The weirdest law ever - affecting MMOG transactions

[Sindwiller]

http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/0 ... 5245.shtml

Discuss. I can't say anything more than that: That's probably the oddest regulation I've ever seen or heard of.

[Zyn]

It seems to be a kick in the nuts for all the goldsellers.

[Sindwiller]

It seems to be a kick in the nuts for all the goldsellers.

True

[Spellbinder]

"Folks who sell over $6,500 worth of virtual goods or currency" <----- that's the most oddest ever.

[ifO]

It's not odd at all, these people are running small businesses and should be taxed as such.

[⌐■_■]

[Taylor]

I doubt this is about gold sellers. They are mainly based in China and I'd find it odd they'd conform to laws like this while running what is effectively an illegal organisation; most TOS forbid the use of selling 'virtual' items and currency. They get around it by having you pay for their 'time' and the gold being 'goodwill'” but everyone knows that’s crap.

I imagine this is directly related to the fact most Korean online games, everything from Gunbound to Ragnarok Online, make their money through virtual stores where you can buy items to gear up your characters. This "can" is only semi-optional, as you will be gimp compared to someone who has spent real money, and of course every few months you need to regear (same way trading cards work, bring out a new set that dwarfs the older ones every so often). Developers use this avenue for money because Korean players typically play in cyber cafes, meaning subscriptions are a pain and nobody buys games.

So given all that, it’s not so weird.

[Taylor]

Oh, and if you liked that:

Blizzard Takes Legal Action Against Gold-Selling Company (Google cache, probably won't work)

[Sindwiller]

ya i hate those assholes, i wanna cut thier peon balls off, while playing, ya know raiding kara or something, and i was gettin like 6-8 of those damn adds an hour

and, they were keylogging people and stealing thier accounts to use for thier spamming charactors. aguoldie of mine got analy screwed

Haha... WoW players ^^