China Bans WoW Gold Farming & All Virtual Currencies
June 30, 2009 by Ruibo
The Chinese government stepped up and decided to ban all World of Warcraft gold farming and all other MMORPGs that has a currency exchange. Even the developers themselves are not permitted to exchange ingame assets for real goods and services.
The Ministry of Commerce issued a press release yesterday stating:
“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 Chinese government estimates virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year and growing 20% annually. One billian yuan is roughly $146 million. There are approximately 300 million internet users who are participating gold farming for a variety of games.
The most popular form of virtual currency in China is known as “QQ coins”, a form of virtual credit issued by tencent.com who has about 220 million registered users, practically as many as Facebook. Tencent has agreed to work with the Chinese government to ban virtual currency trading to stop illegal online activities.
According to a survey in 2008 by Richard Heeks, he estimates 80-85% of the gold farmers are based in China and the virtual currency market generates between $200 million and $1 billion annually.
The length the Chinese government will undergo to prevent and enforce the new ruling is still unclear but we can definitely expect the prices of World of Warcraft gold to be increasing over the new few days. I can hear the cries of gold farming sweat shops while majority of the gamers and publishers will be calling for a celebration.
The only downfall of the banning will also be hurting a lot of developers who are using the microtransaction model in which gamers can play for free and only pay for extra content or rewards within the game.
Gold farming has always been frowned upon by the game developers and typically forbids this type of activity but has never successfully banned the practice. As for now, this is all the juice we have on this topic. How do you guys feel about the banning?
[Source]
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I think the banning of these gold farms is good for gamers but obviously bad for those who operate them. WoW may become fairer and less open to abuse but these schemes have proved quite profitable for Chinese workers.
Holy Crap!!! is this even good for economic downturn???
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Someone has some anger issues.
anyhow.. bottom line is; I HAVE A REAL JOB! and i don’t want to do the boring shitty things in WoW. Thats what the little no-hoper chinese kids are for
Just read the article, I’m an American and I play a little wow. You know what. I don’t care. I don’t care about the local homeless, i don’t care about people overseas. People have the right to have a good life but it doesn’t mean everyone gets to have one. You warped liberal view of everyone being on the same social level is bullshit wake up or shut up. Seriously if you care so much about people overseas(whatever the fuck that means) or homeless why are you here complaining about it.
You don’t think everyone has the right to a ‘good life’…but you think your right to sit around playing WoW all day somehow takes precedence over starvation and poverty?
Obviously, an argument could be made that you are wasting what privledge and resources you have in front of a computer while other people work 18 hours for a dollar or two a day. I hope you get owned in WoW – only because us ‘liberals’, i.e. people with basic human compassion, will always be around to protect your real wealth from getting owned by business in the dog eat dog conservative economy you mistakenly think would actually work in your favor.
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First off, why are only speaking about your college experiences if your such an authoritative, productive working member of society? Obviously you didn’t pay for it yourself if you still have student loans. Consider yourself lucky that you managed to preserve your credit rating untill you got into school, and a graduate of a halfway decent high school- those arn’t things you earned yourself but advantages other people (gold miners in china) dont have.
Second off, ‘bums’ are almost all either mentally ill or cons released from prison too early. Even if that wasn’t the case, I can’t imagine many American jobs which are as hard as sleeping on concrete every night. They don’t produce, so they don’t earn – but very few people single handedly produce a million dollars worth of goods or services a year either.
Third off, theres plenty of wealth to go around – within reason. getting rid of poverty isn’t going to make you go broke and thats the point. You could still afford WoW…but theres no reason for millions of children to go hungry just so you can upgrade your gaming system once a year instead of every two years.
Your right, though, it is kinda sad the bum has a larger net worth than you yet your the one playing WoW while you ride around on your high horse.
All I’m saying is that there was a demand in the States for WoW gold, and people in China had slightly less misrable lives because they met this demand. Its sad that China had to crack down on something which was barely a blip on their GDP, and its sad that people will actively hate on those less fortunate for no reason at all
Hey look how nested this comment is! WoW@!!
“…technically speaking he has more money then I do, and thats kinda sad”
ROFL. That was a good way to put it. Seriously.
um.. idk if it’s cause i’m tired or not, but that crap you wrote down made now sence to me
@zack
I do believe the word you were looking for is PWND
PEW PEW
Right on Nick. Awesome to finally read something written by someone with intelligence and common sense.
