holy shit were all out of jobs!

[Gurblash]

http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101859

CLIFFS NOTES - "the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services."

In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn ('http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/google/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218100384'), the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services. Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes "prepaid cards of cyber-games," according to a joint release ('http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/newsrelease/commonnews/200906/20090606364208.html') issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

"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 Ministries said.


The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million.

The ruling is likely to affect many of the more than 300 million Internet users in China, as well as those in other countries involved in virtual currency trading. In the context of online role playing games like World of Warcraft, virtual currency trading is often called gold farming.

The most popular form of virtual currency in China is called "QQ coins," a form of virtual credit issued by Tencent.com. Tencent.com, which has about 220 million registered users -- about as many as Facebook -- is quoted in the Chinese government news release as "resolutely" supporting the new rule. The government justifies its ban on virtual currency trading as a way to curtail gambling and other illegal online activities.

The extent to which the Chinese government will apply its virtual currency rule to online role playing games remains unclear. A report ('http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-06/27/content_8330180.htm') in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items may be allowed to continue.

The trading of virtual currency for real cash employs hundreds of thousands of people worldwide and generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually, according to a 2008 survey ('http://www.sed.manchester.ac.uk/idpm/research/publications/wp/di/di_wp32.htm') conducted by Richard Heeks at the University of Manchester. He estimates that between 80% and 85% of gold farmers are based in China. "Many online games have a virtual economy and an in-game currency," he states in his survey. "Gold farmers can play in-game to make some currency. They then sell that for real money -- typically via a Web site ('http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=Web%20site&x=&y=') and using the PayPal payment system -- to other players of the game." Game companies typically forbid gold farming but committed virtual currency traders find ways around such rules. Some game companies have recognized the futility of trying to ban the practice and have built virtual commerce into their game infrastructure.

[Multibocks]

Cliffs notes please? No more gold farming?

[Gurblash]

Cliffs notes please? No more gold farming?added cliff notes :)

[Jubber]

So people will stop calling me a chinese gold farmer when I run by? That saddens me. Now who will I pointx5 and lolx5 at.

[mmcookies]

Once again, the Chinese government fails to understand the nature of communication technology.

The internet is for porn.

[Multibocks]

Cliffs notes please? No more gold farming?added cliff notes :)

lol thanks!

[Enndo]

The internet is for porn.

This ^

[Taliesin]

I'll be cancelling my accounts when I get home. What's the point of playing a game if you can't have someone else do it for you?
/sarcasm

[Enndo]

Hopefully with the gold sellers gone prices in the AH on stuff will come done a bit. Some stuff is way too overpriced.

[Drizzit]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pn4kZyqVRU&feature=related

[EaTCarbS]

Hopefully with the gold sellers gone prices in the AH on stuff will come done a bit. Some stuff is way too overpriced. Due to less available materials and less people farming them, prices should actually go up.

[TeK23]

/LOL
Please read the artical completely. This will not stop 2nd Market Service nor Gold Farming.

It states that China does not know how to handle Role Playing games at this time and this has been a known issue with the Chinese Government for over a year now. They keep trying to shut down the industry yet it keeps growing.

2 Years ago 2nd market was only 1 Billion in Sales
Last year it was 5 Billion.

This year we expect to do 8 Billion in sales. Actually the industry itself is becoming legitamised slowly and more game companies are researching into how to make money from it vs. fighting it.

Currently it's mainly Blizzard Ent. that is the ones pushing to try and get rid of it. But most other companies are slowly embracing the industry as it's becoming bigger then the 1st Market Industry. The avg 2nd Market customer will spend x8 more on 2nd Market Services then 1st Market.

This means:

You buy wow for $20:

A Customer will then spend on avg ~8x20 = $160 on 2nd Market Services!

But in my experience the avg customer will spend $500 on their account within a year. With higher end clients spending $5,000-10,000 a year.

This is why the industry will not just disappear and if countries ban it, all that will happen is just like the Internet Casino's! They will move to countries that allow the product and management of said services.

If you have any more questions about the industry just hit me up. :P

[Svpernova09]

/LOL
Please read the artical completely. This will not stop 2nd Market Service nor Gold Farming.

