South Korea bans virtual item trades
The South Korean government has banned in-game item trades, wiping out gold farming bots and features like the Diablo 3 auction house in one fell swoop.
The government of South Korea has enacted a ban on the trade of virtual items, in an effort to curb gold farming and the Diablo 3 Auction House. The law imposes a 50 million won (approximately $43,000) fine and a maximum of five years in jail. They really don't mess around.
The Korea Times (via Eurogamer) reports that the new law will go into effect next month. Kim Kap-soo, head of The Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism's content policy division, says that games should be used for entertainment and academic purposes, and that in-game trading is a "serious hindrance" to "healthy game culture."
Diablo III previously faced problems in Korea due to the auction house, and this one move stamps out the possibility of future features like it in the country. It also takes care of gold farming bots by banning programs that "allow in-game characters to hunt and collect items without the need of a player controlling them."
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replySteve Watts posted a new article, South Korea bans virtual item trades.
The South Korean government has banned in-game item trades, wiping out gold farming bots and features like the Diablo 3 auction house in one fell swoop.-
Interesting.
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Lmao, what in the hell. Seems pretty ass backwards for South Korea
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They destroyed their 2nd biggest market!!
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I'm sure they'll have plenty of fun mailing out $43,000 fines and having police bust down doors to collect on those fines.
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That's what I am thinking. Although, didn't SK or Japan recently have a big news item about a game that was essentially a casino?
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It has to be this. Even if D3 didn't have an auction house, it would still have a "trade" function. Even if it didn't have a "trade" function, there'd still be multiplayer where two people could drop items on the ground and swap.
And there are a shit-ton of games that allow you to "trade" virtual items with other people.
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I see zero evidence to support your claim. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/06/129_112964.html
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hrm. maybe. hopefully there's clarification soon.
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If your app is listed in the Games:Casino genre, it's not viewable in South Korea. They are part of the Government's that have speech and regulation laws you have to abide by to sell there. Same with Germany (Violence + Blood + Nazi Insignia), France ( Nazi Insignia ), Australia (Sex + Violence), and Quebec (Language).
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Oops dropped a line. First sentence should start with: "On Apple's App Store"
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I like the core concept of that. I miss quasi-anonymity of community-hosted servers. Even though developers claim that the accountability inherent in online authentication and/or real-identification enforcement makes games more secure, the unbalancing act of persistent stats, perks, power-ups, and now virtual currency and real-money currency trading has made online gaming a lot more risky, in terms of privacy and monetary loss.
It's just a game; I don't want to have my identity stolen, my money stolen, or my real-life reputation damaged because of a game. Those who are bought into persistent stats and virtual-item trading may disagree, but I love the spirit in this decision, because it illustrates how far in a dangerous direction gaming has been taken, all in the name of profit via addiction.-
Here here!
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If they could disable trading and random crate drops for that region. You can play the game without it.
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This is really good news. If every country did this, the quality of actual gameplay would improve. in video games. which are for entertainment.
Right now all I see is games turning into skill-free soulless slot machines and virtual economies. Turning gamers into online zombies that are addicted but not having fun. The fact that farming even exists is very worrying.
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In addition, randomized gear/loot based games are inherently designed to be addictive, and are exploitative. The sad thing is that people actually get sucked in so hard they pay virtual money for this... What makes this sad is that every publisher/developer now has adopted the same model, and it has turned every game into a grindfest or pay to win.
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and by virtual money, I mean real money!
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Except what I'm saying is that the fact that farming mechanics exists and are consciously designed is really worrying. The act of farming isn't actually fun, its exploitative, and a form of obsession/addiction.
If the gameplay experience is actually fun, then people would not farm. Farming exists because of artificial limitations that are there by design to invoke people to either grind for hundreds or thousands of hours, or as a shortcut, pay real money. It stops being fun/exciting, and becomes something like a second job.
Farming mechanics are not new. You are right. But it is getting huge now, for all the wrong reasons. And as a side effect is fucking up the whole game industry as farming mechanics get shoehorned into every game, even if they dont fit.-
Farming getting huge, now? Where were you when EverQuest launched?
Farming, at least in some sense of the word, is a key component of gameplay, in all games. It's not really a big deal. Also, farming in Diablo IS fun.-
Most social/facebook/mobile games are built on farming. In the past couple of years, many high budget games have adopted free to play models.
This is what I mean by "getting huge". It is getting huge now because it is now the predominant model that is used to target not just hardcore players but casual/social players.
Farming is not a key component in all games. You probably haven't played many skill based games (which used to be the norm) where time played accounts for nothing except personal experience. Where is farming in a skill based MP game like quake?
