China attempting to keep virtual and real economy separate | Virtual Economy Research Network. China Bans Gold Farming -- InformationWeek. Trading virtual currency for real goods has been banned in China, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity at risk. In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services. Virtual currency, as defined by Chinese authorities, includes "prepaid cards of cyber-games," according to a joint release issued by China's Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services," the Ministries said. The Chinese government estimates that trade in virtual currency exceeded several billion yuan last year, a figure that it claims has been growing at a rate of 20% annually. One billion yuan is currently equal to about $146 million. Black Hat is like no other security conference. More Insights. China and the Global Financial Crisis. And the Global Financial Crisis By Henry C.K. Liu ’s response to the current global financial crisis is predicated on the reality of the international situation and the separate responses of other major economies around the world. US Denial as the Storm Gathered It took more than a year for US President George W Bush, in whose country the decades-long credit joyride finally imploded in August 2007, to belatedly acknowledge that the financial crisis resulting from decades of US monetary indulgence and fiscal irresponsibility is not merely a passing shower needed to deflate the latest debt bubble in the housing sector of the US economy.
The credit turmoil turned out to be a catastrophic global financial perfect storm of unprecedented dimension that will cause serious structural damage to all market economies around the world. First, we’re working toward a common understanding of the causes behind the global crisis. We are faced with the prospect of a global meltdown. Politics and business in china. Business week about china.
China economic review. Comment on blogpost about social responsality and gaming. Henry Jenkins, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is perhaps academia's leading fanboy, spent part of January in Shanghai and has been posting observations on his blog. I want to highlight one of his better contributions: on social responsibility in Chinese video game culture. Video games, "freedom," and "addiction" Jenkins was attending the International Games and Learning Forum, organized by MIT and Beijing University. There, the focus was on "serious games," those that might potentially be used to promote learning. Jenkins writes that some people were concerned that Chinese gamers would miss some measure of socialization in Chinese history when exposed to foreign-designed gaming spaces, and he contrasts the online gaming experience mostly concentrated in Internet cafes where there is minimal face-to-face contact between players with the commonplace sight of usually older Chinese playing chess, mahjong, and card games in the street or in homes.
Gaming in china. ICYou announced today that it had partnered with the Bele Group to develop its upcoming virtual world, Interactive City and break into the Chinese market. Bele Group offers a range of casual games, like Mahjong and Taiwan 13 cards through its own Chinese-language portal. Through the partnership, it will also make them available inside Interactive City and, ideally for ICYou, bring some of its 300,000 users along as well. Interactive City was first announced a year ago as a world aiming to blend real and virtual commerce with socialization and participation from established merchants. ICYou has since partnered with magnify360 to collect data and personalize the shopping experience and developer Virtway for additional production of environments and locales. ICYou now plans to open an evaluation site in China in 2009 and begin generating revenue before taking the virtual world global in 2010.
Digital games research association.