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Paid to win: The lucrative world of Indonesian game boosters
Some gamers who want to advance in rank pay others to play on their accounts.
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Game booster: Enriquo Aditya Sentanu earns income by boosting the in-game levels of less skilled players. (JP/Courtesy of Enriquo Aditya Sentanu)
I
n the video game world, “boosting” is when a higher-skilled player is paid to play on a client’s account to advance its rank.
In Indonesia, the people who offer this service are called joki, derived from the word “jockey”, a term also used for people who provide similar services, such as those who illegally take written tests on behalf of a client.
These highly-skilled joki play a number of games for the right price, including online first-person shooters, real-time strategy games and role-playing games.
The ‘joki’
Most joki are male university students in search of financial independence. Many advertise their services on social media.
Teguh Prasetyo, a 20-year-old university student and joki from Sidoarjo, used to compete in gaming tournaments. His boosting services have been his primary source of income since 2017.
He specializes in Mobile Legends, an online multiplayer battle arena game for mobile devices. His Instagram business account, @keep.joki, has 127,000 followers.
