Goldfarming and its effects on identity

Goldfarming is a topic that completely new to me before this class. Iｔ was interesting to learn about ｔhis social phenomenon from the economic viewpoint, its effects on the fairness for other gamers, and from the gold famers’ perspective in class, and the most unexpected effect　that gold farming has was its effect on the gold farmers’ identity.


In this video clip that one of the gold farmer, Lao Liu, directly　expressed his feeling of being called a gold farmer, “Foreign players call us Chinese farmers; I am very sensitive to this term. I have a sense of inferiority.” This sense of inferiority begins with the gold farmers’ inability to communicate. The language barrier is still a big factor even in the virtual game world. Unable to communicate means that the gold farmers can not explain their situations, they can hardly make friends with the foreign players, and not even defend themselves verbally when confronted with a hater. Another gold farmer also mentioned communication as the biggest difficulty, “The biggest problem is communication. As long as you can communicate, even a policeman and a thief can become friends.” As they conveyed unable to voice their opinions is a suppressing factor for their identity and a big hit to their self-esteem.

The gold farmers’ sense of inferiority is further imposed by the resentment towards them from the regular gamers. The gold farmers constantly being remained the “evil” or corrupt nature of their job that brings to the virtual world of gaming. There is a group called project gold farmers by American gamers, and they believe that they make the world of warcraft a better place by killing the gold farmers.　"20 people camp in the places that gold farmers usually at and kill them, and it was a lot fun." The feeling of rejection and being hated resonates for the gold farmer, “If they know you are a Chinese farmer, they would say you have no right to be here, and they have the right to order you to leave or even attack you with no reason.” This level of hatred from some of the regular gamers can be seen, from the gold farmers’ viewpoint, as personal rejection from the gaming community at larger, because the farmers also want to play the game as a regular gamer after the completion of their work quota. “We want to play with foreign gamers, form groups and take on some quests together. Often I really want to tell some friendly foreign gamers. Let’s play together, but I don’t know how to say in English,” expressed by Ge Jin, the gold farmer in the video clip. Another factor that deepens the negative impact of gold farming is the long working hours, the 12-hour shift results in a life constantly revolves in the gaming world. For　the　gold farmers the virtual gaming world is not virtual at all, it is a constant part of their lives.

Even in reality, there is rejection for the gold farmers regarding to their job. “The society does not credit this job; no culture accepts gaming as work. My family also dose not accept this job. From their old views, play as work is impossible. They think it is too unreal, they don’t understand what we sell, and think we are just playing all the time.”

Despite the difficulties for the gold famers, they also see the positive in the job. “It is not just for money but also for fun. There is a sense of achievement”. Another gold farmer explains in the video clip, “The good thing about being a gamer is we can play the best and newest games in the world. And another thing is that it is really difficult to find a job in China. It is really difficult. As a gamer you can have an income, though not much, it’s still a happy thing.”

I think this is a very complex social phenomenon, and as Ge Jin and Lao Liu expressed, the negative impacts are quite damaging to their identity, and hopefully in the future the gaming community be more tolerate of the gold farmers, after all, they are just regular people trying to make a living.

More Interesting Report :
Digital Culture From NPR
China's 'Gold Farmers' Play a Grim Game