Well, here's a thing. Every few days, or so it seems at the moment, I learn something about this world that makes me go 'Well bloody hell. What's that all about then?' I had just such a moment yesterday. This will take some explaining, particularly if this is new to you, so bare with me.
Computer games. There are lots of them. Pong was only the start, my friends. There are different types: some are 'shoot 'em ups', some are 'platform' games and there are also 'role-playing' games, which are fairly self-explanatory. One of the most popular ones is called World of Warcraft, another is Adventure Island. Now in order to play, say World of Warcraft (known colloquially as WoW), although the idea is to, eventually, start a war and take over the continent, but in order to do that you have to start right at the beginning. You have to round up some peasants, get them to go and mine lots of gold in order to finance the project, train them up as an army, as well as building villages, growing food in order to sustain them, and all that malarky. Then, as you go along, you can 'earn' different weapons or armour through various different means. With me so far?
So, these games are very popular around the world, particularly - don't look surprised - America. But people can't always be bothered to spend all this time mining gold, so - and this is where it gets a bit freaky - the Chinese have set up several 'farming colonies', who spend all their time mining and then selling their gold via eBay to impatient Americans. Let's just look at that again, shall we? Chinese people, working in rotation, usually eating and sleeping together in a big room, play computer games 24 hrs a day in order to mine virtual gold to sell for real dollars to international gamers.
If you don't believe me, here's a short video about it:
Mental.
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