A rather sensationalized editorial in the Shanghai Daily calls for a governmental ban and a player boycott on all unmarked virtual transactions, to stop player theft by "black hats" and "crackers" who steal virtual goods or otherwise disrupt online economies. "This virtual thievery is very real and does not bode well for the future of the young robbers who are plunged into online larceny," the article says, continuing:

Young men who should have been in college or even schools are hired to play online games at least 12 hours a day, in order to collect equipment, which the workshop bosses then would sell domestically or overseas.

There are no minimum wages, hardly any days off and no real beds for these online gameslaves. Overnight steamed rice is their daily fare.

Numb and dull in real life, over-excited in virtual fights, who could make better slaves for this postmodern industry, whose motto is to turn persons into batteries for the matrix, to squeeze the real world for the sake of the virtual one?

Government and society should take effective measures to restrain the online game industry. A good idea might well be to ban the transactions for virtual items through those e-shopping Websites.

Gameslaves? Numb and dull? Ouch.