CULT 320:Globalization and

CultureKara Heitz, 11/18/2014

Questions:

• What is gold farming? What can this practice tell us about virtual economies?• What are the conditions of labor for gold farmers? Are these

conditions similar or different to spaces like sweat shops in the “real world”?• Why are “leisure” players so opposed to “working” players

such as gold farmers? How do these oppositions become racialized in games such as World of Warcraft?• Do virtual worlds offer spaces to transcend inequalities and

divisions along lines of race/ethnicity, gender, class, sexuality, ability, etc.? Or do they reinforce and reinvent existing inequalities and stereotypes?