China bans RMT, perhaps EVE Online.
Posted by Dan on June 30, 2009China’s Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce have banned the trading of virtual currency for tangible goods or services. According to the ministry, “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,” and specifically includes prepaid game cards for online games.
This presents something of a problem for games with sanctioned RMT models, as by the ministry’s wording not even game publishers can traffic in real goods and services. For a game like EVE, where the developers have sanctioned third party trading in prepaid time cards, this seems to run afoul of the letter of the policy; rather unfairly as it doesn’t seem to violate the spirit of the policy. Interestingly, China Daily is reporting that virtual item selling will not be covered under this policy.
Something tells me that this is going to be a rather empty gesture by the Chinese government, but we’ll keep an eye on this.
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I don’t have a problem with trading online currency with real ones as long as it doesn’t effect the overall enjoyment of others. In other worlds if they are farming in an instance by themselves let them. They’re not bothering anybody.
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