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The Korean Case Study
In late 2006, the Korean Ministry of Culture and Tourism has proposed a bill that aims to regulate the exchange of virtual
currency, in an attempt to tighten regulations on hazardous gambling activities. However, the debate still rages at the
Korean National Assembly as the bill stalls due to the controversy created by the law project.
This bill was welcomed by the video game industry as a source of relief to this problem but, on the other hand, is criticized
because the Korean government would cut off its local companies access to a growing market, estimated at $US 1 billion at
the time where the bill was first proposed.
The effects and consequences of buying gold
According to Blizzard Entertainment, the vast majority of all gold bought originates from hacked accounts. The article
depicting the source of the bought gold also stated that customers who have paid for character development services most often
found their accounts hacked months after, their characters stripped of their items and said items were sold for gold.
Also, Blizzard Entertainment took legal action against one such company, In Game Dollar LLC, and that company cannot
advertise in-game by any means.
Finally, the players behind these companies spend a lot of time playing this game and are often based in third-world
countries where child labor is widespread. Do you want to waste the lives of poor children by purchasing gold from a third-world-based
company? (This is especially true in the European and Asian servers, as companies specialized in American servers often offer
steeper prices)
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