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You are ignoring some of the best (and best-selling) titles of recent memory to support your assertion. Where's the farming in Skyrim? COD? Portal?
Plus, plenty of games that involve farming either make it fun (D3) or it provides limited benefit to the gameplay experience (WoW). -
I'm farming nubs to increase my skill level. BAN PLZ.
Games should basically be derivatives of Minesweeper and Solitaire. To protect ourselves from being exploitated of course.
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So you are actually having fun running inferno Act2+ over and over again? Every game I join ends with everyone raging/leaving as soon as we get some ridiculously OP elite mob combos like "extra fast vortex invulnerable mortar" soul lasher.
And even if you kite/graveyard grind for 5-10 mins you get rewarded with some shitty drop after stacking nephalem valor 5 times and +MFing. Hey at least you can sell it for gold on the AH. Oh wait! the prices are inflated because of all the dupes and farmers jacking up the prices of all decent gear to 20 million + which would take an extremely long time to gold farm.
In comes the RMAH to the rescue! why spend a week farming gold to buy a virtual in game item for a video game when I can pay for it! People are buying and selling gear for $200+ which is mindblowing considering the game is $60.
The endgame gear is not even that good, the loot modifiers arent as interesting as D2, especially for rares/set items. I loved D2; even though I know that it was also a farming game, this one is just so blatant - its blatantly obvious this game's endgame balance was designed solely around the RMAH shamelessly.
Done properly, I would look forward to endgame replay because there are new and interesting mechanics in the late game. This just seems like a futile attempt in increasing numbers with no actual payoff, due to the shallowness of the actual game (skills, stats, loot).
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Saying that "farming is a key component of gameplay in all games" is as bad as outright condemning it. I tend to hoard ammo in single-player FPS games, but in most single-player campaigns, that's a finite resource that doesn't regenerate. I just want to make sure I have enough for the next boss or horde of monsters. There are definitely people who get a rush out of loot mechanics or farming / crafting, but saying that everyone does is wrong.
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Yes. However, hoarding ammo in an FPS game is grinding, not farming. Farming is done specifically when looking for statistically random drops. Grinding is where you get some direct guaranteed reward each time you try. While both are quite similar, farming is much more taxing.
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Lol.
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Ditto :(
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I agree with you, except for the government intervention part. Most of the people who play these games will agree with the sentiment, but continue playing anyhow, or defend it blindly to avoid the realization that it's exploiting them. It appeals to what I call the OCD/hording demographic.
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I understand what you're saying, but only to a point. Game design certainly suggests certain ways to play, but ultimately it is in the hands and minds of each player to decide what kind of relationship they're going to have with any particular game. "Online addicted zombies not having fun" are as much responsible for their level of happiness as Blizzard or any other developer is.
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D2 was all about farming, what did that exploit? Blizzard didn't make any money other than the sale of the box, it didn't matter to them how much I played. Get this, people like farming and grinding. If it was as unfun as you say then no one would play those shitty social games or MMOs. Of course, a lot of people don't like them. And I agree with you when the game is centered around RMT.
But honestly, you are trying to say what, exactly? That people can't stop themselves from playing? Because I'm pretty sure they can as D3 forums are littered with nothing but people saying they're quitting.
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If I'm reading this correctly I'm pretty sure this is a good thing. Looking at the actual Korean Times article I'm pretty sure they're only referring to virtual item trading for commercial use, like selling items and gold for cash. I'm not sure what this means for D3's RMAH, but I would be surprised if it meant you weren't allowed to use traditional auction houses since they're a pretty big part of any MMO including Korean ones.
Needs better translation/clarification.
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Haha doesn't this man an absolute fuckton of video games?
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and thats why I love it XD
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What a weird thing to say. You dislike all free games?
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Nah, F2P is good on paper, but it comes with many sacrifices, tradeoffs and noise that more often than not pollute the end product.
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For all you headline readers- this is a bottling program ban. Read the original link, not the shitty shacknews 'story'
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Fuck- BOTTING , not bottling.
This will only help trading, not hurt it.
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It's something that has come along that needs a good hard look for some possible regulation. Right now for example, Blizzard has the ability to completely manipulate a real money based economy. I don't think it's something that can just be left alone. This is sort of a carpet bomb solution but I won't be surprised if this stuff is treated like gambling in the US soon.
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You can use vpn to overcome this ban in Korea. Annoying? Yes! But at least you have a chance. More at my blog https://relaska.com/roblox-trading-in-south-korea-banned-how-to-unblock/
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