It is not difficult to see that the Internet has created a global economy that allows for enhanced international and intercultural communication. In Digitizing Race: Visual Cultures of the Internet, Lisa Nakamura emphasizes that the Internet is “a form with an increasingly visual bent, a development trajectory measured in months rather than years, a diversifying population of users and producers, a serious and thoroughgoing intervention into American culture and media practices, and a correspondingly crying need for flexible, rigorous, and multimediated forms of analysis. The challenges that the Internet presents to critics and theorists of imaging practices in our contemporary period are serious and myriad: the hybrid form to end all hybrid forms, the Web in particular brings together graphics and textuality, both streaming and still images, synchronous and asynchronous communication, new forms of commerce, amateur and professional production, and community building” (5).
With the Internet, an important form of technology that has improved vastly is gaming, mainly in that it has allowed for Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, or MMORPG’s. Through some of the most popular online games, such as World of Warcraft, players from all over the world conglomerate into this digital space to compete, have fun, and even make money. While this has been a good thing for the most part, it has also presented debatable ways of making profit and tensions between different cultures.
Gold farming is a term that describes making money in a virtual world of an online game and selling it for actual profit in the real world on websites like eBay. The game World of Warcraft has had a particular problem with this. It has been found that 80-85% of the gold farmers playing this game are living in China. Many of them work for actual gold farming organizations, working in buildings that are called sweatshops. The pay that most of the gold farmers receive is not great, but they are also provided with food and sometimes shelter by the organizations. To this segment of the Chinese population, gold farming is a legitimate way of making money.
However, elsewhere across the world, gold farmers are looked down upon. They are seen as people who ruin the game experience, making money in a cheap despicable way. The administrators of World of Warcraft started to recognize some of these gold farmers and banned their accounts, though the farmers usually return to the game with a new account. Do you think that gold farming is a legitimate way of making money for many of the disenfranchised people trying to make a living in cities like Beijing? Do you think that this practice is proof to the importance of Internet as an economic means over all other means?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dkkf5NEIo0
This video is called “Ni Hao (A Gold Farmers Story)” and is a parody of a popular Akon song. Americans attempting to bring down the name of gold farmers created it. Watching the video, you will notice the cultural tensions that exist between American and Chinese players, as lyrics of the song seem to point out that these Chinese people are unwanted in the game world. It even begins to blend Chinese stereotypes and Chinese-American stereotypes into one unspecific insult. Do you think that the message of this song is simply a cry for fair gameplay by American players or that it represents an international and racist tension between players on this MMORPG? Is it a sweeping representation of the Chinese people or an insult directed at a very specific segment of the country’s people? Also, do you think that this is proof that the Internet can lead to intercultural problems even if the race or nationality of the individual is hidden?
I honestly don't know exactly how to feel about that video or the sentiments of those that play the MMORPG's. I understand that many of the players may be frustrated because they feel as though the Chinese players are gaining money illegitimately and that this can be agitating. However, I feel that this song is simply a poor methodology for expressing their anger or annoyance over those that gold farm for a living. There may be some truths to the lyrics in the "Ni hao", however, I feel that many of these lyrics are laced with racist and antagonistic analogies and racial slurs. Because they are so egregiously annoyed about the situation, perhaps more complaints and watch agents should be taken up with and implemented by the administrators of World of Warcraft, not necessarily the players.
ReplyDeleteIn conjunction with the above, according to Nakamura, the internet is a large space for the hybrid exchange of race, sex and different ideologies regarding the matters. Facebook, specifically is linked to these issues. I also feel that it's important that we realize that there are underlying negative sentiments being expressed in this music in addition to blatant racism.
Lastly, this is not so much proof as much as further evidence regarding the Internet and its leading people to have intercultural issues. Look at hate sites and other sites that spew negative, racist sentiments and bad language against people of other races. The Internet is simply a medium for this sort of madness, not necessarily the cause or the only methodology.
I watched this for an 8 week seminar I took with Lisa Nakamura with guest lecturer Julian Dibbell - who has written pretty extensively on gold-farming in China. What I took out of it, and Nakamura's reading, is that the Internet is not necessarily a solely economic platform - but it has certainly developed in this direction. The internet is not inherently one thing, and I think it has a lot potential for good. However, it has developed in the same trajectory as more traditional media forms.
ReplyDeleteThe case of gold-farming demonstrates very familiar structures of labor and consumerism. There are always discussions about questionable Chinese labor practices in the news, yet these discussions hardly get to any in-depth exploration of the economic conditions that allow for these practices. Gold-farmers exist because there is a market for their services. There are companies willing to pay (though poorly) workers to "farm." And then of course, we see a familiar dichotomy of East and West - who are the people purchasing the products farmed by these "gold farmers?"
I agree with Tichina, the Internet is the cause of certain behavior. It is rather an extension of pre-existing conditions. Gold-farming is a reflection of the exploitive characteristics of global capitalism.
I agree internet is not all about monetary value, however over time it has become a money making machine. To answer your in regards to can the internet lead to intercultural problems, the answer is yes. Looking at this video you hear all kind of racist language being used and it easily recognized even if it is meant to be hidden. And this what the internet is used for some cases….which open up a space for intercultural problems.
ReplyDeleteThe internet is the way to get capital. Nakamura expressed that the Internet is a "commodity-deliver system (Nakamura 3)". They tend to catch the eyes of many people to get views about the media that's presented. As we can see this youtube video have 5 million views. So I believe that the internet leads into interacial problems because of freedom of speech about other culutures and the ways they depict things.
