The multi-billion yuan a year industry that is the trade of virtual currency, or as it is more commonly known as, gold farming, has taken a huge hit.

China has banned the sale of virtual goods purchased with real currency today, and this includes pre-paid game cards. While some may find the industry questionable, this bold move by the Chinese government will definitely hit the Chinese economy.

China bars use of virtual money for trading in real goods
 

China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit its possible impact on the real financial system.

The government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cyber-games, according to a joint circular from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce 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." it said.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users, with 298 million people online as of the end of last year.

According to media reports, the virtual money trade topped several billion yuan last year after rising around 20 percent annually.

Since 2007, virtual money trading has drawn official attention, with the government demanding tighter controls as such trading became an avenue for gambling and illicit trade.

Under the new rules, using virtual money for gambling will be punished by public security authorities, and minors may not buy virtual money.

  Get the full story here.

Isn't it such a wonderful thing to have a capable dictatorship?

/sarcasm off

I see this negatively effecting american markets.

Blizzard makes millions every time they ban all those RMTs.  I'm sure they're not the only people benefiting.

As good as this sounds will just make the companys move to other countires. But a great move none the less. Just hope this does not cause a player wide shortage in all the MMO's and cause mass server merges

This is a joke.  Come on.

hey, anybody who believes this will make any sort of difference:

I have a few bridges to sell you...

 Yes thank you, I dream with gaming where real money doesn't affect your gameplay.

I wonder if this will be effective though, and developers that seek profit from these kind of trades and protect these now (finnaly) illegal companies= fail.

As someone stated this will not stop them, but it should slow it down a bit. Also I have no witty comment to make :(. This si good to hear though that "someone" is taking action.

LOL...classic...I love this paragraph:

The most popular Chinese online credits are "QQ coins" issued by Tencent. com, which has at least 220 million registered users. In a media statement Saturday, the company said it "resolutely" supported the new rule.

.......of course they "resolutely" support the ruling.....either that or get run over by tanks.

I bet they won't give a worm's shite if outsiders fork over cash for virtual goods....as long as it's enriching their economy. The locals just can't partake.

Hmm...yes. A ban. A ban can mean they will crack down on it and drive it into the ground or it could mean an entire new market for bribing officials to look the other way and take a percentage from the internet cafe in question. I seriously doubt that they will ever be able to stamp it out. There's too much money to be made and the demand for their services is still really high.

Originally posted by BarCrow

LOL...classic...I love this paragraph:

The most popular Chinese online credits are "QQ coins" issued by Tencent. com, which has at least 220 million registered users. In a media statement Saturday, the company said it "resolutely" supported the new rule.

 

.......of course they "resolutely" support the ruling.....either that or get run over by tanks.

I bet they won't give a worm's shite if outsiders fork over cash for virtual goods....as long as it's enriching their economy. The locals just can't partake.

I think that name "QQ coins" is the best part of that quote.

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

hey, anybody who believes this will make any sort of difference:

I have a few bridges to sell you...

The difference is that if a decision like that were made in the US, if they caught you, you might get a fine, maybe after multiple offenses some jail time... but in China, if they catch you, they shoot you, then bill your family the cost of a bullet.

A move like this will definitely be felt.

Edit for typos.

Originally posted by Laughing-man

I see this negatively effecting american markets.

Blizzard makes millions every time they ban all those RMTs.  I'm sure they're not the only people benefiting.

From what I understand the majority of the gold spammers that are banned are either keylogged or otherwise scammed accounts. The bots are run in bot computer farms and a few individuals watch multiple screens with like three or more boxes per screen for each of the characters. So unless blizzard can actually catch third-party bot software running like they claim then there's basically no way to tell.

As I said in the other thread...there goes about 9 million WoW Subs.

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

hey, anybody who believes this will make any sort of difference:

I have a few bridges to sell you...

Can't agree more, it will have little effect.  Unfortunately there are a lot of bridge buyers these days.

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

hey, anybody who believes this will make any sort of difference:

I have a few bridges to sell you...

Why would we not  believe this? China  wants $$$ and how many compaines are out there that do this and do not pay TAXES? I know in the U.S. the IRS has a new tax form just for these kinds of things. So it would be in China's best interest to either make these guys pay or shut them down

Nobody has mentioned that this will also affect F2P RMT shops....

I used to make some good cash selling Plat before the Chinese got involved. Hopefully it will take a year or 2 before the Indians catch on and pick up the slack and i'll be able to pad my wallet some more!!

 Hmm..just in case we were forgetting that China was communist , they go and remind us ;-)

Originally posted by mbd1968

Nobody has mentioned that this will also affect F2P RMT shops....

Fake F2P games becoming illegal in China? Now that would seriously hurt the "genre", although they are usually developed in Korea, still that's a huge market going out of their range. Would be interesting to see this move on other countries, item malls are pretty much a virtual way to make money, and no it doesn't involve working on content, just auto-generating bits of information when a payment is made, not really comparable to a sub.

It's a valid idea though, since they are banning not only the services, but also the purchase of virtual goods which could very well mean the infamous item malls.

Originally posted by CaesarsGhost

hey, anybody who believes this will make any sort of difference:

I have a few bridges to sell you...

Nobody wants you're virtual bridges. On the main note, This law will keep all the criminals in, and all the non big risk takers out. It would be suprising if the ammount of gold farming operations dropped any less than 40% of total businesses.. It will be way harder to get ahold of gold farming sites because they will stick out like a sore thumb practically begging to be convicted by the chinese gvt. And the chinese gvt is not very forgiving.

Just like banning beer, it still happens ALOT, but it does keep a good ammount away. Nobody ever mentioned a magical scenario where making something illegal [Completely] gets rid of it. End of story is that EVERYTHING made illegal makes a difference to a moderate stretch.

Has anyone told the chinese about the ban yet?

Originally posted by Sabbicat

Has anyone told the chinese about the ban yet?

Telling my partners right now, thanks for reminding me... not that we farm gold anyways (no money in it these days). 

Blizzard won't lose that much money actually, except that the legit shops might stop recurring subscriptions.  And yes, there are legit shops in China.  Blizzard has driven the gold price into the ground, by not banning accounts for gold farming for the last several months.  The wholesale price of WoW US gold is set at about $5-$8 per k on all servers.

As it was, any shop that is in China was being charged a tax... which is why shops had to move outside the country or at least have the site itself outside China.  I wonder how this will affect the prices of RMT in games now.  Maybe after a month, drive the rates up a bit?

For the record, tencent.com is the same maker of ICQ.  QQ is the Chinese version of the software.

Hard not to believe it, when this is also posted on their offical government site: http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/newsrelease/commonnews/200906/20090606364208.html

I wonder if this is not more of a move to control the Chinese populace.  A lot of people no longer have to work in the fields, and are much more computer literate these days.  Remember that software that China wanted to impose no viewing illegal sites such as pr0n?  Could be another move to stifle the people

hate to point this out  but no where did I see where it bans them from  selling virtual items to customers in foregin countries.  The ban prevents them from selling virtual coin in china it does not mean that it restricts sells to overseas customers.  Really need to get a translated copy of the actuall rulling and any laws that come out of it.

Second not sure what China's form of government has to do with this. It is no different than if the passed a law here in the U.S.  restricting virtual sales. 

On a side note Blizzard did win a large multimillon pound judegment against  a compay that made a  bot farming sofware program used by some to farm in WoW

lol. awesome.

It only took them a decade. Now we can start playing in peace, hopefully.