How did this turn into a social equality argument/race war. Well, the thing is whether you’re liberal or conservative businesses will die. Sometimes the gov’t shuts them down, sometimes they just go out of business due to poor sales. In this case the government shut them down. I don’t know how you folks got into this conversation but the fact is gold selling is gold-selling and it has nothing to do with human rights, social or economic justice. It’s just a business and this one is going down, why did this turn into a deep discussion? Isn’t this a gaming entertainment site? First time on these forums, last time as well.
Over reaction fail.
Hey Bizzle…
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you are a bigot and an idiot. You are a bigot because of your blanket statement expressing your beliefs that all members of a nation are one way, and you are an idiot for thinking that your vile post has any merit in the real world.
Wow bizzle, way to go. You must have been raped by an American or something… oh, and “America” is a continent, not a country so you’re basically saying that South America, Central America, North America, and Canada all care only about WoW life. I hate to break it to you but not even 1/10 of the United States plays WoW, and even less in “America”.
I bet you are one of those Chinese gold farmers that’s just pissed off and jealous of our CONTINENT…
Righto! every1! Pull out your Maps!!!
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He’s being a douche to Bizzle? Or maybe he was being a douche to you. Funny how you assume this guy (or girl) is from the United States based on his comment. It’s not the US that’s messed up, it’s the entire world.. including whatever small little insignificant country you came from.
The US is insignificant? Last I checked we were one of the leading countries in the world. Funny how people from all over the world come here to live a better life but we offer nothing, what with being insignificant and all. Nope all our growth and rise to one of the greatest countries in the world went unnoticed by all. Wierd.
Bizzle what have you done for the poor lately? Also rage less plz.
WTFRU? WTFRU to tell him what to do, say or feel?
The comment box says “Speak Your Mind” not Drain Your Colon Through Your Keyboard.
Dear GossipGamers,
While you talk a good talk, I don’t see any links to source material. Where is this news from China? Where can we go to see the origin of this news? I can go into my newsletter and make any number of claims about world events, but my readers know that I always back up my news stories with links to strong sources. Without these sources, it’s just more Internet talk.
Source please?
Hi Hunter,
The 2 sources has been provided on the article itself. We do not make any claims and if so we will state it as a rumor on the title.
The fourth line that states “The Ministry of Commerce issued a press release yesterday stating:” has a link to the official press release and the last line all the way on the bottom has the original source in which we’ve found the article.
Again, here it is for your convenience.
http://english.mofcom.gov.cn/aarticle/newsrelease/commonnews/200906/20090606364208.html
http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/ebusiness/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218101859
I read the source and found these nice little quotes in the Source:
“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. ”
“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. “<<<I guess they are targeting these companies in particularly
So, umm…
“The only downfall of the banning will also be hurting a lot of developers who are using the microtransaction model in which gamers can play for free and only pay for extra content or rewards within the game.”
How does this apply?
I think you may need to do an update as it seems the Source Updated with one of the quotes I found in it.
This really doesn’t apply to developers. Games that are free to play and that use microtransactions for users to buy in-game goods do not appear to be affected by this. It ONLY applies to games or virtual currencies that let you exchange virtual currency/goods for real-world currency.
The paragraph in the article above is misleading to say the least.
Dear Hunter,
While you talk a good talk, you’re a moron for getting on your soapbox about journalistic integrity when the links to the sources are right on the article. I feel bad for your readers because I have a feeling your newsletter is filled with self-serving, inane babbling.
Well played, tiger.
Oh look, ignorant f@%ktards calling Americans ignorant f@%ktards because one dude is an ignorant f@%ktard. Welcome to the internet. You think it would get old after while.
If I want to spend my free time mining virtual gold and then sell the results of those efforts to someone else for real money, its entirely my business and the government can go shove it if they dont like it.
The chinesse government should be glad I dont live over there in their fascist cesspool, or I’d be plotting a bloody revolution on those scum.
down with china!
Can’t we just ban WoW all together?
It’s amazing how more people comment on the comments than the actual article. So – back to the article:
I think this is going to make the economy suffer some; there are a lot of people filling the job of gold farmer and even though it is virtual money in exchange for real money there is still real profit to be had.
On the other hand you won’t have quite so many annoying little twits running around buying whatever they want for there level 20 or 80 toon and will actually have to go earn it. Good training for real life; if you want something you should have to work for it.
And as for the toilet skull commenting above… Not only do I work, I go to school, cook for my husband, clean my house and take care of my (four-legged) children I also fight for this country via the active duty military. I most certainly don’t fight so you can be an idiot. Take the lead and go back to school. Or you know – commit suicide, whichever is easier.
