Racism. They're all chinese, amirite?
 

Heh, better still is the occasional lapse by people who should know better... example over at WarCry.

http://www.warcry.com/news/view/83137-WoW-1-000-000-Chinese-Playing-Concurrently
 

Well to be honest I suspect that they've got their own gold farmers. As to how many there are there or what the gold cost can be there I have no idea.

The ones that are affecting us however are of course playing on US/EU servers.
 

"How do people imagine that gold is transferred from Chinese servers to US/Euro buyers?"

Portals? :P
 

Just banning Chinese IP addresses on western servers will do the trick.

THey'd have to us a proxy...
 

Yeah, I've been following this pretty closely, I own some shares but not a ton and I'm probably going to sit down and write something up on it after once things shake out a bit more. It's really interesting watching the struggles in the change between service providers and WoTLK.

The WoW Economist.
 

That's funny! I had no idea people thought that. I suppose they just never sat down and actually *thought* about what they were saying.

As for solutions, I'd still like to see Blizz sell gold and put the scammers out of business, but I know I'm probably in the minority with that view.
 

Surely you're not surprised that racists don't think through what they say?
 

Great question, but I would extend it further. Why is it that when there is ANY article that even mentions China there is a gaggle of people expressing ridiculously wrong (like this example), blatantly racist, xenophobic, or otherwise condemnable comments? Obviously there are trolls/morons on the internet, but why do they tend to congregate around anything related to China?

What is it about China that makes someone with little knowledge of the country feel capable of condemning the entire government/political-system/culture?

I just don't see this phenomenon crop up with other countries.
 

@Roboticus:

Because all Chinese people I have ever met were super-ignorant of other countries. Even worse than Americans. They claim that in Chinea everthing is best and won't even discuss about political stuff.

The position themselves just in front of me watching the sunset on some beautiful beach in Thailand and talk loudly enough that the whole beach can listen.
(Real story).

If you read international chinese newspapers like China Daily you sometimes just stop and laugh, because oyu know that this article has not been written because it is true, but because somebody with some influence wanted it to be written.

Now, why do I care about China so much?
Because quite a few humans live in there and because I still have some hope left.
 

Nils, I cannot tell if this was your intent, but I think you showcased exactly the type of person I was describing.

Making a categorical (and derisive) conclusion on a whole people based on your personal set of observations seems a little bit sketchy.

I agree wholeheartedly on your last point. China IS very important.
 

Just banning Chinese IP addresses on western servers will do the trick.

Because no one outside of China would ever consider making easy money or exploiting a market of people who want to cheat to advance in a computer game, amirite?
 

I blame public schools...
 

@ Roboticus:

I didn't disagree with you although you overexaggerated and didn't want to be agreed with.
That's why you are so surprised.


Making a categorical (and derisive) conclusion on a whole people based on your personal set of observations seems a little bit sketchy.


It's what people do. What else do you suppose? That I don't talk about China as long as I haven't met every single Chinese?
 

Stereotypes exist for a reason.

In fact, the whole accusing people of being racists for making generalizations based on nationality, race, reglion, etc. without regard for accuracy is fairly stereotypical behavior for middle class white people. They tend to have a lingering sense of guilt about their quality of life which they view as superior to other cultures without regard to the fact that other cultures are different, and do have different values/priorities.

Abstraction is the fundamental process by which humans solve complex problems. Stereotyping is abstracting types of human behavior by the most easily observed differences.
If 9 out of 10 gold spammers web sites are based in China, I say it's OK to stereotype. It's one step closer to solving the damn problem.
 

I agree.
It is important to not transfer your general view of China to any individual without thinking.

I am allowed to generalise about China as much as anybody in China is allowed to generalize about the rest of world like that:


Obviously there are trolls/morons on the internet, but why do they tend to congregate around anything related to China?
[..]
I just don't see this phenomenon crop up with other countries.
 

Nils, You are absolutely okay to make such stereotypes on limited information, but other people are free to call you out when you make them, especially when your view seems particularly narrow. Stereotyping is of course a natural way humans try to understand beyond their direct capacity. I'm not even really interested in your particular bit of it. I'm more interested in why China seems to bring out the worst in non-Chinese observers.

I've lived in China several times for several years and observed this attitude there as well among the expats. My only theory is that there is a bit of anxiety from those in the West about China's quite astonishing growth and increasing power, which causes people to jump on the bash-china bandwagon.
 

My only theory is that there is a bit of anxiety from those in the West about China's quite astonishing growth and increasing power, which causes people to jump on the bash-china bandwagon.

And my theory is that China thinks so much about its great rise to power that they don't think about anything else.

As soon as anybody critizises anything the explanation is always this:

We will be so powerful and you not. That's why you don't like us and that's why you critizise us.

The idea that I actually really care about freedom of information (and freedom itself for that matter) doesn't even remotely get through it seems.
 

To Roboticus
- People fear what they don't understand.

To Nills
- I work with many companies from China and you can't just expose ideas about them in a few paragraphs. Their culture and history are TOTALLy different from regular eastern culture. As Eisntein said, "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them". So you can't really understand a culture unless you get out of your box and be like them. And you just can't understand a person unless you put yourself on his place.

To all
- Don't believe in everything you read, specially if it's from government or media (journal, tvs, etc). Try to capture the big picture, think of what's behind the facts. Read books and articles over the internet.

- I used to remember Carl Sagan speaking of the Pale Blue dot. We pretend we live in countries that have borders, but borders are lines on the map. They only exist in papers, in your imagination. In real life, the world is one and one thing you do on one side of the world will affect the other part. Doesn't matter if you don't listen or don't care. You will be affected. In real life or virtual.

- Well, let me stop here...
 

I think that, at least in part, these claims are based on the good old American egocentric view of the world. Many of them aren't even aware that there are EU realms, much less Chinese ones, so when they hear something like "WoW is banned in China" they automatically assume that it affects them somehow.

And yes, I realize that categorizing Americans as self-centered falls right into the other argument going on in the comments here, but still. The mere fact that they call themselves Americans, completely ignoring Canada and all of South-America...