Korea: Virtual Currency Just As Good As Cash
South Korea ruled that virtual money is the equivalent of real-world money.
Gamers in South Korea may be dancing in the streets, as the government has now ruled that game currencies can be legally converted into real world cash. The only catch is that the money cannot stem from "luck-based" online gambling titles such as Poker or other card games. Still, this could mean that MMO players could earn a living online, killing beasts or other players and snagging loot to cash in for real world bucks.
But while purchasing and selling virtual money is nothing new across the globe, the South Korean Supreme Court's ruling specifies that virtual currency is the equivalent of real-world money. Unlike gambling, players of MMO's--and other games using in-world currency--earned the virtual funds through skill and hard work. Therefore, it's argued that gamers have a right to convert their hard-earned funds.
According to The Korea Times, the decision stems from a recent acquittal of two gamers indicted on charges of illegally earning real-world cash by selling in-game currency (Aden) within the MMORPG Lineage to other gamers. The duo racked in nearly 20 million won by selling 234 million worth of Aden; the virtual funds were traded at a ratio of one million Aden for 8,000 won.
But the new ruling also has a drawback: the government plans to get its fair share of tax. In September 2009, the government ruled that profits from the trading of virtual funds should be subject to 10-percent value added tax. Unfortunately, gamers in the States may never see a legalized cyber funds exchange simply because of tax and security issues. Many subscription services currently ban players for selling in-game funds for real-world cash.
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COUNT ME IN!!! now i just have to remember those cheat codes.. Hmmmmmmm........
What they forgot to mention at the court is the fact that most of these farmers don't earn money through actively playing the game but by setting up bots (L2Walker) which do that automatically (I don't consider this a hard work).
Man I wish I was living in Korea now. Play games, have fun, and live poor but able to survive. Wife will kill me though
What they forgot to mention at the court is the fact that most of these farmers don't earn money through actively playing the game but by setting up bots (L2Walker) which do that automatically (I don't consider this a hard work).
IIRC, I watched one of the TV shows few years back, and they actually have these farms up and running all day long (farming + training)and they are getting paid doing so~obviously not by using bots. correct me if I'm wrong but a lot of current MMO's have anti bots features to prevent usage of bots.. We're talking about South Koreans here LoL..where do you think they got all those skills playing game.. not by using bots of course!
showmethemoney 1000000000
take that 9 year old IT kid who says PC games are a waste of time.
Next it'll be Space Cash that's taxed.
Seriously... that's pretty retarded and also awesome at the same time. I say, if people are retarded enough to pay for stuff like that, let them. It's about the only thing that would get me interested in wasting my time on an MMO. Except now, MMOs will be flooded with gold farming bots, and hacking and cheating will become more prevalent, and the world will probably economically collapse since it's putting value in worthless, no-existent funds. Look how well that went for Wall Street.
But I feel I seriously need to get in on the action. I'd gladly pay 10% tax running bots and farming gold, although I wouldn't know the first thing about doing it. I could see getting together with groups of other people and pooling money together and sharing the profits. But the only company of any value would probably be Blizzard and games like WoW and probably Diablo. And I'm sure they'd still crack down and ban for this sort of thing, and probably figure out a system to prevent it.
That's ridiculous.
People don't get paid for hard work. They get paid for doing something useful. Actual farming makes food. In game farming makes....nothing. If someone else in the game is moronic enough to pay them actual money for a transfer of virtual funds, that's fine, but nobody should be obligated to accept virtual funds that were obtained through useless labor as equal to real money.
Are we talking Lineage or Lineage II? In any case, it's Adena... and extortionate for those prices. £11,000 for 234m Adena? That can't be right, especially considering 234m isn't impressive if we're talking Lineage II (I never played the first).
This opens up a can of worms if some one seals items in game and then sells for real money.
Excuse me? So playing cash poker for a living isn't skillful and hard work??
I bet they can just live without eat and drink. maybe plug them self in an electric outlet all day long play that video game?
That is really sad.
I thought games were made to take people mind off the real life, to entertain people.
I do not like to think about money after I have paid for a game and installed it. Maybe I think about expansion pack/dlc or at worst about a monthly subscription.
But I hate gold farmer, in game spam for gold or in game ads related to real life money.
I do not want virtual world polluted with real world money or gold farmer.
I would prefer a single player game with clever NPC rather than an MMO polluted with people "playing" or I should say working for real life money.
And for people paying for these services, where is the fun if you are just paying for items/gold instead of playing the game to find/win them. If grinding is not for you, just chose another game (or at worst generous in game friends).
