China still okay with gold farming
Virtual currencies restricted, not gold
Earlier in the week we reported the surprising news that China had banned gold farming, new rules jeopardizing a business worth millions of dollars, with a large presence in the People's Republic.
We learn today, however, that gold farming has in fact not been banned - rather virtual currencies are no longer exchangeable for real money; the opposite side of the trade from gold farming.
QQ coins are big in China, and present a virtual currency that can be used to pay for real items, or even for gambling, and this exchange has now been banned - virtual currencies now only useful in a wholly virtual context.
This from ICTs for Development's Richard Heeks: "This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; it's the mirror image. And it's not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And it's not about buying/selling in-game items. And it's not about the power-levelling of avatars.
"Bottom line: it's not about gold farming."
Thanks VG247.
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