China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Hu Chunyan and intern Qu Ruichao
After graduating from technical secondary school, Song Wei did weddings, sold mobile phones, and delivered express delivery. In 2020, he found what he considered the "most stable" job so far-professional game leveling.
In 2020, his 5-member team participated in a national game of a game and won a championship.
"The boss directly signed me to do professional power leveling, with a basic salary of 3,000 yuan per month." The condition for getting the basic salary is that I train for at least 10 hours a day, complete the leveling tasks assigned by the boss with the team, and participate regularly.
Song Wei has never met the boss. The so-called "signing" is an agreement between each other on the Internet, "it depends on trust."
In 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced 13 new professions, including e-sports operators and e-sports players. Many game industry practitioners happily believe that their status has been officially recognized.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security stated that the new economic form has spawned new occupations, and the development of new occupations has led to more employment. The new occupations not only standardize the job setting, recruitment, and training of employers, but also help accelerate the development of employment. Jobs, expand employment capacity, and promote employment and entrepreneurship of laborers.
“The game power leveling industry lacks such standards.” Xiao Xiao, a 24-year-old Jiangsu native, is a part-time game power leveling player. He told a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that this industry has existed for many years, and there are many Big market demand should also be brought into normal regulation and management, otherwise, both power levelers and game buyers will easily "get into the pit" accidentally.
The reporter interviewed many game leveling players and learned that the game leveling industry is in a gray area in many aspects. Vicious price competition, high deposits, and even evasion of orders and account theft are common problems.
Disputes can only be considered bad luck
Xiao Xiao always likes to play games. A few months ago, he wanted to try a part-time game power leveling to make a little money.
So he found a game leveling platform through QQ.
In that group, dozens of demand orders for power leveling are released every day, and everyone in the group can grab orders.
The settlement method is basically daily settlement.
Xiao Xiao found that because various power leveling platforms need to seize the market, in order to get more buyers' orders, they keep pushing down prices.
Coupled with platform commissions, the profits that can eventually be allocated to power leveling are getting lower and lower.
He once took an order, from 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening to more than 2 o'clock the next morning, and finally the platform only gave him 40 yuan.
He knows that sometimes platforms with slightly higher salaries, but those platforms often need to pay a deposit.
Some platforms have very high requirements for the amount of deposit payment, "For example, I only received a bill of more than ten yuan, and the deposit must be paid 1,000 yuan."
The platform does not return the deposit in time, it also happens from time to time.
"Some platforms are a little bit black and will take away more than 50% of their profits." Xiao Xiao also took some "private orders" from individual buyers. According to buyers, in general, platforms will at least take away buyers. Pay more than 30% of the amount as a service fee.
The platform only provides order information. Once a dispute arises, it is difficult to make up for each other's losses.
In addition, because the game account is jointly held by the customer and the power leveler, there are often problems such as virtual asset disputes such as game virtual coins and equipment.
Sophomore Liu Hao once encountered a "customer" on the Internet and asked for help with one month of experience points.
According to a customary regulation in the power leveling industry, the various loot obtained by power leveling during the game belongs to the power leveling player.
And these virtual loot, game currency and other forms of game assets can be converted into real currency value.
When Liu Hao saved about 1,600 yuan worth of trophies, he did not transfer to other accounts in time and found that someone had logged in and transferred all the trophies away.
Liu Hao found the "customer" and wanted to return those items, but the other party refused to admit it. "It's useless to find the platform, I can only admit that I am unlucky."
Small studio full-time power leveling does not sign a contract
Song Wei was just 18 years old when he "signed" with the boss.
Not everyone in the five-person championship team gets a basic salary. Song Wei has repeatedly emphasized, “In our industry, there are very few basic salaries.” After thinking about the reasons, he thinks he wins when he is young, Talk about loyalty.
The boss mentioned by Song Wei is actually the person in charge of a small power leveling studio operated at low cost.
