China outlaws Gold Farming!!! (Maybe)

[Sofaspud]

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)

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