According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, the People’s Republic has officially banned gold farming. Let the celebration begin!
A study in 2008 found that 80-85% of all gold farmers come from China. So this move is a major win for the MMO companies whose in-game economies have been damaged by the gold selling sweatshop industry. It’s also a major win for the gamers who’ve seen their hard earned in-game cache depreciate because some douche with thousands of dollars of disposal income decided to buy himself the best equipment. As you can tell, I am absolutely against gold farming.
Basically, under the new law, virtual currency can only be used for virtual items and services. You cannot convert it into real money or services, or vice versa. So that effectively makes it impossible to pay someone to farm gold for you in World of Warcraft (or buy gold that had been farmed). I’m not sure what this means for free-to-play MMO companies and prepay cards though. After all, when you buy a prepay card, you’re also paying for in-game currency with real money.
Whatever the case may be, I’m sure dedicated gold farmers will find a way to get around the new laws. And I suspect a great deal of them will move to Southeast Asia where labor is cheap and there’s no legal restriction. Either that or local authorities will see a lot more bribes coming their way. It is a billion-dollar industry after all.
But at least for the Chinese, there are now consequences. And knowing the country’s justice system, offenders won’t get a mere slap on the wrist but more likely imprisonment or hard labor.
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