From: The Korea Times
Gaming Bill Has Holes ㅡ A Lot of ThemBy Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism has sent the National Assembly a revised bill for the development of the computer game industry.
But the controversial bill has been immobile for more than a month due to its sensitive contents, including a prohibition on the trading of cyber money used in online games.
Shin Jong-pil, deputy director of Game Industry Division at the ministry, said, "Our basic position is to tighten regulations on hazardous gambling activities."
Yi In-hwa, a professor of digital storytelling at Ewha Womans University, said the prohibition is not a good solution and the government should try to find a way to help develop a healthy market.
"Of course, hazardous gambling games should be tackled. But it's nonsense for the government to crack down on the trade of cyber money," Yi said.
Yi, a novelist who wrote "Everlasting Empire," "Star of a Poet" and "The Path of Human," and writes game scripts and scenarios, criticized the revised law, saying it shows a total lack of understanding of online games.
"Cyber money and items are what gamers obtain as a reward of their work, and online games have their own economy, which should be respected," Yi said.
According to the revised bill, the government will not allow the selling, buying and exchange of cyber money, if it is considered a business. But the trading of cyber items is expected to be allowed.
The bill is vague about issues such as the definition of cyber money, how it is different from game items and whether trades between individual gamers may be tracked.
If and when the bill is passed this year, detailed enforcement ordinances will be made and implemented next April, for which further discussion is needed, Shin said.
But the revised law has elicited sharply different responses from the industry and gamers.
On the one hand, most online game development and service providers welcome the revision including NCsoft, the largest online game company that says it has been a victim of cyber item trading.
"We believe that the trade of game items shortens the life cycle of an online game," said an employee from NCsoft who requested anonymity.
On the other hand, item trading companies are shocked by the government's sudden prohibition of cyber money as they could be the biggest victim if the law is implemented.
"If the bill is passed, transparent trade will be hard and a black market will soon open," a staffer from Itembay, the leading game item trader in South Korea, said. "The current market is too big to suddenly disappear."
The size of the market was estimated at 1 trillion won, or about $1 billion, last year, according to the Korea Game Development and Promotion Institute. About 60 percent of such item trading company's profit comes from the cyber money trade.
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