Ask garcia1000 about Hong Kong

[Eihli]

I am hafl-jokingly thinking about opening an mmorpg "sweatshop" and was told to consider Hong Kong. If you are unfamiliar with it: An MMORPG is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, such as World of Warcraft. These games have persistent worlds that people pay monthly to own a character in, and they play these characters to gain items and experience to fight bigger monsters. A lot of the items that people can equip their characters with will sell on Ebay for real $. If you sold everything you got in some games, you can usually make between $1 and $5 per hour. I am looking rent out an office/building, fit it with several dozen computers, and hire people to play the game so I can sell the items to rich Americans who don't have time to play the game themselves.

My questions about Hong Kong are:
Have you heard of anyone doing this in Hong Kong?
Are there areas where $0.50/hr is competitive pay?
Is there reliable internet connection in those areas?
Can you think of any other reasons Hong Kong would be good/bad for such a business?

[ArturiusX]

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I am hafl-jokingly thinking about opening an mmorpg "sweatshop" and was told to consider Hong Kong. If you are unfamiliar with it: An MMORPG is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game, such as World of Warcraft. These games have persistent worlds that people pay monthly to own a character in, and they play these characters to gain items and experience to fight bigger monsters. A lot of the items that people can equip their characters with will sell on Ebay for real $. If you sold everything you got in some games, you can usually make between $1 and $5 per hour. I am looking rent out an office/building, fit it with several dozen computers, and hire people to play the game so I can sell the items to rich Americans who don't have time to play the game themselves.

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I think anyone connected to the internet is familiar with MMORPG sweat shops.

[garcia1000]

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How is it to live there? Is there a large expat population of single twenty somethings? Any way to get a nice apartment for under $5k a month?


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It is to live here. Most expats are male senior managers and their families. You will find single twenty somethings hanging out in bars and clubs, usually, and they will be more uninhibited than the average person. If you are up to par with your PUA skills and reasonably attractive you shouldn't have any problem in this area.

It depends on what you want in a nice apartment. If you want a decent studio (~250 sqft usable) in the city centre you are looking at around $1.5-$2k a month. A decent apartment (~1000 sqft usable) in city centre will run around $5k a month. If you are willing to live remotely, ~30-40 minutes away from the centre, you can get an apartment like that for $2.5k or so.


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How far is Macau and do they spread regular poker there?

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Macau is an hour away by ferry. Immigration procedures for people with a HK identity card are trivial, and many people day-trip over the weekend.

Poker is spread on electronic tables at the Starworld casino. I believe Grand Lisboa plans to introduce real dealer tables. Knowing the quality of the dealers there, I think this will be a huge disaster.


[ QUOTE ]
My questions about Hong Kong are:
Have you heard of anyone doing this in Hong Kong?
Are there areas where $0.50/hr is competitive pay?
Is there reliable internet connection in those areas?
Can you think of any other reasons Hong Kong would be good/bad for such a business?

[/ QUOTE ]

I have not heard of people running sweatshops in Hong Kong.

$0.50/hour is not competitive pay. Pay for unskilled manual labourers (e.g. Mcdonald's, dishwashers, couriers) starts from $2.50/hour. There is pressure to introduce minimum wage legislation as the current wages are deemed insufficient. Pay for administrative workers (e.g. secretaries, data entry, accounts clerk) starts from $1100/month.

There is reliable internet connection in Hong Kong. Other things Hong Kong has includes tap water, sewage systems, electricity, telephone service (fixed line AND mobile!), and natural gas. Hong Kong is considered a developed country. It has per capita GDP of around $37,000. Although the gini coefficient is high, living circumstances are decent for most people.

Perhaps you are thinking of MMORPG sweatshops in areas like Fujian or Chongqing?

Here is a representative photo of Hong Kong:



Here is not a representative photo of Hong Kong:

[bozzer]

what's the local wildlife like? are there any good places to go and watch things - eg. the delta?