Friday, May 27, 2011

Blizzard and Gold Farming Prisoner Abuse

Chinese prisoners are allegedly being forced to work long hours earning money for prison administrators in China by illegally playing Blizzard's World of Warcraft MMO. I am distressed to hear about the many recent negative stories with regards to alleged prisoner abuse. I would like to hear Blizzards side of the story.

Q1: There have been several reports in the press and elsewhere that Chinese prisoners have been forced to play games to earn money despite Blizzard's official policy against gold farming. What steps is Blizzard taking to prevent prisoner abuse?

Q2: The current Warcraft(tm) gold farming policy has been in place for some time. Given the apparently large scale size of the underground economy and ongoing abuses is Blizzard going to be taking additional steps to prevent criminal activity using Blizzard systems?

Q3: Can Blizzard comment on the pending litigation the company may be facing as a result of the reported criminal activities?

Q4: Is Blizzard working currently with US or Chinese law enforcement investigation of the alleged illegal activities?

Q5: Do you have any other statement for the public regarding these alleged incidents?

The world wonders...
-Let's Declare Shenanigans

Monday, May 2, 2011

We got Bin Laden! Hurrah! Now what?

Should the USA continue to give aid to Pakistan?
Should the USA align with India?
Should the USA leave Afghanistan, declaring victory, only leaving behind trainers co-ordinators and some CIA and military security?
Should we go after Mullah Omar?
How does this affect our relationship with Russia, China and India?
Should the US revisit it's internal national security arrangements?
Should the navy seals be given a ticker tape parade through the streets of New York city?

There is much to think about and discuss.
It seems clear that the Pakistani ISI got caught red handed with it's paws in the cookie jar.