China puts a ban on MMOG Gold Farming
China has officially banned gold farming in the country, as the newest country to join the trend. They’ve even gone a step further than most, by even blocking the game developers themselves from exchanging in-game assets for real goods or services.
If you don’t know what Gold Farming is, Gold Farming is an MMORPG activity in which a player attempts to acquire ( or “farm”) items of value which are then sold to create stocks of in-game currency (”gold”), usually by exploiting repetitive elements of the game’s mechanics.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a press release 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.”
And Gold Farming is big business in the country, exceeding several billion yuan last year and growing at a rate of 20% per year. They approximate that roughly 300 million Internet users participate in the frowned upon activity across a swath of online games. Additionally it’s estimated that around 80-85% of the world’s Gold Farming takes place in China. And “entrepreneurs” in America and Korea are also known for hiring low-cost “labor” in China to farm large amounts of gold, akin to sweatshops in other industries.
The ruling in China follows on the heels of other crackdowns on illegal or frowned upon Internet activities such as gambling and pornography.
And while Gold Farming has been frowned upon since it’s inception and blocked by certain game developers to a degree (such as in World of Warcraft, where the Warden anti-cheat program was created to help detect Gold Farmers), no one has ever been able to truly stop the exploitation of Gold Farming. So it’ll be interesting to see what kind of effect this ban has on the industry and the practice at large.
Via 1UP
