Steve Bannon and gaming cheats

It’s not often two of my passions combine, but this Washington Post article links the 45th US President’s chief advisor, Steve Bannon, with a company called IGE:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/steve-bannon-once-guided-a-global-firm-that-made-millions-helping-gamers-cheat/2017/08/04/ef7ae442-76c8-11e7-803f-a6c989606ac7_story.html?utm_term=.969894a83c07

In a nutshell, IGE was the brains and money behind what we gamers call ‘gold farmers’. Think virtual sweatshops in which players from poor countries earn a tiny wage for accumulating desirable ‘goods’ from online games. These valuables are then sold to lazy gamers for real money so that they can have all the goodies…without having to work for it themselves.

Most gamers hate gold farmers, and so do the developers of the games they play. It’s a despicable practice that most games do not allow. In fact, most games ban players caught farming for gold, or trying to sell these items back to players. And guess who worked for IGE during this time? Yup, Steve Bannon. And no, there is no way he could not have known what was going on. Making money off gold farmers and players was IGE’s only business model.

These days, bots have put most flesh and blood gold farmers out of work, but the practice is still despicable.

My thanks to Candy Korman for alerting me to this mindblowing article.

cheers

Meeks

 

#Brexit first, then #Trump in the Whitehouse?

As an Australian, I’m not that concerned with Brexit and the economic upheaval it may cause. It won’t have a huge impact here so selfishly, I can afford to sit back and just watch history in the making. As a student of human nature, however, I’m worried by the implications. You see, half the shock generated by Brexit seems to be because most people did not believe it could happen. And then it did.

Since the results of the referendum were made public, the one question on most lips is ‘why?’ and the answer seems to be ‘dissatisfaction’. But dissatisfaction with what, exactly?

I’m wading out into uncharted waters here, but my personal opinion is that Brexit was a kind of protest vote about conditions [in GB] in general and the perceived inadequacies of the EU in particular. I think the tsunami of Refugees has also given rise to a kind of low grade, xenophobia that is not restricted to Great Britain alone. But again, I think the underlying malaise is about dissatisfaction with life in the era of European Union. And when enough people become dissatisfied, leaders will always rise up offering both a scapegoat and a ‘way out’.

And so the unthinkable happened. Brexit happened. Now let’s take a quick flight over the Atlantic to the US.

Most people, myself included, still see Donald Trump as a buffoon who could not possibly win. But what if the malaise that led to Brexit is the same as the malaise gripping the US? What if Donald Trump has honed in on a level of dissatisfaction that is ready to explode like the US version of Brexit?

I still believe that Donald Trump as President is unthinkable, but post Brexit I’m no longer sure that it is. And that is a worry.

Meeks