Readings for September 25th. Ogres, virtual sweatshops, Amazon.cult and cheap pay

I wasn’t too impressed with the other readings, the Amazon.cult article really turned me off. It seemed like a whiney rant against the company because of a bad experience. If you miss one full day of training, I would expect that you would be behind the times and a little lot. That article also bashed company policies. However, I would not go into a job expecting not to follow their rules?!?!?! In relation to the blurb index they created, this policy is just in place to save face of a large company and provide it’s customers with uniform across the board.
The internet gaming article! Wow! I was really impressed as well as shocked by the “Ogre to Slay? Outsource it to Chinese.” When I started to read about this gaming craze I thought this was a great idea. However, I didn’t know there was so much animosity about the selling and purchasing of these advanced gaming prizes. To me I think of it as a skill that you are sharing with others for the price of your skill. I played softball all my life and if someone wanted lessons in softball to become what I was, I would sell my teachings to them as these gamers are selling their skills to others.
This article was also shocking to me as I am a regular checker of CNN.com and saw last week a story of a man that died after a long gaming session. I went back to find the exact article but I couldn’t. Here is something similar that lists a few incidents. http://www.switched.com/2007/09/17/man-dies-after-days-of-non-stop-gaming/

In the article, 7th paragraph in they mention that the gaming “quotas” for each of the employees. These quotas are causing the Chinese gamers to play till their death. Curious to me, on the second page was the use of the term “virtual sweatshop”. It reminded me of the industrial revolution where the children were forced to work for low wages for long hours in poor conditions. Although these gamers are provided housing, the article attached above shows they rarely take breaks. The idea of the money exchange for these gaming abilities is a smart one, although as we see, dangerous.