Because the current level of online game leveling has certain requirements on the number of people, the "boss" usually picks up some difficult large orders from the "boss" and finds a full-time leveling team to complete the task.
Some wealthy players like to rush to the top of the leaderboard as quickly as possible when the new game is just launched. They are willing to spend a lot of money to find professional power leveling to help complete it.
According to an industry insider, a professional power leveling in the power leveling industry currently has a monthly salary of around 3,000 yuan-5,000 yuan, working 8-10 hours a day, "just like working."
Because in the process of power leveling, any equipment hit is owned by the power leveler, and these overflow parts are also a considerable income.
"Some people say that professional power leveling earns more than 10,000 yuan a month. It's an exaggeration. My average monthly income is about 6,000 or 7,000 yuan, which is relatively high." Song Wei said that he spends at least 12 hours sitting in front of the computer every day. Above, a while ago, a teammate in the team couldn't hold his body and quit.
Song Wei has never met this teammate, nor has he seen the "boss". The "boss" will transfer him a basic salary of 3,000 yuan every month from the Internet. He will do some power leveling work on his own after training.
He knows that this profession will not last for many years, but now he has not considered the issues of pension and medical insurance, "make some money first, I'm only 18 years old".
Song Wei believes that in addition to diligent practice, professional power leveling also requires talent. "Others may need six or seven hours or even longer to reach the level, and we can get it in two or three hours."
According to a survey of e-sports players released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and Datang Entertainment in 2019, the age of the employed population is generally low, and 80% of the surveyed employees are under 30 years old.
Among them, 54% are between 16-22 years old, 26% are between 23-30 years old, 16% are between 31-40 years old, and only 4% are over 40 years old.
The level of education of these people is relatively low. Among them, 46% have a high school or technical secondary school degree, followed by a college degree with 38%, and a bachelor degree or above accounting for only 16%.
Among them, 60% of the interviewees have worked for less than 3 years.
Emerging professions should be gradually standardized during development
An insider of a game development and operation company told reporters that with the rapid increase in online game participants, the demand for the leveling industry has also greatly increased. Because of the lack of corresponding supervision, both buyers and sellers will often take certain risks. "But we Power leveling is always not recommended."
This game operating company receives several complaints every month, all of which are requested to be retrieved due to account hacking in power leveling. "There are complaints of any kind, some are account owners, and some are complaints from power leveling." But for the game. As far as the company is concerned, its judgment is based on the user's commonly used IP address. As long as the user has logged in for 7 consecutive days, it is judged that the commonly used IP is the account owner, "this is your personal behavior."
Because the game company cannot judge whether there is a leveling behavior in the game account, both parties want to protect their rights, so they can only report to the public security department. However, because the value of virtual items in online games is difficult to determine, rights protection must consume a lot of time and energy.
At the same time, there are certain risks in finding a power leveling counter owner.
Generally speaking, many accounts that need power leveling have accumulated a good reputation and have a high level. However, some power leveling players may adopt some extraordinary methods in the game in order to play more equipment and belong to them. The malicious "killing" in the game is called "destroying the number".
In this case, the owner has no way to defend his rights.
In the past few days, Xiao Xiao received a game power leveling order from overseas, and the other party hoped to ask him to power level up for the "number maintenance" in the form of a monthly commission.
To Xiao Xiao's surprise, this account owner drafted a very detailed electronic contract. Both parties are required to electronically sign and confirm.
It stipulates the requirements of power leveling, the time of payment, and the late fees for breach of contract.
Xiao Xiao thinks this is a good way to help both parties defend their rights.
Many interviewees told reporters that, like the live broadcast and takeaway industries that have emerged in recent years, relevant departments should also regulate the field of game power leveling in the course of its continuous development, so that the industry develops more healthily, and practitioners Get more protection.
(All power leveling practitioners in the text are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Hu Chunyan and intern Qu Ruichao