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While we gamers tend to roll our collective eyes at reports of Internet addiction and crimes being committed in the name of our favorite hobby, the Chinese government sees things a bit differently. According to a top legislator, around four-million Chinese youngsters under the age of 18 are addicted to the Internet, mainly attracted by online gaming. They even go so far as to call online gaming unhealthy, as the government calls for stricter monitoring of online games that have illegal or inappropriate content.

This report labels this content as games with violence, pornography and those that feature Chinese soldiers as the enemy role. In addition to a 2006 law that ordered all Chinese Internet game manufacturers to install personal identification technology, they're now pushing technology to automatically log players off once they exceed a set number of continuous hours of gameplay.

We all knew it was a big problem, but gold farming has reached record proportions, despite the constant enforcement by game developers. In a recent study by the UK's Manchester University, nearly 500,000 people in developing countries now earn their living by farming for virtual gold, with 80% of this industry centered in China.

Professor Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group at Manchester and author of this report, says that gold farming has gone from a cottage industry to a significant economic sector in many developing nations. In fact, the industry has seeped into criminal gang territory with credit card fraud and violent crime being introduced to the mix. Yet despite this illegal activity, we get a nice summary quote from Steven Davis, the chief of game security firm Secure Play: "You could get rid of it, but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction."

Let's face it. Gold farming and RMT are the bane of many players' experiences in MMOs. Bots spam poorly-spelled gold ads in every MMO title with anything even resembling an in-game economy. From a player's perspective, it's a huge problem, and not surprisingly leads many to dislike the idea of RMT. But aside from the occasional media coverage of 'digital sweatshops,' most of us know relatively little about how gold farming operations are actually run, or what effects they have on real world society.

Professor Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester has put together a substantial piece of work on gold farming. The Working Paper's abstract states Heeks' intention "to provide the first systematic analysis of the sub-sector." The paper is titled "Current Analysis and Future Research Agenda on 'Gold Farming': Real-World Production in Developing Countries for the Virtual Economies of Online Games." (Say that three times fast.) It provides an overview of gold farming followed by an in-depth analysis of its economics, sociology, enterprise, and development. In terms of development, the paper considers the benefits gold farming may create, particularly for workers in Asia. While there is a wealth of information in Heeks' work, one aspect that stands out is a question it raises: Which is more important in the grand scheme of things, socioeconomic progress for people in real life, or the enjoyment of a game?

[Via Virtual-Economy]

The official English version of the Chinese-developed MMO Perfect World has been announced. It's called Perfect World International, and the closed beta will begin on August 19th, according to the new teaser website.

The game was originally subscription-based, but later moved to a microtransaction model. The publisher asserts that this "established a level of quality not found in other free-to-play titles." Visually, that seems to be the case, although we haven't spent too much time exploring the gameplay. We have spent a little, though; check out our first impressions from way back when if you're curious.

Features include most of the usual MMO trappings -- crafting, quests, world PvP. Chinese mythology-inspired setting. We don't get enough of that setting in microtransaction MMOs, do we? Oh, and apparently the game has like, a crapload of mounts.

[Via MMORPG]

Gamasutra's "China Angle" column has a new look at the changing face of gaming in China's heartland. While most of us in the West think of China's biggest cities - Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai - the vast majority of its people live in less-developed and semi-rural areas. In the biggest cities, the net cafes are facing extinction as laws tighten and people purchase the means to enjoy internet connectivity at home. In these more rural areas, though, the internet cafes remain the primary means of accessing the web. The article goes on to say that wealthy young people in these areas are particularly drawn to MMOs - sometimes the only form of amusement in particularly remote areas.

Giant Interactive, the Chinese gaming powerhouse headed by Shi Yuzhu, has tapped into this by connecting the social aspects of MMOs with more traditional social networking. The company has apparently invested in the site 51.com, with the hopes of getting some of their players together offline as well as on-. China Angle author Frank Yu notes that the company is a likely to have a lot of success in this endeavor, as it has proven especially cunning at promoting online services in the past. In-cafe representatives will touch base with future customers, and (they hope) continue to improve the online lifestyle of China's heartland.

When you hear the words "power leveling," which country do you usually think of? The term almost always conjures images of digital content factories in China, where teams of workers grind around the clock for the legions of gamers out there who are willing to pay to get ahead.

Power leveling and gold farming are by no means limited to China though. Other countries in Asia are seeing a marked increase in these activities as internet access becomes more ubiquitous, and of course as broadband speeds increase. PlayNoEvil points out an article from Vietnam News, which reports "game addicts with talent can now indulge in their favourite pastime and be paid up to VND 2.7 million (US$ 160) a month for doing it." PlayNoEvil notes that the salary of a power-leveler is greater than that of a teacher, who only earns between US$ 60 and US$ 100 per month.

Via PlayNoEvil

Gamasutra is featuring an insightful piece on the challenges and pitfalls of Western game developers looking to move their games to the extremely productive Eastern gaming markets. China, Japan, and especially Korea are world-renowned for their appreciation of videogames, and recent years have seen a number of Eastern games make the move to Europe and the US with varying degrees of success. According to article author Tim Allison, a key to addressing new marketplaces is to not only localize content and design but business models as well.