It states that China does not know how to handle Role Playing games at this time and this has been a known issue with the Chinese Government for over a year now. They keep trying to shut down the industry yet it keeps growing.

2 Years ago 2nd market was only 1 Billion in Sales
Last year it was 5 Billion.

This year we expect to do 8 Billion in sales. Actually the industry itself is becoming legitamised slowly and more game companies are researching into how to make money from it vs. fighting it.

Currently it's mainly Blizzard Ent. that is the ones pushing to try and get rid of it. But most other companies are slowly embracing the industry as it's becoming bigger then the 1st Market Industry. The avg 2nd Market customer will spend x8 more on 2nd Market Services then 1st Market.

This means:

You buy wow for $20:

A Customer will then spend on avg ~8x20 = $160 on 2nd Market Services!

But in my experience the avg customer will spend $500 on their account within a year. With higher end clients spending $5,000-10,000 a year.

This is why the industry will not just disappear and if countries ban it, all that will happen is just like the Internet Casino's! They will move to countries that allow the product and management of said services.

If you have any more questions about the industry just hit me up. :PDon't even hint at this crap, it's not welcome here. And I changed your website too, don't even link that crap here, have you even read the rules?
-Svpernova09

[TeK23]

Hint what? I'm merly posting to a thread listed. If you do not approve of the thread, remove it or lock it.

I am not the OP / just someone replaying to an article with real facts and information.

[Enndo]

One thing i do know for sure is when the real botters got shut down months back item quantity on the AH dropped dramatically and prices on everything skyrocketed. Against TOS yes but stopping them hurt the in game economy pretty badly.

[stoat]

You mean we can now report currency farmers to people who will do something about it?

(loleve)

[TeK23]

Are you talking about when Glider "MDY" shut down their US botting operations due to the lawsuit?

If so yea that was a blast to the botting industry, but since then you now have bots x10 worst then glider ever was. There are full quest bots now and it's horrible, you can buy the bots and they level your toons from 1-80 without ever touching the account after they start.

That's why gold is rock bottom, why sites are selling powerleveling for dirt like $75 for 1-80 and all of this crap. It's killing the in-game markets and also the 2nd market industry, the big issue is all of the "illegal" websites using these type of bots. What many people do not understand is there is a handful of "legitament" businesses that are legal registered businesses with 100's of employee's making millions a year and paying their taxes, etc...

Then there are 10,000's of illegal workshops in forgien countries running sweat shops that pay no taxes and have just a house full of computers running bots with a couple of guys getting paid $5-10 a day to watch all of the computers. There are also a ton of these small startup shops now poping up all over forum sites that are also illegal and do not have business licenses or pay taxes. Kids running bot shops out of their parents home, etc...

This is what's wrong with the industry and why it has such a bad stigma and why many people hate it. Not to include all of the scammers and crooks out to steal your money, but that's in any industry with lots of fluid cash.

Sorry you got me on a rant. /lol

[TeK23]

Oh also and worst then just the quest bot is the new gathering / farming ONLY bots.

Now someone has actually released this bot and all it does it goes around flying the maps and mining nodes or picking up herbs. The bot is a pure gold farming bot! These things can make 8-10k a day in gold or more from mats depending on the AH and it makes find the nods near impossible because if you get enough of the scrubs running on your server you can't find any nods.

Really what kills most games is "Botting!"

Not RMT/2nd Market Services but automated programs, because 1 person can manage 100+ bots and now when you are in lowbie zones all you see are bots leveling. With these new bots for gathering, etc... it's going to get worst and you'll have bots in end-game farming and gathering all day. :thumbdown:

[Negativ1337]

Lame,

I thought playing games for money was awesome.

And Supernova, we could've read the same text if it was a smaller font.

Kind regards,

Negativ1337

[TeK23]

Lame,
I thought playing games for money was awesome.


It is awesome and that's called Professional Gaming :D

There are many Tourny's you can enter into and get paid! :thumbsup:

But that's mainly FPS games like Counter-Strike, etc...

[Khatovar]

A report in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items may be allowed to continue.

