Anti-Chinese discrimination in WoW

This is one of those instances that occured back in Elementary, Middle, and even High School. Where a couple people ruin it for the whole class. I play WoW and it is an amazing game. I have never run into people calling anyone a Gold Farmer, however, it is prejudiced, but where are all the posts on AOL about the KKK calling African Americans, Niggers? Where are the articles on AOL about bigots calling Hispanic people, Spics? Why does the media have to blow things out of proportion when they stumble opon gossip of any kind? As for the plainly stupid individual who made that photo: 1) he or she needs a hobby and 2) they need a hobby. Here, why don't I get on WoW tonight and make some random comment like calling the Japanese "Rich Bastards" or Americans "Native American Killers", will I have an article written about my silly comments? Ignorant, close-minded people will always exist, in the real world and the artificial (Internet). Get used to it people. The Electronic Earth is only going to become larger. People change personalities online, they change their looks, their speech, their hobbies. Online you are anything you want to be. Online you are a god and you can change things at the press of a button. Words are only words, until we take them to heart. We simply need to remember the effects of racism, prejudice, and bigotry; raising our children to know how wrong they are.

Most of the gold farmers in WoW are asian. I am not racist, but if asians wanted a little more respect then they should play on their own damn servers. Gold farming destroys the WoW economy and getting tells to "Bai mai gold-visit www.goldfarming.com cheap gold-cheap,cheap gold" is really quite annoying. And on top of that, farmers are rude and annoying in their asking (if you can call it that) for water/food. "200 Mage water plz kkthnx" So if you want less of the racism towards asians, people who do not speak enligsh need to buy their own versions of the game and play on their own countries serers.

kthnxbai

Hey with these "gold farmers" since they are ingame theoretically you should be able to kill/report them. So if it is possible then why not do it? And its not racist, its wrong yes but its just streotyping.

Ok, a "gold farmer" in WoW is someone who spends time making gold for the purpose of selling it. Americans kill mobs for loot all the time, but are they selling it on Ebay/Ige.com? NO! I hate to say this but....Americans make at least 6 bucks an hour, the ones living in the parts of China that are in discussion are not making money AT ALL! The average chinese gold farmer makes 58 cents an hour getting loot and selling it to 1. Their manager, or 2. directly on a site. Think about it, do you think americans need to sell the gold they make when they are making 6 dollars an hour at work? NO! these chinese do. I can tell you that I have met two kinds of farmers. Americans, and Chinese. The Americans had no intention on selling the gold, but instead using it on new gear, ect. The Chinese had the intention of selling it, because they had no other way to make money. In an overpopulated country that is what happens. For those of you who will say "oh well what about poor people in the US!?!?!?!", you can fall to the bottom and get back up in America, job-wise. This is not the same in China due to overpopulation. If you are 1. Born poor, or 2. Humiliated in your career, it is over for you income-wise. Its not all chinese people, but it is all chinese people playing wow on US servers. Call me racist, I dont care. This is not racism, this is straight up fact.

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3141815

(for reference)

Okay wow... this is the dumbest article I've ever read. I agree that racism is stupid, and that people should not generalize from a couple people. But who here ACTUALLY PLAYS THE GAME? I've played since it's release and can honestly say this is hardly a stereotype. Sure there are those few that are not gold farmers, but based off of experience those numbers are few. Every person in that game that speaks chinese that I've encountered has acted inconsiderate. Nearly every person I've run instances (dungeons) with, has stolen items from the group to the point where we have to kick them. If not in your group you'll encounter them in one single area for hours on end (to earn gold maybe?)Americans will do this, sure, but only to earn items that they need to get better at the game. Often involving working together with others, wherein the farmers take everything you need selfishly even if they see you going for it.

And when they try to get gold for the items they find, they don't mention they are selling it once every couple minutes. They spam it constantly, to the point where you can see no other trades going on. How do I know they are chinese? When I message them they say stuff in chinese. This is the case more than 2/3 of the time.

So to all talking about racism being bad, I agree with you completely. Racism is something that needs to be eradicated, and it's born out of ignorance. But what is going on in this game is not racism, it is an apparent pattern of disrespect and greed from chinese speaking people. Once again, it's not all... but definitely a large amount. That small % that don't gold farm, steal, and spam are good people and dedicated players, but they are turning what should be something that is fun into a business, and that is ruining the game for all of us.

To the writer of this article: I seriously suggest you do your research next time before taking the first comment you see and blow it out of proportion. Gold farming is a known business in china for many games, all of which have been ruined for many people because of it (Lineage 2 is a perfect example...)

Once again, articles require research, GG nooblet

"Unfortunately, in our experience, all online games tend to bring racists out of the closet."

