Our attitudes to gold farming
by Jennie Lees 
Jan 3rd 2006 at 8:30PM
He talks about whether all farmers are Chinese, and our ways of identifying and interacting with farmers. On the European servers, I haven't run across any obvious gold farmers; they seem more widespread on the American servers, possibly because of the larger customer base. It's interesting to examine the sub-culture and our attitude to it, though, especially as many people seem reluctant to talk about it.
Filed under: Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Stormgaard Jan 4th 2006 8:44AM
While I hate discrimination, let's be honest here, Nick Yee is taking this way too seriously.
Not only should he be aware that society is becoming more laid back about having a sense of humor when it comes to ethnicity (see Dave Chapelle and/or Carlos Mencia on Comedy Central) - but are we REALLY all that worried about the potential for success East Asians have in the Western World these days? I'm not - and I don't personally know of anybody who is. I'd be stunned if I met someone in RL who did - it's never happened to me before. If anything it's quite the opposite.
Sure you can spend your time focusing on what assh*les the Anglos were in some instances in the 1800's - but we're talking 2005 here. We're talking strong work ethics, strong families, above average household incomes, and strong successes the fields of science and technology. Traits that everyone else, regardless of ethnicity, look up to.
Now, is that in and of itself a stereotype? Sure.
But that's a helluva a stereotype to have don't you think?
Brinstar Jan 4th 2006 9:25AM
And yet again someone accuses an academic of "taking things too seriously". FFS, that is his JOB. Academics are in the business of analysis. The average gamer doesn't think about such things in depth, because the average gamer is not a video game researcher.
Yee's article is a really good read, and the parallels he draws are very interesting. Personally, I have witnessed, in-game, some of the racist insults and behaviour directed towards the Chinese -- behaviour that is described by the people Yee interviewed. People come down hard on gold farmers, but guess what? They wouldn't exist if PEOPLE WEREN'T BUYING GOLD FROM THEM.
jennie Jan 4th 2006 11:19AM
Well said, Brinstar; I'm also an academic, and our job is to question this stuff--that's why Nick goes into the racial stereotype as well as other popularly held beliefs about gold farmers (camping, bad manners, etc), telling some stories which corroborate and some which disprove the generalisations we all make.
Timmay! Jan 4th 2006 11:32AM
Read the article, and immediately got turned off when Yee tried playing the race card. Just look at the comments on the last page, it all speaks for itself.
Stormgaard Jan 4th 2006 9:29PM
Brinstar and Jennie - never confuse Critical Thinking and Academia with being a Professional Cynic. It will never matter how right you are on the finer points if you lose sight of the big picture (not to mention your sense of humor). You'd still buy brand new Ferrari with a bad set of tires if someone was willing to sell it to you for $500.