Terra Nova

Facebook Credits Are Dead, Long Live Virtual Currencies

Yesterday, Facebook killed its virtual currency. (Thanks Travis Ross for the heads up.) However, the payment systems behind the FB Credit remain in place, including the outrageous 30% redemption tax, which provided FB with 18 percent of its revenue last year. The difference seems to be one of branding. An FB app can have its own virtual currency and give users a link where they can pay cash to FB (in local currencies - Yen, Euros, whatever Greece decides on, etc.) in return for the virtual coin. The coin then flows through the app back to the devs. The devs then send the virtual money to FB and redeem it again in the local currency (less the 30% tax).This works just like the FB credit, except that the name "Facebook Credit" is not attached to the virtual money. The name is given by the App developer.

So you won't be seeing Facebook Credits, but in an age of seemless, costless translation from one currency to the next, the *name* of the currency no longer matters. The question is now, to what exchange system does a currency belong? What are the transaction fees between it and other currencies? What does it let you buy?

This just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.

Still selective bombing of RMT in S. Korea. But this time, Magic Circle missile loaded

Since 2007, by Game Industry Promotion Act and its implementing decree, S. Koreans should not  do business for exchanging or mediating exchanges of, and repurchasing  in-game money or data like in-game items that are produced or obtained by copying, adapting, and hacking the game program or by way of abnormal game-play.

The word of  'by way of abnormal game-play' has been generally understood as 'using Bots in game', and many sweatshop owners and RMT dealers who broke the law were punished.

On the other hand, Supreme Court of  S. Korea  ruled that RMT itself is not totally  banned by this act  in the sphere of MMORPGs where in-game items are basically obtained by sweat, not by luck. So, RMT dealers can buy and sell in-game items as far as those are produced and obtained by normal play.

In summary - human play : normal(OK) vs.  Bot play : abnormal(banned).

But, practically, it's not that easy to tell Bot play from human play. Korean government have been worrying about the growth of  the grey market of RMT and the crime related to this. Government agency assumes that 60% of RMT in korea were unhealthy one. 

To cope with this matter, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism just now amended the implementing decree. Next july, the revised implementing decree will be effective. This time, Korean government enlarges the scope/depth of the word 'abnormal'.

Using the others personal information & Doing for a business also belong to the scope of 'abnormal'.

In summary -  amateur play : normal vs.  pro play : abnormal

(Probably the first 21th century law that is Johan Huizinga's Magic Circle graven on)

According to korean Value Added Tax act, anybody who supplies goods or services for business and earns more than 12,000,000 won in 6 months should register as "enterpreneur". Enterpreneur shall be liable to pay VAT.  This new  Implementing Decree do not permit game player be the enterpreneur of VAT act.

This is the end of my brief  introduction to the new game law of S. Korea on RMT.

For me, it seems somewhat odd and interesting that Korea recently enacted another law called E-sports Promotion Act. The definition of  E-sports is 'through the medium of games, human compete for the record, or win the game against human'. Of course, Main purpose of this act is to assist pro-gamer who play StarCraft, Dungeon & Fighter etc for a living.

Earning REAL money from the inferno be banned, while from the space is not.

 

Relating news(translated by google)

 

Former relating posts.

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2006/11/korean_national.html

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2007/05/s_koreas_bancan.html

http://terranova.blogs.com/terra_nova/2010/01/a-rainbow-follows-clouds-korean-supreme-courts-rule-on-some-rmt-.html

 

 

Korea to Ban Sale of Virtual Items, Botting

We reported in 2006 that the National Assembly was considering something like this. However, later Korean Supreme Court decisions seemed to legalize some game-to-real market activity. Now however the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is pushing ahead a series of provisions that will criminalize virtual item sales and especially the use of automated programs to farm virtual items. This was first mentioned by Shander in our Diablo III comment thread, referencing this reliable source elsewhere (thanks Shander!). According to the source, maximum penalties are 5 years in prison and a 50m Won ($45,000) fine. Justifying the law, the government man said “The main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes.”

One blogger thinks Diablo III is the cause. I would love to hear Mr. Yoon's thoughts. Judging from this site, Korea has been doing quite a bit legislatively to restrict game playing: Banning students from beta tests, prohibiting late-night play by teens, enforcing a cooling-off period.

One is forced to wonder, again, is Korea an odd case or a leading indicator? We have asked this for 10 years, but in that time it does not seem that the US and Europe have become as generally crazy about online games as Korean society seems to be. Here in Indiana USA, it does not appear that the intensity of online gaming has yet risen to the level it seemed to be in 2002 in Korea. Where once I was certain it would happen, lately I've begun to doubt. Something is happening, but not *that.*

Diablo III Real-Money Auction House: First Thoughts

Yesterday the Diablo III Real-Money Auction House opened for business. I'll call it the RMAH and it's interesting that the game company also calls it that. "Real money auction house." The company, Blizzard Entertainment, wants the players to think that the gold coins of the game are not real money while the dollar is real money. We'll see how long that lasts.The terms of service for the game actually put "real money" in quotes at one point.

After the fold, a little of my personal experience and some thoughts on what it means.

Out with the new, in with the old

Two quick things:

1) the weblog got an overdue facelift, and

2) we apparently outlived a certain television show.

Both are causes for minor celebration.

Euro Fears Drive Wealth Into Virtual Currency

According to the Financial Post, as confidence in the Eurozone falls, purchases of Bitcoins originating in Eurozone countries is rising. It's a correlation. But perhaps indeed some people are seeing the Bitcoin as a safe haven. You wouldn't put it in Facebook Credits, because of the exorbitant cashing-out fee of 30%. This is another instance of completely normal economic behavior - switching from risky money to safer money - that nonetheless seems weird because the allegedly safer money is generated by a software program and has nothing to do with the real world. But what, after all, does the Euro have to do with the real world?

Third-Party Money

We've become used to the idea that a social media or game developer would launch their own currency within their system. With Facebook Credits, we have a third-party cirtual money approach. That idea is apparent in other areas, notably GetJar Gold. GetJar is a distributor of Android apps, but it also offers a virtual currency service that can be integrated into the apps. For us iPhone users, it would be as if iTunes had something like "iBucks," where the iBuck appears in the apps you use.

 

This is an interesting parallel to the real world, where at some point it was deemed important to separate the monetary authority from the political authority. One runs the country, the other the country's money.