China may not have banned gold farming after all. The news circulated earlier this week that China had put in place new laws that would deal a major blow to gold farming in the region. However, according to Professor Richard Heeks of Manchester University, the new Chinese law prohibits the buying of real-world items and gambling with virtual items such as purchased QQ Coins, which game companies had been allowing. Professor Heeks goes on to explain that the new law doesn't actually seem to impact gold farming as many had thought when the story broke earlier this week.
This is a government restriction on the use of the quasi-Paypal-like currencies (mainly QQ coins) that are used extensively in China to pay for virtual game stuff. As announced they can now only be used to pay for virtual stuff, and you cant buy real things with them as game companies were allowing to happen, nor can you gamble. This therefore is not about what gold farming clients do: use real money to buy these virtual currencies; its the mirror image. And its not about the major trade in gold farming such as World of Warcraft, which relates to other types of virtual currency. And its not about buying/selling in-game items. And its not about the power-levelling of avatars. Bottom line: its not about gold farming.
