South Korea bans gold farming bots and the trade of virtual items

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

The government took the decision to encourage students to not waste time, according to the Korea Times.

A new law will be announced next month that bans all virtual item trades. "The main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes," said Kim Kap-soo, head of The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's content policy division.
He said item collecting for commercial use is a "serious hindrance" to creating a "healthy game culture".
The law is the final nail in the coffin for Diablo 3's Auction House in South Korea, where Blizzard has endured a torrid time in recent months. Just this week Korean café owners launched a class action lawsuit against the gaming behemoth over Diablo 3's servers issues and always-online requirement.
Additionally, the new law bans gold farming bots by blocking gamers from using programs that "allow in-game characters to hunt and collect items without the need of a player controlling them".
The Korean government said over 60 per cent of items exchanged on the market were obtained through bots, which were giving online games a "negative reputation".
Break this law and you'll face a 50 million won (around £27,677) fine and a maximum of five years in jail.
The ministry said item trades "contribute to many problems in society, including teenage crime", and felt that a solution was required.

Sources: Eurogamers, Korea Times, Massively

Basically buying virtual items/gold with real money will be illegal, as well as farming gold with bots. So no real money auctions house in Diablo III, no buying gold in WoW, no more items and perks to buy in Free to play games.

Comments

[tha-x.livejournal.com]

well that sucks for korean gamers

[loverboy.livejournal.com]

Wow. That just fucked over a whole lot of legitimate online games.

[woohyun.livejournal.com]

has anyone finished Inferno here???

[thebluemonk.livejournal.com]

i can't bring myself to finish nightmare tbh.

D3 is a disappointment. the new itemization system ruined it. everything was super boiled down for *gasp* casuals and the game was built for use of the AH. i honestly shouldnt have to go to the AH every other game to buy new gear, it should drop from enemies.

the only part i like about this game is the Grey Delisle voices the female Wizard so i like to pretend im Princess Azula.

when is Torchlight 2 coming out already...

[atelierlune.livejournal.com]

I still haven't beaten the game yet. When I'm sick of how flaky the lag is I give up and go play something else. I'll never do any business in that auction house - it's a hacking scandal waiting to happen, and with everything that Blizzard has cocked up so far, they should be expecting it.

Re: Torchlight 2: Good question.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

I'm stopped at the third act in Hell right now, I don't have time to continue yet

[luckhoney.livejournal.com]

i just defeated the butcher on inferno. and i can't even. i felt like crying afterward.

[thebluemonk.livejournal.com]

more money for china. in 2009 the global market for gold farming (ie selling virtual goods for real money) was valued at around $3,000,000,000 annually.

[vickyblueeyez.livejournal.com]

lol no mention of Aion. I bet they'll still spam chat there with their gold selling.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

It's effective for every game.

[lexissexist.livejournal.com]

I'm sure this will have the intended effect and not simply preface a migration to other games.

Scottish folds are ugly, fyi.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

No.

[lexissexist.livejournal.com]

I forgive you your taste.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

This is kind of you, thank you.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Eesh. This is lovely.

[kiwilovekiwi.livejournal.com]

Wow. They should stop playing online games and play pokemon games instead. =}

[plinkin.livejournal.com]

Loot farmers and bots have been a problem as long as MMORPG's have been around. People were bitching and griping about it with Ultima online and Everquest back in the late 90's. I heard about Korean loot farmers long before I knew much about Korean culture and their online gaming mania. While I was bored and camping something I would watch chat and read all about those crazy Korean loot farmers and I would imagine wizened old men and thugs sitting at home and farming for money. I couldn't even imagine what a Korean loot farmer might look like. Now I picture guys who look like Shark and Hyungjoon.

It's not a fix for them or for the other gamers of the world. The farmers will just come from somewhere else and gaming economy will still be screwed. People will keep twinking themselves out with equipment and loot that they buy instead of win and they'll keep using bought gold to help them get a leg up. It might keep a few high school guys from wasting every moment of their free time on the computer.

Using bots is not a legit game play feature in most online games anyway and if you're caught, your account is banned.

I do feel bad for the legitimate gamers who will not be able to use the auction house now. I think they're trying to do the right thing, but they're going about it the wrong way. If younger players are really the problem, they need to be pushing more parental supervision instead of the government doing the parenting.

Before the gaming curfew, I heard about kids staying up all night playing on their consoles or computers. Where were the parents telling them to go to bed? I get that once you are out of grade school and/or out of your parents house, they can't do anything. Geez, I was allowed to read in bed after 11pm when I was in high school but if Mom walked by at 1am and I was still up, she would tell me to get some sleep. The computer was a no-go that late at night.

This was rambling and didn't make sense. I don't know. I've just been gaming longer than some of Shinhwa has been alive and once online gaming hit the scene, it's been the same problems and complaints like a broken record.

[plinkin.livejournal.com]

I did and it's sad. I don't know those parents or what their parenting methods were; they may have done everything in their power to raise their child in a healthy, responsible way, but my knee-jerk reaction is to think that either one of two things happened. Either there was not enough parental control from early on and by the time they needed some, it was a lost cause OR the kid had mental instability anyway and would have snapped over something else eventually, even had gaming not been involved.

