Hmm they killing off this industry damn.
http://www.gossipgamers.com/china-bans-wow-gold-farming-all-virtual-currencies/The Chinese government stepped up and decided to ban all World of Warcraft gold farming and all other MMORPGs that has a currency exchange. Even the developers themselves are not permitted to exchange ingame assets for real goods and services.
The Ministry of Commerce issued a press release yesterday stating:
“The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services.”
The Chinese government estimates virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year and growing 20% annually. One billian yuan is roughly $146 million. There are approximately 300 million internet users who are participating gold farming for a variety of games.
The most popular form of virtual currency in China is known as “QQ coins”, a form of virtual credit issued by tencent.com who has about 220 million registered users, practically as many as Facebook. Tencent has agreed to work with the Chinese government to ban virtual currency trading to stop illegal online activities.
According to a survey in 2008 by Richard Heeks, he estimates 80-85% of the gold farmers are based in China and the virtual currency market generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually.
The length the Chinese government will undergo to prevent and enforce the new ruling is still unclear but we can definitely expect the prices of World of Warcraft gold to be increasing over the new few days. I can hear the cries of gold farming sweat shops while majority of the gamers and publishers will be calling for a celebration.