I had already started seeing the shift to this before I quit. Instead of spamming about gold, they were spamming BOEs. What we'll end up seeing is goldsellers holding the AH hostage, using whatever gold they aren't allowed to sell to buy gear, weapons, enchanting mats, ores, gems, whatever, then turning around and selling it on websites. 10 stacks of titanium ore for $XXXUSD. Enchanting Leveling kit, all mats for 1-450, $XXXUSD.

Instead of having to liquidate accounts to get gold to sell, they'll just use the gold they swipe to restock the items they can sell, and continue on.

[Tonuss]

/LOL
Please read the artical completely. This will not stop 2nd Market Service nor Gold Farming.It seems to be aimed at a particular service, which has agreed to comply with the new law. Therefore it's very possible that you are right, and China wasn't thinking about WoW and has no plans to interfere with gold farming or PL services in WoW. I'm wondering though, if this gives Blizzard any options for petitioning the Chinese government to help them with the issue, or if the Chinese government would bother to try and stop gold farming in WoW if asked. My guess is probably not.

It still amazes me that in a game where character progression and money collecting has gotten so easy, that there would still be a large market for gold sales. But it doesn't even seem to be slowing down.

[hendrata]

My feeling is that they'll still do it illegally. This is simply a statement from the Chinese government that they're against gold trading, but I don't think they'll really do anything about it nor enforce it actively. Just like the pirated movies market or fake Louis Vuitton handbag market, it's against the law but yet it's everywhere and the government doesn't really enforce the law.

[TeK23]

:D Guys we are talking about Chinese Government here. That should be enough to know that it doesn't matter.

The Chinese governement is the worlds large group of hackers and horriblly corrupt. They just finished their hardware encryption systems to stop other governments from hacking them. This way they can continue to hack us, but we can't rehack their systems to find out what they got.

Blizzard will not contact the Chinese Goverment, did you know that China still doesn't have WOTLK!! Also majority of the computers in china don't even have a legal version of windows! It's all cracked versions same with majority of their software because they can't afford retail prices. China is a poor country and the people doing the work are poor and this is how they make a living, playing games and farming gold for our convienence.

There is so much stuff going on with Chiense Governement it's pretty scary once you get into it and find out what's really going on.

Also breaking an EULA is not illegal, it's an Agreement between the client and the company. No different then breaking your parents rules, as they will punish you as they see fit. Blizzard does the same thing with suspensions and account closures.

The companies that are sued by blizzard are breaking the LAW "US Federal Laws!".
MDY - Glider: Broke Copyright Laws
Others Companys: Broke the Spam Laws (spamming in-game mail)

That's why you don't see as much in-game spam mail or anymore because it's Illegel! Most legit companies do not want to be sued and stays within the law.

The real issue you run into is with forgien sites that don't care and spam in-game and all of this crap junk spam email. Because they can't be sued as they are not affected by US Laws and their country premits such acts and behavior.

Sorry on a rant again. /lol

[Seraphaw]

Sorry on a rant again. /lolHey, as long as I can buy really cheap World of Warcraft CD-keys instantly I am happy.
I still can, right? I won't get my payment rejected or something if I use the "off" site?

[TeK23]

Again in the article it didn't state anything about World of Warcraft. They where talking about another product and CD-Keys/Game cards, etc... are not made in china. How these CD-Key sites sell them for so cheap are 2 ways:

1. They are Black Keys (key generators, stolen etc...) But legit sites do not deal in these keys and so you don't have to worry about it.
2. Exchange Rates. A trick alot of CD-Key sites use is buying their keys from countries they have good $$ exchange rate with. Example: US companies buying their keys from austrilia! The keys are like $3-5 less per key and when you are buying 1000-10,000+ Keys that's alot of savings!

Most companies uses the Exchange Rate Trick to get keys even companies in China! That's why the worlds largest key wholesale company is in austrilia (atleast the last i heard they where the largest seller) and they are normally out of keys because everyone buys from them. /lol

So China has nothing to do with CD-Keys :D

[mmcookies]

This policy stems from a fear that a conglomerated virtual currency (federated, multiple vendors) might compete with the national currency.
(Online trading is getting uncomfortably large in China for the fossils sitting in power)

It also gives them an excuse to prosecute the exchange as black market, when it's convenient to do so.

The war on gold farming is total BS.