Chinese prisoners are forced to play WoW

In the last century, hard labor in prison was reduced to crushing stone and transporting it on carts or mining coal at the mine. Modern prisoners in Chinese prisons are even more difficult. In addition to day work, they are forced to work at night: for 12 hours, they perform routine activities in online games. By selling virtual currency, the prison administration earned more than coal mining in the mines.

According to the testimony of a former prisoner of the Jixi Forced Labor Camp in northeastern China, about 300 prisoners were engaged in farming in their settlement. The work proceeded in shifts around the clock so that the computers would not stand idle. If the prisoner for the shift did not comply with the established standard, then he was subjected to physical punishment. “We continued to play until we could at least see and distinguish something,” he says.