Um, I guess this is true with a lot of certain types of online games (mostly FPS games and the like), but rarely do I see these things in mmorpgs.
I played WoW for a very short period of time and I didn't notice anything like this, but that may be due to the amount of time I played that particular game.
However, I have gotten around a bit in the mmo market. I've been gaming online for years. And with the exception of FPS games or free games, the only generalization I have ever repeatedly gotten is the assumption that I am a man because I play video games.

I really think it's about the type of game and the accessability of it. Certain types of games attract a more crude crowd. People that have a lot of pent up anger are probably less likely to play rpg-fantasy types of games...or all the shooting and stuff will bring out their more violent/hateful/agressive side, causing them to say things they probably should not say.

Anyways, I think it sucks and all that people can't get along in the same game when they're from different backgrounds and whatnot, but sometimes it is just the language barrier (as someone above stated) and sometimes it is just a few vocal assholes.
You find assholes all over the internet saying all kinds of things. It doesn't really speak for the general population.

I guess this isn't really as much about race wars as the other posts here, but I have issue with that statement in particular, and that's all I really wanted to respond to. Everything else has already been said.

the unequivical truth which is well illistrated in this picture is, that people as a whole are zenophobic, jealous and lack the general intelligence to eliminate the perpetuation of the simply assinine. I am not chinese and know very few people who are, but can clearly deduce that race and ethinity cannot innculcate an inherint love of money or of anything else. I am also not a tree hugging, satan worshipping liberal who fights for minorities while drounding my own sh*t smelling hippocracy, i simply recognize that the zenophobic lock their doors at night when the real problem is in their head. i wonder who INVENTED the game to begin with.

how do you farm gold by the way ?????????

thank you #163 for illistrating that you IQ indeed is < a well trained monkey. i hear some of them can type. i would like to see you Mr. #163 survive without the pluthera of realitivly inexpensive goods produced in china and japan when here (in AMERICA) it would cost 5 times (or more)as much to produce a good. who invented the game anyway. think before you talk. your mouth > your brain

Completely off the mark. There is deffinately an anti gold farmer trend going on because of what it does to the servers economy. And generally speaking, the gold farmers are chinese. A simple Ni Hao will generally get you a returned sentance of chinese... however, talk to them in English and they can only say simple things such ass "food" or "15g"
Their may be a small number of people that are extremely vocally racist towards Chinese but to paint the whole community of WoW like that, you are no better than that small group of people.

i think you guys are mising the real point. its not that you are calling them gold farmers. its that you are calling them chinese. just because someone who is farming gold doesnt speak english does not automatically mean they are chinese. it could be someone from france for all you know. im chinese. personally i dont have a problem with the whole gold farmer issue, but the main offensive point to this issue is that everyones being labeled chinese by default, when of course this isnt true.

Oh screw off! This is stupid. A majority of the 'gold farmers' on World of Warcraft are of asian decent, and a majority of those asians, are Chinese. Big deal. No one is throwing down racial slurs at these people. They ARE Chinese, and they ARE gold farmers. It wouldn't be accurate to call them German gold farmers, now would it? My wife is asian, and even she refers to chinese gold farmers as chinese gold farmers. The few times that I've come across a Japanese gold farmer in WoW, guess what? I referred to them as a JAPANESE GOLD FARMER! It's what he was. It's a freakin role playing game. If you're chinese, and a gold farmer, then are you accurately described as a chinese gold farmer. End of discussion. Now get off your fucking high horse.

And by the way, I'm from Alabama, and have travelled all over the United States, and a majority of the racists I have found are in the northern states, mainly because in the South, the races are mingled together, instead of separated, like in many places in the North. Ever been to Carmel, Indiana? I'll pay you to find someone there who isn't white.

What is everybody complaining about? What are you trying to promote? The fact there is racism in the world and now online video games perpetuate stereotypes? Get off it. Why be politically correct all the time and get all touchy about racism or any other issue like calling people Chinese instead of "race". Are the Chinese people really offended by that? If so why? Is it because its not respectful? That last time I heard "Sir" or "Mam" was at the drive-thru. I personally play WoW. There is alot of discrimination towards Chinese Farmers, but they cant understand what any of the "Americans (as if no one but Americans play and are discriminatory)" say anyway. Have the Chinese people risen up and declared justice from such a derrogatory game? No, and WoW is probably more popular in China than it is in Europe. No one who plays thinks anything of it, its more of a joke than anything else. And one last thing. Most for lack of a better word "gamers" are extremely understanding of the Asian cultures since more than three-fourths of the video games ever invented are from those countries. There is no real racism in video games, becuase you cant act on it. There will always be racism but video games dont promote it and can't.

