Drunkard's Walk Forums

I would have to say, had I considered it, that this would be in the top ten things I would least have expected to see as a news story. But nevertheless, there it is -

Quote: The Chinese Ministry of Commerce policy aims to limit the impact of game currencies on real-world markets.

In the future, any cash earned by Chinese gamers can only be spent to acquire items or equipment in that particular game.

The move is widely seen as a crackdown on so-called "gold farming" in which players amass virtual money and then sell it to other
players for real cash.

Here are some other sources on this story:

Massively

The Mirror

Worth Playing

Ars Technica

Information Week

Now, the gamer in me is going "SQUEE!!" in anticipation of dancing a jig on the grave of the Chinese Gold Farmer. But the cynic and realist in me
quickly clamps down on that by reminding me that although the majority of Gold Farming is done in China, not all of it is. And - even if you assume that the
Chinese government is actually serious about enforcing this (and they may not be) - all the gold farmers have to do is pick up their operations and move them
to some other country like the Phillipines or Mexico.

Nevertheless, this is bound to have some consequences, even if only temporarily, to City of Heroes and World of Warcraft.

And Acyl? What's your take on this? This is much more in your backyard than mine, really.

I wasn't aware that gold farming was as big an issue in CoX as it is/was in WoW. Part of that is no doubt by design; it's not -hard- to automate stuff
in CoX, granted, but it's nowhere near as easy as it is in WoW. And the economy is somewhat different as well. I think CoX suffers more from
powerleveling-for-a-fee than it does gold (or inf) farming -- and that wouldn't be covered by this move, if I'm reading it right. The key phrase is
this:

(from the Information Week link)

Quote: The Chinese government, however, appears to be uninterested in regulating sales of in-game items for real cash. A report in the English-language China Daily says that in-game gear is not
considered virtual currency, so selling virtual items can be expected to continue.

So, really, they're not cracking down on gold farming, per se. They're cracking down on converting in-game currency only into real-world cash. Which will have an impact, but it's not exactly a leap in the right direction. It's more like
tentatively extending a toe.

And, I'm ... ambivalent. I mean, sure, it's a good thing? But the cynic (realist?) in me points out how hard it's going to be to enforce, even in
China -- and that's assuming the gov't there is serious about it, which as you point out, they may not be.

--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs

Mm.
Glancing over the English Language writeup from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, it's pretty clear that they really don't give a shit about people selling gold to foreigners.
(edit: yes, I'm reading the English version. I understand Chinese, but I don't have much technical vocabulary - I don't know the Chinese phrases for things like 'virtual currency' or 'money laundering', etc)
Anyway.
It ain't the practice of standing around and selling gold in American MMOs which is offensive to the Chinese government.
Their primary concern is domestic. The main reasons cited are that trade of real currency for virtual currency can be used for money-laundering. It can facilitate gambling. It also encourages credit-card fraud.
I'm guessing they're also worried about malicious hacking of commercial services for profit - though that isn't mentioned in the article. It's been a problem in the past regarding the QQ coins they mention, however, so I bet it's a consideration.
As for serious they are about enforcing it - well, quite serious, I'd wager. You have to understand that anything concerning money and the economy is of number one importance in China. I mean, other countries worry about healthcare, education, housing, whatever... but China, what's of critical importance is always macroeconomic issues.
Going after cybercrime and so on - well, the Chinese government really likes to keep a tight rein on electronic stuff too. It ain't just for censoring foreign news websites.
It does bear mentioning that this ain't simply Beijing being a bunch of authoritarian autocrats - it reflects the demands of the people these days. Or the relevant people, anyway. The urban intelligentia are influential... so yeah, if they deem this a white-collar crime and go after it, yeah, I figure they'd address it.
But once again their primary concern is domestic. It's not like they're doing this for us.
Consider China and intellectual property, for instance. It should be pretty obvious that enforcement of Western intellectual property concepts and whatnot isn't exactly a huge deal in China, though they make a lot of noises in that regard. But clearly China doesn't have much to gain from enforcing IP stuff... their domestic industries pirate everything from software to automobiles - there was a big stink when a Chinese company just flat-out cloned the Smart last year.
The Chinese do have reasons for getting tough on certain forms of RMT... whether it'd affect the kinds of RMT we have, though, I don't know and can't say.
The other question you have to ask... it's not whether the Chinese government is serious about this. They probably are. The question is if they are serious, will it make any difference?
There may be an effect; on the one hand Chinese people do fear their government. On the other, the Chinese are also the most lawless bare-knuckle 'consequences be damned!' capitalists in the world today. We're talking about a nation of people who will substitute toxic chemicals in food production just to make a quick buck. Yes, people who get caught doing that shit are dealt with harshly by the law.
But people do it anyway. 'cause, y'know. It's a quick buck.
Stamping out illegal activity works in a country like Singapore, where people are freaking scared of the government.
But China isn't really like that, not anymore. Yes, there's a great deal of political repression, but that climate of fear doesn't really persist into other aspects of everyday life. Law enforcement is much weaker than it was in the Communist heyday.
Many folks still see China as a Communist country... it isn't, really, it's more of a cowboy frontier town writ large. Sofa was saying that enforcing stuff like this is hard, 'even in China'. I think that misses the point. You're assuming that the Chinese government will be more efficient at enforcing laws than, say, the US government.
I'd say the reverse is true.
-- Acyl