I never play any online games, or never knew this new kind of job.  I asked one of my friends who play online game a lot about this, and he told me that:”Not only Westerners, many Taiwanese businessmen who based in China are in fact part-time brokers between Chinese farmers and Taiwanese buyers.”

I am not an insider in this case, but I do care about the working situation of these farmers. From the short documentary, I don’t think this would be an easy job.