Jun 292009
The Chinese government has come to the decision that virtual currency can no longer be traded for real world items or services.
The Chinese ministries stated:
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.
In Final Fantasy XI banned accounts and gil are slowly increasing. With an estimated 80-85% of the worlds RMT located in China, this law is sure to decrease the number of RMTs not only in FFXI but other large MMOs as well.
[Source, Informationweek]
[Thanks, darkoak!]
8 Responses to “China Bans Real Money Trading”
Comments (8)
There is a god after all.
hahaha yes! that last people i’d expect to jump in and work against the problem! besides… their economy is fine anyways!
A few months ago, I would get maybe 1 in-game /tell advertisement about gil sale during that time. A week or two, I would get about 2 or 3 in that time. Last night I got 4 within 2 hours.
I only get to play maybe a few hours a week but it has gotten pretty damn bad. I won’t be convinced this law will do anything until I see it for myself.
This is more about money laundering than any concern for virtual economies. We’ll have to see if this leads to any change…I’m not getting too hyped up about it unless there are palpable results.
WOOT YEs Thank you.
Good Bye RMT, Hope to never see you again.
I don’t think this will work. Most gil is only farmed in China. Not necessarily distributed from there for real currency. Is it illegal to pay someone to play a game for x amount of hours? Unless it is, there will still be a problem. IMO
@Wonder, Not really an issue, since they would still be selling their gil to someone in that case. Sure you can pay someone to play a game, you just can’t happen to also take their gil.
@Wonder, you are right, there are bound to be many loop holes in the game, for example a player in china could play, gain the gil, be payed through pay pal, and then they trade the gil to a rep of the company they are working for, which could be located in the USA, thus technically breaking no law.