Keeping pace with the rapid development of the game market is the emerging profession that some young people aspire to - "game companion", but there are also many problems in some regulatory blind spots, and some informal and group "play groups" are attracting waves of underage students to join.
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Li Ye (pseudonym), a 16-year-old teenager who graduated from junior high school, found his first job as a "game companion". Now, he has been working for almost two years and is preparing to withdraw from the circle, "I don't want to do this on the Internet, even if I earn 3,000 yuan in two days."
According to the "2022 China Game Industry Report", the actual sales revenue of China's game market in 2022 will be 265.884 billion yuan, and the scale of game users will be 664 million. Keeping pace with the rapid development of the game market is the emerging profession that some young people yearn for - "game companion", this kind of good job of "playing games and making money" has attracted many young people like Li Ye.
However, a reporter from China Youth Daily found that although some media reported that the e-sports branch of the China Communications Industry Association had previously issued the "Game Companion Group Standard Announcement", it was difficult to retain stable practitioners in the mixed industry environment. At the same time, some informal, group-like "play groups" are attracting waves of underage students.
Earning 3,000 yuan in two days, I felt that my eyes were almost blind
Li Ye is now a professional online "game companion", and every night is when Li Ye's work schedule is the fullest, and it is also the best time for the business of major online companion platforms. During this period, netizens have the greatest demand for game companionship.
"Run, run, run!" Li Ye frowned, stared at the game interface with full attention, and commanded the "boss" on the other end of the network, not daring to be sluggish and slack. After all, the other party paid.
Freedom of time, payment by order, and earning money while playing, this is the "ideal job" in the eyes of many young people. "I was only 16 years old and couldn't find another suitable job." The year he graduated from junior high school, Li Ye failed to enter high school. With the support of his parents, he joined a small game companion group through the introduction of an intermediary and became a "game companion" who specializes in the "peace elite".
Since then, with the expansion of his contacts, Li Ye has joined a large-scale escort group that is quite famous in the escort world. He entered the game as a technical "game companion", and now his price for half an hour of companionship is 35 yuan.
This "worth" is a high price in the vertical category of "Peace Elite", which is a high price. Li Ye received the largest order, allowing him to earn 3,000 yuan in just two days.
"This is a 'God of War' list (that is, a game companion order that needs to rush to the rankings), I am very tired, and I only slept five or six hours in two days." This time to play with Li Ye felt that "his eyes were about to go blind".
Li Ye told reporters that in the game companion circle, almost no "boss" (that is, customers who order to accompany the game) will pay attention to whether the "companion player" has relevant qualifications.
There are rules and thresholds for entering the industry, but some have no age limit
The reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Network noticed that the "game escort group" is a key "middleman" in the field of game companion play. It is also known as "companion club", is a network organization integrating training management, customer source and companion service provision, usually composed of a team leader and multiple "companions" and dispatchers.
Different from the personal "escort teachers" who need to actively "squat the boss" and "sell" themselves to the boss on major escort platforms, the "escort teachers" in the escort group have a relatively stable source of customers. Most people will apply to join the game companion group at the beginning of their contact with the game companion industry.
The jury also has a relatively orderly organizational structure and division of labor. When the "escort" is offended by the "boss"'s words, the commissioner in the jury group will come forward to solve it for the "escort".
The group where Button (pseudonym) belongs is quite large, with more than 1,000 members in one of the companion groups alone, and there are 3-4 companion groups of this size. The large group leader is the administrator of each group, and there is a group leader under him, and the group leader takes over the dispatcher and the "companion".
Once the "Companion" encounters any adverse situation while working, he can escalate a dispatch. If the group leader cannot solve the problem, he will directly hand it over to the large group leader to help solve it.
The entry threshold of "game companion" is mainly "assessment technology". Li Ye told reporters that he was not asked whether he was an adult before joining the group. "There will be a series of assessments, mainly looking at technology. There will also be training to teach you how to take orders, how to chat with customers, how to grab orders, and how to audition. Li Ye introduced that different sizes of accompaniment groups have different ways of investigation.
In the case of the jury group where the button is located, the jury group also asks the "companions" to complete an online questionnaire. "First send a guidebook to those who want to join the group, and then arrange a special 'teacher' for teaching and training." Button introduced that such an entrance exam is once every other day, and "those who fail can only listen to the class and keep taking the exam until they pass."
On individual platforms, passing the group entrance test is only one of the steps in the cultivation of "escort player", and paying the "joining deposit" is the last step to become an official "game companion". Before joining the group, Li Ye paid a deposit of 1,000 yuan, and after passing the one-month "background check" claimed by the group, the group will return the deposit in full. The small group where the button is located charges a "joining fee" of 29 yuan for new members, and it will not be refunded later.
