"Really? Then who is buying all this virtual gold?"

13 year olds with their mothers credit card.

"Clearly plenty of people *don't hate them* enough to keep the gold farming companies in business."

these are the same people that bitch about blizzard when their accounts get hacked by the same people they bought their harmless gold from. Clearly they are morons.


"Like it or not, it's a service that a lot of people want."

no one said the world isn't full of lazy mf'ers.

"And honestly, China is just shooting themselves in the foot over this. Why outlaw when you can heavily tax?"

oh i don't know. because it's a black market industry that is nearly impossible to tax.

"13 year olds with their mothers credit card"

More stupid sterotypes.

It's pretty well documented that the vast majority of MMO players are in the 20 - 30 something range.

"More stupid sterotypes.

It's pretty well documented that the vast majority of MMO players are in the 20 - 30 something range."

yes. but the majority of the idiots that buy gold are teenagers with the "i don't care nothing bad ever happens" mentality.

"My feeling is that In many cases these gold farming shops are not selling out of China anymore. They've established pretty legit shops our here in the West and just "outsource" the farming to whoever can make it cheapest."

the point is. for the farming that is taking place in china. that gold that is farmed is turned into real world currency when the farmers are paid, and when the slave drivers that run the farms get paid for the gold they export to to shops based in the rest of the world.

that right there should be enough to shut gold farming sweat shops down. the only question is if regional government officials will enforce it if they are not already taking kickbacks from the gold farming operators.