And of course governments are ok with everything when they can tax it and make big money.
Man I wish I was living in Korea now. Play games, have fun, and live poor but able to survive. Wife will kill me though
Live poor?
Update.
Are we talking Lineage or Lineage II? In any case, it's Adena... and extortionate for those prices. £11,000 for 234m Adena? That can't be right, especially considering 234m isn't impressive if we're talking Lineage II (I never played the first).
If its Lineage 1 that's not a lot of Adena either...dunno who the hell paid that but i'd gladly renew my old account and sell all 600m and some change I had for even half of that!
Holy testicle tuesdays, batman.
This will not bode well.
What about my Stanley nickles?
I could just imagine doing income taxes there?
Did you own your own business? No.
Did you slay any Ogres? Oh hell yes!
But...But... I want money! D= I find rare items all the time in MMO's and just Hoarde them , now I wanna sell them!
Crap...imagine what you could buy if you had 1000 virtual wallets....time to get out some notepad or paper and start creating some accounts and password.
That's ~$17,600 for those who don't want to do the math.
This is a very very bad thing. Watch for other governments to start taxing MMO money now, but guess what: they will want their cut in REAL money at the appropriate exchange rate. Also, the government is under no obligation to exchange currencies for you, you'll need to find a private service to do that.
This is the reason why most companies try to limit the buying and selling of their virtual goods: tax laws like this one will kill MMO gaming.
What are they talking about? Skill? Hardwork??? They are playing a freakin game. Geez I do a lot of things in RL that require skill and handwork but that doesn't mean I get paid for it.
I don't think this ruling really is all that surprising. I don't think it will affect normal people. It's like secondlife. Whether it crashes and burns will not affect me since no real banking institutions or companies are treating it like stock or a legitimate trade. However, since it is virtual, there is great risk to the people playing it since the gamemaker and whims of the public can make the money crash and be worthless. And unlike Wall Street, there are no protections or regulations (but you still have to pay taxes...talk about getting shafted!). Also, I imagine there will be hyperinflation now that everyone will jump on board.
The court did NOT say it was real currency, only that it could be traded for real currency. It is still not legal tender...
That's ridiculous. People don't get paid for hard work. They get paid for doing something useful. Actual farming makes food. In game farming makes....nothing. If someone else in the game is moronic enough to pay them actual money for a transfer of virtual funds, that's fine, but nobody should be obligated to accept virtual funds that were obtained through useless labor as equal to real money.
Right said.
If one wants a shortcut to the actual farming or grinding, ok, let them pay money and receive the item. Grinding and farming for in game purposes is good at relaxing because chosen to, and because it adds to the sense of fulfillment, delusional according to some, addiction beyond reason according to some others, plain fun according to most anyway, but, for the sake of Odin, do not ever turn it into a work where the product farming that makes useless items is sold actually for useful items. It's just a click away from the GM or whoever is in charge, let it be so. Pay is ok, be paid is not. IMO. It's like washing the floor with a toothbrush, waste of useful time. Either like it, or not. As soon as farming for the reason of being paid for something that someone else has just to click once to make you worthless,... not funny, please, don't actually implement ANYthing of the sort.
Super Mario collected all the coins!, now he can....! did you your taxes?.
No can't go. Sorry.
Also, in world economy is fun, out of world implication of any kind, and adding of extra rules upon rules, not fun! Escape of real world, not be caught in it. It is nice in some games where you can actually do whatever is allowed inside the world physics and still be ok. And they will always patch for those that find bugs upon exploring the limits of the physics, but the rest can be fine, and have fun, and relax, or get frustrated and change group, or realm, or just log off, but still detached enough to make it a fun and safe experience even in frustration. Like previously said, what would happen if one 'steals' in game, because allowed to. Will be the rule: you can steal in real world, and be punished for it. or will it be: ok, you got hold of some accounted for situation and showed you're really the bad guy (rogues in wow, haha) or got hold of some unaccounted for that will be patched soon. But still, a safe world to play, not a world to live in (yeah, we pretty soon will be plugged in matrix style, and jump to and from pixelated selves.
Well, in many of these games, you can buy coins, can't you?
Legally too, but for more than the farmers charge.
I believe in fair competition in online games. Not just the richest player wins... They already have a Porsche, life isn't fair, so lets make videogames fair. =D
It is not the courts problem if it makes the game unfair. The people running the game can disallow the RL selling of the ingame currency as they see fit. But they can't make it illegal.
And to a lot of people the gold farmers work is apparently useful. Sadly.
South Korea has just decimated their economy...