Kindle
Chinese Gold Farmers is a documentary film-in-progress about people in Asia who earn their living creating in-game wealth and selling it to wealthy players. This is a subject I've been fascinated by for years -- my story Anda's Game is about a union drive among gold-farmers -- and it's great to see it getting some deeper attention. The site for the film has some preliminary information and a frustratingly tiny trailer video.
Link (via Freakonomics)Xiaobai started working in a gold farm serving Korean gamers in 2002. For the past four years, he traveled around China and worked in several gold farms. After being a gaming vagabond for so long, he finally established his own gold farm with a friend in Jinhua. His gold farm is growing into an enterprise famous for power leveling (raising the level of customers’ virtual characters) in World of Warcraft. He has to deal with government officials, brokers, customers from all over the world, and a volatile body of employees...
Changmao was a member of a gang in a small town called Lishui. Some residents in Lishui say that the town feels a lot safer even since the emergence of gold farms and there are less unemployed youngsters wondering around and looking for fights. He started working in a gold farm one year ago. Now he is persuading other gang members to join him to fight virtual enemies...
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.