The working poor and video games

Focus on Internet and the working classes
By Bruno Vétel
English

Online video games are the place of exchange of digital objects useful to their exploration. Some players try to earn euros by selling the artificially rare objects they collect there. They can practice what they call “le farm,” playing in a very repetitive way to collect the most valuable objects. We propose a synthesis of research on the most widely publicized group among them, “goldfarmers”: low-skilled workers who operate in groups from distant countries in order to resell these objects on the Internet. An original study that we conducted with the French players of Dofus shows that they also practice “le farm,” but in a more individual way that earns little money and seeks mainly to obtain discounts to be able to carry on playing. This article shows how lucrative “farming” practices are organized and how all stakeholders manage, although not without friction, to live together on an online platform that was originally designed for gaming.

Keywords

  • farming
  • working class
  • online games
  • currency
  • economy
  • digital
Go to the article on Cairn-int.info