ReplyDeleteGold farming is interesting when thought of with respect to the Rodriguez's discussion of gender performance/play on the internet. In order to keep their accounts, farmers must perform the identity of a "legit" player. Also non-farmers may be mistaken for them, if their game play practices are deemed so.
ReplyDeleteGold-farming in WoW is an interesting example to relate back to Nakamura's work. I have been lucky enough to do a semester's worth of fieldwork on World of Warcraft players and have read extensively on the complex ideologies on race and identity WoW creates. What makes this example so complex is that WoW truly is its own universe. Although it has similar economic systems, trading practices, as the United States, the image of the self, race included, is confusing. Players get mad about gold farmers because they are selling gold to people that they, the buyers, never actually fairly earned. Yet in terms of the actual job of gold farming, it is providing work for someone, a real person, who otherwise does not have a job. The internet has provided various jobs for people throughout the past ten years, that are legitimate, and shouldn't be looked down upon just because they cross between virtual reality and reality. This concept of virtual reality is important when using WoW as a case study example because this game often mixes the too.
ReplyDeleteThus, where does individual (reality) identity begin and where does individual virtual identity end? In Nakamura's epilogue she discusses how the creation of the person via definite virtual pixals and features is a way that the Internet really controls human identity (205-207). The more people use the Internet, the more this sort of identification turns from virtual reality to reality, correct? The more someone's avatar truly becomes apart of them as a person..
I do think that gold farming has become a form of income for individuals that are disenfranchised. Since this method of income is not illegal, it is legitimate. I feel that it is one of those situations where with every “new & improved” form of technology there always lies a pitfall within the technology. I do think that the internet has been a great way to boost the economy. It is a convenient method of advertisement, marketing, selling, and purchases. To answer your question though I agree with Tichina, after viewing the clip the internet has lead to intercultural problems. According to Nakamura (2007), “the internet has continued to gain uses and users who unevenly visualize race and gender in online environments,” (pg. 5). This gaming system has created a space for cultures to be stereotype which can lead to discrimination and marginalization.
ReplyDeleteUsing the following:
ReplyDeleteNakamura (2007)," While the
policy rhetoric around Internet access may have been inflected strongly with
the neoliberal discourse of color blindness and nondiscrimination-a paradigm
in which failure to overtly discriminate on the basis of race, and the
freedom to compete in the "open market" despite an uneven playing field in
terms of class, education, and cultural orientation constitutes fairness-the
Internet has continued to gain uses and users who unevenly visualize race
and gender in online environments” (pg. 5)
It definitely looks like the neoliberal ideal of connecting with everyone equally on the internet in an even cultural exchange where we all become better people and global citizens is garbage when put to the test of the case study of goldfarming and its relation to WoW and China. It seems really funky that this unequal distribution of work and profit has centered itself once again on exploited people. It is interesting too that this online power relationship exists in part because of economies that have been globalized are not entirely separate from "virtual" economies, even though the line of "virtual" and real gets blurred when one currency becomes thrown into an exchange market with another.
The racism in the rhetoric involved with discussing the gold-farming practice also does not seem to meet liberal colorblind standards, instead with the internet just being another medium to express prejudice and ignorance.
I would say that one part of the high amounts of ignorance expressed would be due in part to the high levels of anonymity, or at least perceived anonymity on the internet, which is key in understanding relations online versus relations offline.
Lisa Nakamura's work shows how fluid social identities are. MMORPG provides gamers with an alternate reality in which they can disconnect from themselves and provide a veil for their real identity by creating another identity unlike them. So I agree with Tichina with the fact that the behavior of the players is preexistent and just spills over into the virtual world. As a result players feel the safety of being able to act in ways in which they may feel but wouldnt neccessarily act on in will life for the protection of their identity and reputation.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that players are Gold Farming shows that in any industry products that are popular in the mainstream can be exploited and turned into a form of profit.
I believe that the practice of gold farming is proof that the internet now has an increasing importance in the economic world. I believe that there is a whole other world out there on the internet as Precious said about Lisa Nakamura’s work, the internet shows us how fluid our social identities are on the internet and how they can be easily created and changed. I do think that the internet in many different aspects creates tensions between many different people in regards to race, sexuality and gender. The internet is a place where you can be linked to many different opinions and many different websites.
ReplyDelete-Gizelle (post late due to posting issues)
As Nakamura explains in her writing, in the earlier days of the internet a utopian vision of an erasing of racial boundaries was anticipated. Yet as this example demonstrates, despite the fact that individuals can be whichever avatar they chose, users can still go out of their way to emphasize difference and pick fights. In fact, I think the anonymity of the internet encourages hateful behavior, as evidenced by the depravity of many youtube comments, and what I've heard about some players in games such as Halo. The internet eliminates geographical distance in many ways, yet the distance still exists in that the anonymity creates a space that allows individuals such as the creator of this video to feel safe in drawing distinctions and disparaging people that are trying to make a living in possibly the only way that's available to them.
ReplyDeleteI do not know how to properly respond to your posting because I am not to familiar with the topic that is being discussed in depth. But I can most definitely see the tension and the issue. But as mentioned by Nakamura in her reading, the internet has become a realm to commodify. It is a form of delivery. Which is sad to say when somethings are on the internet for pure pleasure.
ReplyDeleteAs in regards to the video posting that contribute to the bllog posting. I will be honest and say that I can not really see the connection, but more so see the anger that is exulting into stereotyping of the asian culture. The video does support the frustration. But really does not represent the topic fully. But the store that you tell. I do agree that is a wrong for them to do such a thing and take the gaming world for granted.