The ones addicted to gaming have addictive personalities to start with. If it's not gaming, it's going to be something else. At my worst, I was playing EQ and WoW 12-16 hours straight on the days I didn't work and anywhere from 6-8 hours when I did work/have school. Ever listened to a recovering drug user or alcoholic? The successful ones have replaced the drugs and alcohol with AA or religion or whatever works for them. Most of them are obsessive over whatever it is and that's fine, as long as it's working and is doing less damage than the drugs or alcohol.

I don't do online gaming at all right now because my job as a chef became too demanding a few years ago and being part of a guild became a chore and was not enjoyable anymore. It felt like I went right from one job to another job. I think I may have felt what a loot farmer feels. I'm still online a good six to eight hours a day though, not counting time spent on the computer at work. I nearly went spare a few years ago when my laptop crashed and I didn't really want to spend the money on a new computer. I went through about two weeks of absolute misery and then I snapped out of it and started reading books again and actually cleaning my house and all sorts of things. It's amazing how much I got done.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

Addiction is a dangerous thing, even without mental problems or poor parental guidance.

It is typical of addicts to become enraged when something comes between them an their "source" like that kid and his parents who tried to interfere.

[taecish.livejournal.com]

i wish that idea was implemented into the other diablo servers
real money auction house is fucking stupid

[plinkin.livejournal.com]

Unless all games implement no-drop/sale(unless sold or used at an in-game vendor) items and gold, they'll keep doing it, even without the actual in-game auction houses. They'll find other sale venues as long as the items and money can be passed from one hand to another in game. Doing that would really take a lot of the fun and freedom out of the games.

[o-o-mai-o-o.livejournal.com]

there goes that extra money being made by those gaming companies.

[ideservestars.livejournal.com]

I'm probably the unpopular opinion here, but I think this is a good idea. I'm more of a console gamer than an online gamer, but my brother is big on WOW and from what he's told me alot of people take advantage of being able to sell nontangible in-game items (leveled up saves, popular items, etc). it defeats the whole purpose of the game. I'm also VERY against gaming companies selling add ons and content that should've been added into the game but wasn't for the purpose of taking advantage of loyal customers, etc. anyone who is big in the sims knows what I'm taking about.

[ideservestars.livejournal.com]

speaking of which, i asked my brother about this and he said a lot of the time people get their credit card numbers stolen and don't get the content they pay for.

[ayumikoshiro.livejournal.com]

Well the point of the real money auction house in Diablo 3 is to give gamers a safe place to do real money trades. Things are listed on their servers and they handle the payments so it's harder to get ripped off
(in theory it's only been a week or so).

As far as the Sims go I'm 100% with you those freakin add-on stuff packs are so annoying. And people selling items is a whole other thing. I get that they put time and effort into it so I'm not gonna say they should stop, but I'm not in the practice of buying "donation" sets. I'd rather just throw a few dollars to a designer I appreciate without being forced to do so.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

"no more items and perks to buy in Free to play games."

Items sold by the companies themselves are still allowed.
Overall I think this is a good idea.
Korea already has a lot of anti-gambling laws because we see gambling as a way of cheating out of doing a real day's hard work, and boy do we value our hideously intense work ethic.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

"Items sold by the companies themselves are still allowed."

Ah good, thanks, I wasn't sure

[plinkin.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting comment about gambling, as seen from a Korean's POV. I just read one of Yahoo's poorly written blurbs about gambling scams and three of the five ways listed were implemented by South Koreans. The work ethic, the smarts and the will to make money is there for sure, even if it's with gambling and gold farming. I don't think my lazy American ass would make it in Asia. I have a great fondness for sitting on that ass and doing as little as possible at home. While I am dilligent when I am at work, I do not like to be at work more than I have to to get my job done in an effective way. I only have a job to pay for my internet addiction. Well, that and I am adult and I own a house and have other bills and I do like to eat.

[ayumikoshiro.livejournal.com]

I wish they could ban gold farmers + bots they have been trying to do it in every game. They are so damn annoying and just clog up the channel with their nonsense. How do they even get so many accounts IDE. If they real money auction house works out the way it's supposed to I think it will cut back on people getting scammed. But eventually hackers will find a way to fabricate items and end up ripping people off anyway. Regular auction house is a lifesaver though too lazy to find good stuff any other way.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

Gold selling goes hand in hand with hacking (plus bots ofc). They sell all the stuff and steal the IG gold etc.

[slatslatslats.livejournal.com]

Hooray. Now if only this applied to international versions of Korean games..

[asiapopsecret.livejournal.com]

As an avid Mabinogi player, since people can no longer use cash to pay for items, I sincerely hope they don't jack up the prices of pets and the monthly advanced play for the NA version. It's bad enough a damn in game dragon costs $17 US dollars. (which is REDICULOUS)

[ghost-whisper.livejournal.com]

BOTs were already against the terms of service though...it's an immediate banning offence if you get caught anyways.

[morgenderper.livejournal.com]

Getting banned from à game is totally diffèrent from being imprisoned.

[teexsaurus.livejournal.com]

i wonder how kyuhyun feels about this...

[sonicphotonic.livejournal.com]

RIP all those people's Farmville farms

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

wouldn't happen if they didn't get so freaking obsessed with online games.

[windygables.livejournal.com]

But it's illegal everywhere and yet people still do it. It's illegal in China yet you still have 50K+ of people who work as online gold farmers. Not really going to change anything except they're going to have to find ways around it.