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China bans gold farming

Mickey

Posted: July 27, 2009 02:39 pm

IRC Nickname: Mickey
Group: Emeritus
Posts: 5305
Member No.: 48
Joined: December 30, 2007
Total Events Attended: 282

QUOTE

Gold farmers! They're everywhere, right? We get spammed by them, we run into them farming Dire Maul, we put them on ignore. Lazy people with too much disposable income buy gold from them in a show of crass consumerism. Blizzard has done their best to stamp out gold-farming services, but litigation is difficult due to the fact that most of the major gold-farming companies are based in China or other parts of Asia. They've instead opted to try to control and stop gold farmers from being able to complete transactions via other methods.

This time, though, it looks like Blizzard may have an unlikely ally in, of all things, the Chinese government. They announced today that the trading of virtual goods for real money is now illegal in China. This ruling reaches farther than just gold farming, though. It also bans the sale of prepaid time cards for MMOs or other online games, as well as numerous technicalities we're sure to hear about in the weeks to come.

To give you an idea of how much an economic impact this will have on China, gold farming alone generates nearly one billion dollars a year worldwide, with China's specific numbers growing at a reported rate of 20% per year. It's estimated that 80 to 85 percent of gold farmers reside in China, so this ruling is massive and, to be frank, pretty troubling.

From a gamer's perspective, yes, it'll be nice to worry about this kind of service a little less, but from a human perspective this places hundreds of thousands of Chinese people in one of two kinds of serious trouble: the first is financial hardship from the "honest" gold-farming companies that will close down after this ban, and the second is legal issues from the companies who don't close down because they can't afford not to do what they've been doing.

It's not my intention to defend gold farming as an industry, because I used to have to deal with its more nefarious effects every day -- compromised accounts stripped of gold and gear, keyloggers, disruptive spam, all of that. But life isn't easy for many Chinese people working jobs like this. Many gold farming centers are much cleaner and safer, in relative terms, than other places in China where one on the bottom rung of the financial ladder might seek work, so while I appreciate the change as only a white first-world male can, I worry about what will happen to the underprivileged working-class Chinese people behind the spam ads and dead gnomes when this law starts getting enforced.

Hopefully this will mean Jagex can be more lenient towards unbalanced trades, PvP drops, etc. Alought I doubt it.

What do you guys think?

P.S. I know the quote is old, I just didn't see another topic on these forums, so I thought I'd post about it for those who don't venture away from these boards hashdown.gif.png

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Kai Jensen

Posted: July 27, 2009 02:50 pm

IRC Nickname:
Group: Guest
Posts: 41
Member No.: 1961
Joined: July 18, 2009
Total Events Attended: 7

The quoted post is really old.

That being said, it's not legal to buy or sell gold, more people doing it doesn't make it right.

On the other hand, with the issues china will be facing (with alot of people having no job if they actually get it closed down 100%).

I'm glad I don't have to make a decision which side I'm with.

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Dallar

Posted: July 27, 2009 03:03 pm

IRC Nickname: Dallar
Group: Event Leader
Posts: 1899
Member No.: 1957
Joined: July 16, 2009
Total Events Attended: 137

I've got an ambivalent attitude.

When Runescape were "poluted" with Gold Farmers, they ruined the game.. From one day to another rs players wealth went up by 100 mil. I hated the dishonesty it brought to people. Particularly me as I used the service twice..

But that was also good. You always had the money to keep going. Hard work wasn't required. But it ruined the essence of the game. The will to achieve, the enthusiasm and the loyalty towards honesty.

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Abmanju

Posted: July 27, 2009 03:10 pm

IRC Nickname: Abs
Group: Emeritus
Posts: 2071
Member No.: 4
Joined: December 26, 2007
Total Events Attended: 97

Hey I do it a lot on other games.
It's just more fun.

Never done it on Rs though >.>
After I found out people sold gold, RWT was already in place.

Lol, dunno if I would have done it to get 99 prayer tho

~Abs

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"I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Wg Council & Secondary Leader - 21/10/07 to 24/12/08
Msn: [email protected]

Kecooler

Posted: July 28, 2009 03:11 am

IRC Nickname:
Group: Banned
Posts: 2
Member No.: 1405
Joined: October 26, 2008
Total Events Attended: 0

There are two kinds of RWTing. China's ban has started a reduction of the bad kind. I'm happy.

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ThisIsUnique

Posted: July 28, 2009 06:21 am

IRC Nickname: ThisIsUnique
Group: Ex-Member
Posts: 1664
Member No.: 1417
Joined: October 30, 2008
Total Events Attended: 141

QUOTE (WG_Keanu @ July 27, 2009 10:11 pm)

There are two kinds of RWTing. China's ban has started a reduction of the bad kind. I'm happy.

what would you consider the good type then?

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Havochaha

Posted: July 28, 2009 08:44 am

IRC Nickname: Havochaha
Group: Ex-Member
Posts: 2257
Member No.: 106
Joined: January 5, 2008
Total Events Attended: 113

QUOTE (Ludo Slayer @ July 28, 2009 06:21 am)

QUOTE (WG_Keanu @ July 27, 2009 10:11 pm)

There are two kinds of RWTing. China's ban has started a reduction of the bad kind. I'm happy.

what would you consider the good type then?

Me selling membership

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Havochaha Perm Banned Oct 1st 2009
Havochaha Unbanned February 13th 2011
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