Chinese Limit Use of Virtual Currency

UK, June 30, 2009 - MMOs such as World of Warcraft will be affected by a new ruling from the chinese Government that will ban the trading of virtual currency for real goods and services.

InformationWeek reports that Gamers in the communist state will still be able to buy and sell items using virtual cash online, but will not now be able to sell this currency for 'real' money - a practice often referred to as 'Gold Farming'.

The practice is big business, generating between $200m and 1bn a year worldwide, according to a survey by the University of Manchester. The report also states that 80-85 per cent of gold farmers are based in China.


Source: http://pc.ign.com/articles/999/999671p1.html




So, should this affect gw at all? What about other games, good? bad?

Holy $@!*

I never knew it was between $200m and $1billion. Thats a fat pocket. Paid for by geeks of course.

I guess that explains why there was so many wow subscriptions in china

Thats a LOT of real money O.o
But I really hope it does affect GW and stop all the gold buying/selling.
People will just have to play the game and earn the gold as intended then
and not just buy there way to high end stuffs and titles etc.
Stops.
Thinks.
Ahh who am i kidding lol they will find some other way as usual.

All I can say is........

OWNED

Do you think blizzard will suddenly say...

"oh crap...we thought we had 11million players, turns out we only got 4million, the rest were farming bots".

If you read through to the source article (here) You'll see they are also trying to crack down on porn. So yeah, China. Good luck with that.

I'm going to post it, and it will be controversial but such is life.

All they did was make it so thousands lost their jobs for no reason at all. It won't affect the gold farming industry as they are very well able to adapt, shift gears and more. They have to with all the efforts that are made by game publishers to stop them.

EQ2/Sony decided instead of fighting them to take their own cut and came up with their own gold currency exchange. It was smart/controversial but it worked. If people want it and are willing to pay for it any business is eventually going to want their share of it.

I also, nowadays, fail to see how buying Gold to get ahead of your fellow player is any different then these new micro-transactions that have been introduced in so many MMO's, including Guild Wars. How is paying to unlock your skills any different then paying to get some gold? You didn't work for it or earn it. They both serve the purpose of getting ahead of your fellow player faster and easier.

The gaming industry has just done a better job at masking what they are doing by putting a face on it as "legit" since the micro-transactions are coming from the gaming developers themselves.

Oh well now little asian boys wont be able make more money and actually have to find a job in a workshop.....

No no i mean well thast alot of money that shouldnt be generated .. If anythign make it a taxable legit bussiness but yeah OWNED.....i hope i understood it right.

This.


The industry has grown beyond china, and now other countries will just jump in to pick up the slack, since this change doesn't make buyers any less plentiful.

I don't care, gold farming needs to be stamped out.

Well, China does have a lot of restrictions placed on thier country's internet use. Although last I heard, over 80% of the internet is porn.

Edit: Making it illegal won't make it stop. Because we all know nobody sells drugs or guns illegally right.

Inde's post is invalid since the most important thing in the world - the only thing really - is gaming.

article
Did I read it wrong, or are they going to ban the pre-pay cards for WoW?

Won't affect GW imo, its already illegal in GW. Not sure about WoW.

I lol'd hard at that xD

I don't think it'll change much. Inde has a good point there. Though these gold farmers won't lose their job, they'll have to adapt, is all. As long as it reduces the spamming in games, I'm fine with it, but I doubt much will change.

billion dollar worth of business, you think they don't know how to by pass a ban?

The place where gold farmer play/farm the game will become some underground space that is void of air and unhealthy for human. Its going to create more problems.

One thing come to mind, more hacking to steal your gold

As ever, I couldn't care less about the issue.

I've never considered being able to grind gold in game to be skillful, so to me, the person who buys gold rather than grinding it is simply being time-smart. Yeah, it sucks if you get rolled by a newbie with better equipment in a gear-based MMO, but then it's your own fault for expecting to find balanced skill-based play there.

As far as GW goes, buying gold doesn't even give you an advantage, so it's laughable (at least, ever since PvE characters stopped being a necessity for PvP).

Companies should start selling gold for their own games. That would put more money directly into their pocket.

Yeah, you read it wrong.
Virtual currency will still be allowed. Ie, I can still buy a sword for 25ecto. They just said cards that the company actually sold (that either provide a subscription, or actually provide in-game money) are also virtual currency.

Edit: @Lewis91: No it is not "illegal" in GW to sell gold, it is a violation of the EULA and will get you banned. Ie, its a civil contract breach. China is actually making it a crime (I think), ie, you will go to jail. Or they are making it so it is a civil violation without even needing a contract.