Apparently someone in China’s Ministry of Culture got tired of gold farmers in the Plaguelands, because it looks like they are considering banning virtual item trading in the Land of the Rising Sun Communists.

[Beijing, China, December 15, 2006] – Zuhai Tuo, Deputy Director General of the Cultural Market Department under the China Ministry of Culture, addressed to the public that the government should consider setting up laws or regulations to ban virtual property trading. He pointed out that the recent outbreak of illegitimate property acquisition via virtual trading in online games has pushed the Chinese government to look into regulating this sector.
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Aimed at putting a stop to its domestic criminal activities through private trading on online game gears, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture recently submitted a provision to ban intermediary services on virtual currencies, which will be reviewed on December by the State Council. Once passed, this provision will roll out a national prohibition of any virtual currencies intermediary services including specialized virtual item trading websites and C2C e-commerce websites, where one can receive up to 5 years imprisonment or 50 million Korean Won ($54,000) in penalties on any violations.

According to Tuo, relative Chinese government organizations have assigned top priorities on eliminating virtual property, inspired by the South Korean government’s reactions to the problem. Since the end of 2005, online account theft and virtual products had been listed as one of the new criminal activities that need to be punishable by law. Online trading platforms in relation to these problems also fell in the concentrated regulatory targets.

These recommendations made by the Ministry of Culture have gained quite a bit of positive feedback and support from major online game operators. Shanda CEO Jun Tang and Netease Market Director Hua Huang both commented on supporting the ban on private trading among gamers and via online trading platforms. According to Jun Tang, it is currently impossible to execute complete prohibition on such virtual trading at the technological end, but should be feasible with regulative support and actions taken by the police.

The communists have spoken. It is unclear, as of yet, what position the terrorists will take.

Edit: Clarified quote to talk about China more. The article is mostly about China. Re: Rising Sun – I’m an idiot.