Banned video game behavior.

[trashcanman]

So that paragon of freedom China has just outlawed a practice in MMORPG's (Massively Multi-Player Role-Playing Games) known as "gold farming". This is essentially people who spend all of their time in-game gathering wealth so that they can turn around and sell it to inexperienced and apparently wealthy players who will pay them real money in exchange for video game money. This practice generates up to a billion dollars annually. It's not unusual for people to sell their in-game items for real world currency which I personally find absurd. But my question is this: why does China care and how is it they think they can dictate how a person spends their money in regards to a damn video game? This is the same country who instituted a video game rehabilitation program for perceived addicts. I guess it hadn't occurred to them that maybe people fixate on existences in virtual worlds because the government has made real life so incredibly shitty by controlling every single aspect of their life down to the number of children they are allowed to have and what websites they can visit. Now they are micromanaging fictitious virtual fantasy realms? And fuck you, Jackie Chan.
www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/world/asia/24jackie.html

[The Curmudgeon]

Damn, I just lost a lot of love for Jackie. "If we're not controlled, we'll just do what we want." What a stupid, deeply ignorant thing to say. Yeah, we can't have fucking FREEDOM can we, Jack?

The oppression in China is terrifying, and its for the most bizarre reasons. The two-kid rule I don't agree with as such, but I can at least see the belief behind it. But outlawing movies? Websites? And now dictating what you can and can't waste your money on? Surreal.

[trashcanman]

Google actually disallowed searching for the word "democracy" (among others) in China rather then be banned. It was a one kid rule, I believe, and it was only repealed when the astounding practice of infanticide being carried out on any female children led to an entire generation of Chinese men with no women. They had the bright idea to diminish the population with a ridiculous law and wound up with a recipe for their own extinction....and lots of homosexuality (somebody had to say it). No sir, not ironic at all.