China makes RMT illegal

[Westyle]

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

Now its just a question of how well they enforce it...

 

[Hexx]

Ehh, with corruption being rampant in China, I doubt this will make too big of an impact.

 

[Thelona]

yeah, im sure investigating and arresting a rmt isnt gonna be very high on the priority list for law enforcement in china

 

[Mirewen]

Law enforcement will probably get paid off by the companies.

 

[Pompidou]

I was thinking just the opposite. Expect 1,000's of relatively harmless Chinese youth to end up executed.

 

[Sindern]

IMO: This won't really effect FFXI as much as other games since you can still trade in high-gil items instead of the actual gil. The chinese government only counts actual online monetary units as currency and ignores in-game items.

The game it's going to hurt worst is WoW since practically everything in that game that's worth getting binds to your character when you pick it up.

Also, I can't figure out why on earth they would want to ban it from a monetary standpoint... they're pulling in anywhere from $200M to $1B a year selling fake money. But, given China's history with the internet and their overly censored... well, everything... It's probably because they're afraid that it will give too much power and money to the people, though the article that I read said that "hundreds of thousands of people" were employed as gold farmers... assuming that hundreds means 200,000 (the minimum to be "hundreds of thousands"), they're making $1000-$5000 a year per person... and I'm sure that the companies that the farmers work for keep at least 50% or more of that money.

 

[Orta]

So that RMTs will aim for oversea games such as FFXI, sux.

 

[Vandoura]

On CNN too

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/01/china.virtual.currency/index.html

Quote from Cnn..

"If people start using online money to buy goods at real stores, then video game communities or social networks essentially become banks, he said. That could lead to wild inflation and market failures both in the real and virtual worlds, he said."

XD!!

 

[Westyle]

Oooh... So I can log on to FFXI at the ATM machine?

 

[Hexx]

Oooh... So I can log on to FFXI at the ATM machine?

You'd love that wouldnt you =P

 

[Tomasello]

Also, I can't figure out why on earth they would want to ban it from a monetary standpoint... they're pulling in anywhere from $200M to $1B a year selling fake money.

Because the Chinese government isn't making anything on it. It's impossible to tax on a percentage basis with any accuracy and given the fact that 2/3rds of China lives in utter destitution clearly they could give two shits if Chinese people actually make any money off it. If they can't tax it they're not going to allow it.

Kid yourselves not. The U.S. government is the same way. If they can't get a piece of the pie they're not going to allow it.