Today's discussion from the Far East - recruiting farmers in China and identity theft in Korea (Lineage).
China------------------------
From Pacific Epoch: (Feb 27, 2006), Wenzhou Companies Recruiting "Farmers":
DoNews is reporting that several Wengzhou companies are recruiting gamers to play online games. The gamers, who work 12 hours a day, collect virtual items in the games and resell them other gamers, including foreign gamers. The basic salary for these gamers is 800 Yuan per month, said the report; however, they can make up to 1,000 Yuan a month if they are especially talented players.
For comparison, 800 yuan is 99.50 US at today's exchange rate. 1000 yuan is $124.37. According to Xinhua, the average wage in the urban coastal cities stands at about 12,300 yuan, or about $1,530. Wengzhou is one of the southern coastal cities, not far from Shanghai... Gold Farmers are being recruited at under the urban salary average, but I
doubt they are considered skilled workers...
Korea------------------------
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/ February 20, 2006
The number of reports of identity theft for signing up with the online game "Lineage" from last Monday until yesterday morning exceeded 224,400, the operator NCsoft Corp. said yesterday.
About 170,100 reports were made over the Internet and 53,400 cases were reported via telephone, fax and e-mail, according to the company. The "Lineage" site currently offers a service which enables people to check if their personal information has been used for subscription on any of more than 10,000 domestic Web sites.
The National Police said yesterday its analyses of IP addresses of gamers using stolen personal information has revealed a majority of connections with the site was made in China.
For more info:
http://www.google.co.kr/search?hl=ko&newwindow=1&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-09%2CGGLG%3Ako&q=lineage+id+theft+korean&lr=