Commitments like this are not off the mark, given past interactions.

Gamers fall into various communities that you end up knowing about as you play, via first or third person. In Raknarok Online as it was in beta for example, the International server (the server US testers would have access to) barely had anything going for it in the 2+ year beta test. When they added something, they didn't patch, but made that content exclusive to only one server.

The Korean servers had gulids and PvP content, the International servers had nothing.

Given that the company behind this was Korean and this one sided treatment, it has a strong following regardless. The fact that they now charge for it also helps with getting stuff from them timely.

Currency farmers are looked down upon in all MMORPGs as it drives up the costs of materials in game. By doing that, high end items become more expensive. There are tall tale signs of farmers however.

1. The rarer it is, no matter they class they play; the more likely they will roll and try to take it. Seeing a druid wanted a two-handed axe is one such flag, but it isn't a tell all.

2. The lack of communication. Farmers will typically try to blow though every little annoyance, forgeting about the other members of the party, is get as much sellable goods as possible.

3. The sinking feeling that he could not be fighting. In instances (party doungons for non-WoW types), its a known fact to stick together and fight as one. When someone is on the sidelines, or no where to be found for that matter, it can be assumed that he is gathering goods left behind by players.

4. A blantant disregard for others. This has been mentioned earlier, but it bears that this takes it to a new level. If the farmer is a warrior, expect a train of monsters coming to the where the party is whenever he gets bored.

5. The big tell all, When he dies and dies once, he leaves. He thinks that you aren't worthy to kiss his boots or suspect that this is all he could get by mooching from you.

One or more of these signs could be explained rationally, but number 5 says "This guy isn't worth the time it would have taken to wait for him to come back", regardless of motivation.

Remember, gold farmers are universally hated. The only ethnic groups connected to it are only the ones who get chaught!

Most of the farmers come from trashcanada or the UK

Most of the farmers come from trashcanada or the UK

Most of the farmers come from trashcanada or the UK

I have played World Of Warcraft since the game came out. I play on North American servers, because that's the area that I live in.

Players living in China have their own servers, which they play on and have fun with. I can tell you that the American warcraft population has no problems with these players.

However, on every single American server, there is a significant portion of non-english players who do nothing but farm the mobs with the most valuable gold/items. For those of you who don't play video games, farming mobs means staying in one area and killing the same monsters over and over again, and collecting all the gold and items that they drop. These players are employed by companies that do nothing more than collect large amounts of in-game money and sell it for real money. These players also often happen to be Chinese or Korean.

The majory of the Warcraft playerbase is strongly against the concept of "buying" gold in this fashion. Furthermore, American players are often swarmed with whispers from these gold farmers who advertise their websites that they sell gold from. This is at the best, annoying, and at the worst, insulting, depending on the player. Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of World of Warcraft, has always been against selling gold online, and ban these players whenever they catch them.

The World of Warcraft playerbase is not biased against Chinese or Korean players. We are against the small portion of their players who invade our servers with no intention other than to farm gold and try to sell it to us online. This is the background behind this picture that you claim to be racist.

As far as my experience with MMORPG's, I've played with Russians,Japanese, French, and Chinese.

Russians tend to be pretty rude, but you can get along with them. Japanese are very avoidant of americans, JPONRY is because they are uncomfortable playing with US players, which is understandable. French mix in very nicely to my experience. Chinese 95% of the time are in fact "gold farmers" "gil sellers" "adena sellers". The fact is, 95% of chinese players you meet in-game ARE THERE TO F*** YOU. By this notion you avoid all chinese players, dislike them, and do not play with them. It's not direct racism, it's a type of racial profiling but I believe it's much more concrete. You have experience and good reason to avoid and be dissapointed in chinese players. It is much safer to have nothing to do with them. Those are the hard facts, I myself have learned from personal experience that in-game no chinese player should ever be trusted.

God, this story has brought all the racist right-wing monkeys from the depths, hasn't it? Congrats to Joystiq for making AIM, the hellhole that it is.

You idiots, it's not that they're calling Chinese people gold farmers "because they are", it's the IMPLICIT ASSOCIATION of being Chinese with being a gold farmer. And frankly, as a Chinese person and an avowed anti-farmer, I am frankly pissed at this type of prejudice.

Gold farming is not a racial thing, nor is it a cultural thing. It is a "because I can" thing. Capisce?

Am I the only one who thought that this was funny? Not because I think all people from China on NA servers are farmers, or because I'm a racist, but just because life is funny and we should be able to laugh. The only problem I would have have with gold farming if I cared enough is that it compromises the integrity of the game. Anyone getting pissed off over anything related to WoW should seek out some bleach to play with.