But the "background check" doesn't seem to have anything to do with the real age of the "playmate." "It requires the applicant to be at least 18 years old and will also ask you to provide an ID, but as long as you say you are an adult, it assumes that you are." As soon as you pay the tour fee, it means that you have passed. Button said.
Some accompaniment groups also have "rules in the group", which is considered to be the most basic "professional bottom line" of "game companions". These rules are mainly used to deal with the relationship between the boss and the "companion". The industry consensus is that it is forbidden for "companions" to have private contact with the boss, let alone bypass the dispatcher to "take over private work".
The button revealed that compared with "turning a blind eye" to the age issue, the management of the "jumping orders" of the members of the group is much stricter. "'Robbing the boss' is punishable." She said that once discovered in private contact, the "escort teacher" would be "directly kicked out", and some people would even be deducted a certain amount of salary.
Different groups have different percentages. The jury where the button is located will be raked at $0.5 to $1.50 per order. In addition, the game resources presented by the boss to the "escort" in the game, the first giveaway is owned by the dispatcher, and the second giveaway dispatcher is divided with the "escort". The accompanying group where Feng Feng (pseudonym) belongs directly takes 10% to 20% of the accompanying fee.
Accompany the play, and the female "escort" takes the strange order late at night
Although the income was acceptable, Li Ye decided to "withdraw from the circle". On his 17th birthday, a boss transferred 1,000 yuan to Li Ye as a birthday gift; A number of "peace elites" invited Li Ye to meet him.
"Game companion" and male college student Feng Feng was also frequently pestered by a 16-year-old girl in her short companion career, "and even received her private friend application." Feng Feng finally drew a line with the girl with the help of the spoigner group administrator.
The experience of some female "companions" is even more bizarre. Late one night, Nan Tao (pseudonym) received a strange order to accompany him. The single player is a man who wants Nan Tao and another female "companion" to play a triangular "sadomasochistic" scene with him in the game scene, and during the game, he asks Nan Tao to do erotic actions in the virtual scene.
"Girls with poor psychological endurance are not recommended to play with them, aggravating mental internal friction." The sharing written by Ran Ran (pseudonym) on the Douyin platform received nearly 500 likes.
Ran Ran is a middle school student, she introduced that she can't play game skills, can't do "technical companionship", so she can only do "entertainment companion" to earn some pocket money. Some "sweet orders", "tree hole orders" and "sleep sticks" in the game are her focus directions.
However, he experienced countless things that seemed unreasonable to outsiders. She is like a bad emotional garbage can, having to endure verbal teasing, asking for erotic photos, pestering herself, etc.
The long-term existence of deformed demand has spawned a gray chain within the game companion industry. Li Ye believes that the existence of such pornographic companion groups has disrupted the overall ecology of the game companion industry.
A person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named, said it would be difficult to crack down on the suspension of informal escorts in the industry. The base of this type of escort group is not on formal escort platforms, but on some social platforms in the form of communities. "Even if the WeChat group is suspended by a report, a new community will be created." The person familiar with the matter said that such a jury group is "immune to reporting", "On the surface, industry rules do not allow such a jury group to exist, but in fact it is difficult to control." ”
Li Ye plans to bid farewell to the field of "game companions". The button treats the companion play experience as "a dream": "I used to take a break from school at home for a while, and then I had a lot of fun with everyone in the companion group." She says she has now recovered and is ready to return to school in September.
Pu Yanqi, a lawyer at Shanghai Shentong Law Firm, told reporters that in the game companion industry, if the organizer recruits minors under the age of 16 to work as "game companions", it actually violates the relevant provisions of the Regulations on the Prohibition of Child Labor and the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China, and there is a legal risk of being fined and having its business license revoked.
If they engage in pornography-related matters in the name of escorts, the "escort players", customers and intermediaries will all face the risk of administrative punishment such as fines and detention. In addition, some so-called "platforms" charge tuition, security deposits, etc. in the name of providing customer orders and training, but do not provide relevant training or customer orders after charging, or provide very few orders to avoid legal liability, which is "defrauding money".
Pu Yanqi reminded the intermediary organizers of "game companions" that they should strictly review the age, legal and compliant operation of employees, and do not play pornographic "edge balls"; Prospective practitioners should choose a formal platform and carefully identify situations where they need to pay money. (Qin Jianming, Hu Yuqi, reporter Wang Yejie)
Source: China Youth Daily