Allison runs through a number of points in this space, covering issues like console success in the region, the almost mandatory nature of online distribution, and the always-thorny issue of monetization. Possibly most interesting is the author's statement that the Korean marketplace "made" the MMO genre. "The South Korean government, both through its late 1990s subsidies for game development and rollout of the broadband network, became the key driver of this segment. Even in 2008 where overall the Korean MMOG content is not up to its usual high standard the Korean companies are still setting the industry terms."

When "online gaming" and "Asia" are mentioned in the same sentence, it's a safe bet that either Korea or China are going to be mentioned. But the countries of Southeast Asia are also hotbeds of MMORPG fandom, a fact that's not lost on game companies operating elsewhere in the continent.

Chinese game publisher Perfect World has struck a deal that will allow for greater expansion into Southeast Asia. The licensing agreement has been made with Malaysian online game operator Cubinet, which will bring Perfect World's title Chi Bi to Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Cubinet will handle the localization of Chi Bi for the various Southeast Asian gaming markets, offering the game in Chinese, English, Vietnamese, and Thai. Chi Bi is a fantasy MMORPG based on the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. The title's introduction to the SE Asian markets follows Perfect World II, Legend of Martial Arts, and Zhu Xian, and marks another potentially lucrative pairing between Perfect World and Cubinet.

There's been a recent personnel change to China's leading distributor of online gaming. The9 Limited has recently appointed Mr. George Lai as Chief Financial Officer after the resignation of Mr. Tony Tse, due to personal and family reasons. Mr. Lai brings several years of experience to the table, having worked previously at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu since 2000.

The9 Limited operates licensed MMORPGs for Chinese players, including World of Warcraft, Hellgate: London, Ragnarok Online 2, Huxley and many more. The9 Limited is also developing various proprietary games of their own including Warriors of Fate Online and Fantastic Melody Online.

Acclaim's martial arts MMORPG 9Dragons is about to gain some more European fans, with the launch of Bardo Euro -- their new European server. Bardo Euro promises to offer the European playerbase an improved game experience with better connections all around.

Apparently the players have been calling for a European 9Dragons server for some time; Acclaim is delivering on their promises to improve the game and is holding a number of special events to celebrate the launch:

• 30% off sale: All items in the 9Dragons Item Mall will be 30% off for 3 days only. June 6-8.

• Bonus exp rate events: Earn 2 times experience points by playing on the Bardo server. June 3-9.

• Monster spawn event: High level monsters will invade Bardo. June 3-5, 6, 8-9.

• VGM/GM PvP event: Test your martial arts skills battling against Acclaim VGM and GM staff. June 3-6, 8-9.

• Fireworks in Bardo: To celebrate the official launch of the European server, fireworks will light up the sky at random times from May 30 to June 8 on the Bardo server.

If you're in Europe, why not give 9Dragons a shot? Roll yourself a Shaolin or Wu-Tang badass and see if you can take down a GM or two in martial arts combat.

Via Warcry

Frank Yu over at Gamasutra wrote a piece recently that didn't exactly slip through the cracks, but was certainly overshadowed by more pressing concerns that affected online gaming in Asia. Yu's 'China's Forgotten Gamers' -- from his China Angle column -- is a look at the invisible population of gamers in the country that industry demographics simply cannot account for. In North America and Europe, subscriptions, registered downloads and box sales provide an accurate picture of who's playing a given title; China is a different story altogether. Credit cards are nowhere near as prevalent among the Chinese as they are abroad; box sales have largely been a failure due to piracy. Added to the mix is the fact that not everyone can afford to play games legitimately, and so some Chinese gamers find ways to play outside of the system.

Although the reported numbers of gamers playing the various titles in China are large, Yu says, "In China, we track game players by subscriber or registration numbers, or by the amount of money they spend giving companies revenue. If they don't register or pay money, they are somewhat invisible to the industry or, from the business viewpoint, irrelevant."

The research firm In-Stat has released a report on the growth of online gaming in the Asia/Pacific region. Total online gaming revenue in Asia for 2007 was a healthy $5.8 billion, but In-Stat claims that market revenues in Asia will spike over the next five years -- hitting a staggering $21.1 billion in 2013. Yeah, that's in US dollars.

In-Stat claims that a confluence of factors such as greater availability of broadband, ever-increasing content distributed across wider mediums, and 'the unique experience that online gaming offers' will propel demand. (Read: many of Asia's gamers surpass our notions of 'hardcore'... we don't have a word for that level of devotion yet.) They go on to claim China will become the largest market in Asia -- no real surprise there -- particularly as over 50% of the country's online games are developed locally. Given this phenomenal rate of online gaming adoption coupled with steady broadband penetration and speed boosts, it's only a matter of time before China's cities are as wired as South Korea's. If that sheer number of gamers can harness unthrottled bandwidth, China may very well become the pulsing digital heart of the online gaming world.

Via PlayNoEvil

After the devastating earthquake that took the lives of over 40,000 people in China two weeks ago, the Chinese government is doing all they can to restore civility to over seven million people who were directly affected by one of the largest natural disasters in recent history. In addition to this, we can all rest assured that the MMO market in China didn't miss a beat and is back in full swing.

Yes, you heard me right. CDC Games, the Chinese game distributor responsible for the distribution of such popular titles as Shaiya Online, stated recently that its revenues for its online games have rebounded almost immediately. They say their game service was only suspended for three days during the tragedy, and are now back on track to making the income they made previous to the disaster. Whew!