The NY Times reports on Chinese workers paid for playing online multiplayer games in 12 hour shifts in order to accumulate early level advances in rank, wealth, skills, weapons, and artifacts for people in more affluent countries who prefer to skip the slow and laborious process of developing an advanced player persona. The practice is known as “gold-farming,” a name referring to the accumulation of imaginary on-line currency used for purchasing training and items within the universe of the game by repetitive tasks.

There have got to be worse jobs.