Exposing my socks to the world

The New York Times has an article detailing the daily worklife of the Chinese Gold Farmer, the scapegoat of MMO players everywhere. Shockingly, they don’t make much money by American standards.

“For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20.”

Slashdot

I quit playing World of Warcraft on June 12, 2005 making it 1 year, 11 months, and 17 days since I’ve played it last. Not that I’m counting. Imagine my surprise, then, when the following arrived in my mailbox:

Now, ignoring all of the things in that picture that make me a huge dork, you’ll notice, around the center, that I have been sent a DVD that has the free 10-day trial on it (as well as the original version, should I have misplaced it, or course). I’m guessing that the unsolicited email announcement I got about it combined with the media blitz that I absolutely can’t get away from just wasn’t quite enough to pique my interest in the game, since the expansion’s been out for a full four months since the game came out and I still haven’t managed to get to the store and buy it.

Of course, if I do reinstall the game, install the expansion, play for 10 days, decide I like it, and then decide I want to resume my subscription, I’ll have to pony up $40 for the full price of the expansion, whether I download it from Blizzard directly or get a box from the store. Heck, I don’t even really need the box, I have the full version of the game. I just need that precious serial number.