The very idea of a “virtual world” scares me. I don’t understand Second Life, and it makes me a little sad. I understand this makes me a bit of a curmudgeon, but I just can’t believe people would pay real money for virtual genitals.
But now, I learn (thanks to the Chinese government), something even more creepy is coming out of all this, something called gold farming.
Gold farming is the practice of doing monotonous tasks in networked video games like World of Warcraft and accumulating vast sums of “gold.” Gold farmers then sell this fake gold for real money to wealthy gamers who want to purchase that new virtual battle ax or whatnot but are too lazy to go on the missions or complete the tasks necessary to get these items themselves.
Yes, I just said that lazy, wealthy gamers are paying people to play their video games for them.
Last week, China banned the practice of gold farming, which, given their recent history, made me think for a second that gold farming might not be all that bad. Many gold farmers live in the developing world, particularly China, India and Indonesia, and the practice employs hundreds of thousands of people. It is also possibly helping to grow these economies.
Still, gamers could spend that money here or here or here and not become living, tangible evidence of the indulgent, narcissistic evil that has become western civilization.
I really don’t have much more to say, except that Jean Baudrillard was right about everything and I am moving into a tent in the woods and smashing my computer into a million pieces.
