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Author Topic: China used prisoners in lucrative internet gaming work. [Locked]
NukeMage  2 stars
Posts: 346
Registered: 2002-4-7 16:58:45
Jyiiga posted:

"As a prisoner at the Jixi labour camp, Liu Dali would slog through tough days breaking rocks and digging trenches in the open cast coalmines of north-east China. By night, he would slay demons, battle goblins and cast spells.


Liu says he was one of scores of prisoners forced to play online games to build up credits that prison guards would then trade for real money. The 54-year-old, a former prison guard who was jailed for three years in 2004 for "illegally petitioning" the central government about corruption in his hometown, reckons the operation was even more lucrative than the physical labour that prisoners were also forced to do.


"Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour," Liu told the Guardian. "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 [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."


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.


"If I couldn't complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things," he said."


More... http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam



That is just wrong

 

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GutterSludge  4 stars
Posts: 1,034
Registered: 2005-11-6 10:54:55
That's just what he says....

Truthfully, he probably was skimming some cash off the top of the "gaming racket", and his cohorts caught his ass..

 

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Guttersludge
People just can't handle the truth.
NeMeFieD said:"ea I Ucmed for 12 days straight.."
njwCSUS posted:I'm homosexual, so really, its ongoing sexual attraction to my father, not my mother.
Trigeminal  2 stars
Title: Drill, Fill, Bill
Posts: 365
Registered: 2002-3-17 20:10:56
Anyone know of a good site to buy some WoW cash? I'm getting a little low and need a landslide enchantment.

 

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PvPing since 1975
Spookysheep  4 stars
Title: Lieker of Cheese
Posts: 1,248
Registered: 2002-1-9 06:49:19
So, the point of this article was that buying WoW gold actually assists in the rehabilitation of criminals.

That sounds like just as good of a cause as buying an in game pet for tsunami relief efforts o.0

 

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I liek cheese
Pirates > Ninjas
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Shenron_  3 stars
Posts: 543
Registered: 2002-12-8 21:34:16
i think the bad part is that the guy was jailed for a bad reason in the first place and forced to do that stuff. if it were someone who deserved to be in jail then i don't think theres anything wrong with it. someone's gotta work off my motorcycle mount.
Trigeminal  2 stars
Title: Drill, Fill, Bill
Posts: 365
Registered: 2002-3-17 20:10:56
Shenron_ posted:

i think the bad part is that the guy was jailed for a bad reason in the first place and forced to do that stuff. if it were someone who deserved to be in jail then i don't think theres anything wrong with it. someone's gotta work off my motorcycle mount.



Meh... people get killed for speaking the truth. Why not jail a few innocent people as well? I'm being sarcastic though. I think I'm going to buy some gold just so this guy doesn't need to make toothpicks and chopsticks anymore.

 

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PvPing since 1975
GutterSludge  4 stars
Posts: 1,034
Registered: 2005-11-6 10:54:55
Shenron_ posted:

i think the bad part is that the guy was jailed for a bad reason in the first place and forced to do that stuff. if it were someone who deserved to be in jail then i don't think theres anything wrong with it. someone's gotta work off my motorcycle mount.



Didn't you hear,??

Everyone in prison is there because of a "bum rap"...


Just ask them

 

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Guttersludge
People just can't handle the truth.
NeMeFieD said:"ea I Ucmed for 12 days straight.."
njwCSUS posted:I'm homosexual, so really, its ongoing sexual attraction to my father, not my mother.
NukeMage  2 stars
Posts: 346
Registered: 2002-4-7 16:58:45
GutterSludge posted:

Shenron_ posted:

i think the bad part is that the guy was jailed for a bad reason in the first place and forced to do that stuff. if it were someone who deserved to be in jail then i don't think theres anything wrong with it. someone's gotta work off my motorcycle mount.



Didn't you hear,??


Everyone in prison is there because of a "bum rap"...


Just ask them



That is usually true, however China makes no qualms about extended prison sentences to labor camps for anything that they deem goes against their political system.

 

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I need a new hobby . .
Ten level 85's (one of each class) in WoW
Back to try out the Feb patch in AC
Sprawl-zero1eye-  4 stars
Title: IGN Vault Staff
Reziztance iz Futile

Posts: 1,001
Registered: 2002-6-28 03:39:29
Did we miss where it said above that someone got jailed for 3 years for illegally petitioning? ...

 

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Making iOS Apps these days at http://zsprawl.com/iOS
Deionnara  1 star
Posts: 149
Registered: 2001-12-28 14:12:02
Sprawl-zero1eye- posted:

Did we miss where it said above that someone got jailed for 3 years for illegally petitioning? ...



Wonder if we could apply that penalty to constantly whining frost mages.

 

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