I love how heartless conservative fucktards believe that “working your ass off” will guarantee you wealth. I can guarantee you that is not how the vast majority of the world works. The wealth is owned by thoe with the biggest bat and the beat propaganda machine, filling the heads of those who don’t want the real world encroaching on their cherished illusions with fluffy bunny stories of self-made millionaires. I’m an American, and Americans make me sick. (Patiently waiting for the pathetic, “Oh yeah? Go somewhere else then!”)
I hope that China’s economy recovers and grows, bringing opportunity to all its citizens.
I do not see this happening… Seeing as how the chinese gold farming operations work, it is nearly impossible for China to pull this off. Sites such as http://www.MOGS.com are USA based and the games they sell are USA based, granted a majority of the supply there is from players in the USA some comes from China gold farms… if China is going to ban they are going to focus on domestic games to China, however the level of corruption in China at a local level is insane so for the State wide government to do this they have to get through the corrupt local government… All I can say is good luck!
wow you know what, f!@# anyone who tells me what I can spend my money on. Instead of spending 400 or 500 dollars at the bar, I buy gold cause I work for it and f!@# the bum, who gives a shit. I do what I want cuz i have the money and its f!@king mine and who are you to tell me its wrong. I will keep buying it you know why cause it enrages ppl in the game and its funny. lol i also bought 1 lvl 80 fully geared for 900 dollars. dont be mad cause i got money and you dont and i still have a social life… i guess not everyone can live the sweet life lol
peace yours truly,
the wow gamer… duces
Omg that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while. Nobodies mad that you spend your parent’s money on online video game items. Everyone is jealous of the social life you have in this online video game.
attempting to ban free enterprise never works no matter how badly everyone thinks they want it.
also, does anyone SERIOUSLY believe that the Chinese government is going to shut down a great big pipeline of hard currency flowing from the the rest of the world into China?
not how the world works, not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow.
spending real $$ on virtual items is just dumb, wanna give your $$ away I got my hand out.
With that frame of mind paying money monthly to play wow at all is “dumb”, its not giving money away if your getting something out of it right? Paying for gold is no different than paying 15 a month to have an virtual character, its all in good fun. I’ll tell you what i’de much rather work my normal job for 3 hours and spend that money buying 10k gold than spend days farming it myself….BORING.
As an owner of a American owned and legit gold shop, this makes me extremely happy! The Chinese death camps would probably have put me out of business by the end of ‘09.
Unlike the Chinese, I have to pay my 132 workers a minimum wage, taxes, unemployment benefits a payroll company, give bonuses for our harder workers. Advertising, We also own over 400 game accounts, each account is tagged to a specific worker. Our electricity bill is several thousands a month, but our employees are our biggest cost. At this point we are not showing any profit and just covering operational costs. Fortunately the building we operate out of was paid off last year.
You don’t even want to know the modifications that had to be made to run all the fiber-optic cable in to the building, the hundreds of PCs, servers, routers, switches and other gear that goes in to it. We also have to keep the building Air conditioned at a cool 68 all year round, we even vent in cold air during the winter to save costs of keeping the rooms cool. We have never turned on our furnace even with Upstate NY’s blizzard like Winters.
I have no capital to expand right now, I may have to layoff some of my workers. Recently, I have been selling off our reserve currency in bulk to other shops so we can expand, but that’s going to run short quick.
Most Chinese farmers work 18 hours a day and earn less than a $2 a day. They have no bottom line because they are so they have no employment laws like the US. Also a lot of the Chinese are scam shops, stealing accounts, gold even your credit cards to continue funding. The owners of the farms are making some serious bank.
I would hate to loose the shop. It started out as two friends with spare time farmed gold for other friends for pizza and beer.
I got ripped off by these guys in wow, do not touch them with a big stick. GDB CHINA wow gold is a pure fraud and everybody should be told, so pass on the word
I’m actually quiete relieved and happy to see those addicted gamers finally turned down and shunned by the government. It’s a low bussiness with no legit credibility. Even tho I don’t play WoW, doesn’t nessisarly mean this doesn’t affect me too. Keep in mind they also banned 200+ thousand (or was it million I forgot) similar games that involved gold farming or “inappropriate” use of real world/gameing trasactions. THIS MAKES ME VERY HAPPY. Seeing now more and more of the gold farmers are finally leaving Flyff, Luna, etc…