UPDATE: China Hasn’t Banned Gold Farming
- Scribbled on July 1st, 2009 by Jonah Falcon
- Filed in Industry News, Legal Brief, MMO
Those of you who are rejoicing at China’s apparent ban of MMO gold farming, you can stop celebrating. According to Professor Richard Heeks, China hasn’t banned gold farming, just the use of monetary scrip.
According to Heeks:
This is a government restriction on the use of the quasi-Paypal-like currencies (mainly QQ coins) that are used extensively in China to pay for virtual game stuff. As announced they can now only be used to pay for virtual stuff, and you can’t buy real things with them as game companies were allowing to happen, nor can you gamble. This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; it’s the mirror image. And it’s not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And it’s not about buying/selling in-game items. And it’s not about the power-levelling of avatars. Bottom line: it’s not about gold farming.
It was doubtful and surprising China would ban one of its major exports, which generates anywhere from $200M to $1B in revenue.
(Thanks, INC Gamers via Bluesnews.)
Leave a Comment (NOTE: Comments are moderated)