According to Kirkpatrick’s (2007, para. 9) article, “This virtual world - don't call it a game - has become a phenomenon: Second Life, which is free for casual use, has about 334,000 regular visitors. More than 2.6 million have checked it out, a figure that in mid-January was growing by about 20,000 per day”. As above in the article, the online world has become another world. An online game, which is a game that is based on a computer networking system, provides various kinds of contents to satisfy gamers’ need. Even though the majority of people do not think that online world is real, it has many similarities with the real world. It has an economic system, like an auction system, and it has a government that is controlled by the company. People who play the online game enjoy playing the game to fulfill satisfaction that is different from the real world. However, the online world has had problems recently; such as financial crime, damage in its market system and destruction of online game worlds. Therefore, the government, company and individual can make several solutions to prevent the problem.
Internet games are such that usually gamers play a game through the networking system such as the Internet system. As our technology has changed rapidly, our trend of games has changed a lot. This means that new types of games produce a variety of satisfaction for gamers. The history of online game was started in 1969. Many of the companies which provide service based on online network system had made games that many people could play together at the same time to fulfill consumers’ changes (Mulligan, 1999). Actually, many years ago, they started to provide online games, before the network system improved enough. Nowadays, the online world has become a new hot issue, because it has made new problems, since some people make real profit through trading cyber money. One solution to prevent this is that the government or the company could make a tax law system for the cyber world. According to Dibbell’s (2007, para. 8) article, “American Apparel's Second Life store sells virtual fashions to players. Consider ‘bartering’ and ‘prizes’ as outlined in IRS publication 525 (Taxable and Nontaxable Income): Anyone who acquires goods or services either in trade or at play must report as income the ‘fair market value’ of those goods or services”. However, others think that trading cyber money for real money does not cause problems, because it is natural that many players who want more power and position in their game world make the money market naturally to fulfill their own satisfaction (Ward, 2008). In fact, there are lots of problems in the cyber world due to the fact that many people do not consider its problem seriously today. For example, making a black market, spoiling a game’s surroundings and increasing financial frauds can be harmful to both the company and the player.
First, the government and company should regulate rules or policies to prevent an illegal market system. In Korea, several companies realized that there was a problem that many foreign gamers were making cyber money for selling in the real world. Usually the foreign gamers connected from their own countries, and the illegal company can use them at a lower labor fee. According to Wingfield’s (2007, para 4) article, “While some game makers have embraced such transactions, others view them as a form of cheating. A more vexing matter, though, is a new professional class of entrepreneurs, called ‘gold farmers,’ who do nothing but collect virtual goods and sell them for real money, often operating from low-wage countries like China and Eastern Europe”. So, the company makes the solution to prevent illegal trading, like blocking foreign Internet Providers. Through blocking foreign Internet Providers, we can prevent surreptitious uses, like stealing Social Security Numbers. Furthermore, through a tax system, people can prevent imbalance in the market system. So, a tax system can bring the result that every profit from trade in the cyber world can make more specific information about illegal trading. It means people can avoid damages from the illegal market system.
Another is that the company and government should restrict selling cyber money with specific action. The biggest problem is that our society does not think that cyber money can become real money. So, people can trade cyber money and items in online access easily, like E-bay and Runescape. Actually, some companies try to prevent it by employing a third gamer who can check every gamers’ trading information, or regulating specific policies to treat it as a crime (Real-Money Trading Policy, n.d.). In China, many younger people have played games. They think that is trendy, and there has been a problem related to trading cyber money for real money. In YunYun’s (2007, para. 5) article, “In the past, players had to buy certain cards to get access to an online game. However, currently, most of the operators don't charge players due to the cutthroat market competition. To find profits, the game operators turn to selling virtual gear, including clothing and special weapons, to players to enhance their gaming experience. That virtual gear costs real money and satisfies ‘human beings' inner desire to be powerful and dominant in one world’”. However, any operation cannot protect them from the cyber fraud, even if they got financial damage, because the government does not consider that is cyber money a real product. So, the government should need to make some protection system to protect them. For example, strengthen the police’s position, like make cyber police to help people who are victims of fraud by cyber money seller.
In addition, today both the company and people who trade cyber money for real money may tend to compromise with illegal trading. They might think that trading cyber goods will get worse, if the company and government just restrict trading the cyber goods (Wingfield, 2007). However, in this process, the players who just enjoy playing the games without trading cyber money for real money can get damage anyway. Actually, the majority of gamers who play online games have the experience of being annoyed by cyber money sellers. Cyber money sellers usually use the bot accounts, which are controlled by the computer without man’s control (Ward, 2008). Also, those bot machines can be camping, which means that the bot machines monopolize certain places that can be the best places to get cyber money. It causes many problems that many players have to spend more time to compete with them. Furthermore, those cyber money sellers can send spam messages to players to sell cyber money for a fast buck. That phenomenon can bring destruction of game’s surroundings, and it can be the biggest reason that some players can leave the game; also, it can affect the company’s goal to make a profit. However, as supply and demand formula, it cannot be an avoidable situation. If they restrict or stop the bot machine, it can cause other problems, such as making a black market and hacking. So, recently the companies and legal cyber money sellers have cooperated to trade cyber money with real money legally. It means that sellers cooperate, they can avoid making a black market and illegal market system, and the companies can solve the problem in part.
Finally, some opponents say that even with the company and government’s rules or policies, like a tax system, they cannot control imbalance of market system, because applying a tax system in the cyber world can bring lots of complicated problems. For example, the company that provides the service to gamers has to tax about the profit. Moreover, the gamers would have to pay taxes for playing games. It means that the company fixes the prices to make profit through the consumers’ payment for service. Also, it should include taxes. So, they might say it is unfair to consumers, but this argument is incomplete, because as the online world’s market has developed, the government needs more specific information about trading cyber money for real money. The opponents may be worry about double taxing to consumers, but the government can take care of that through reducing tax for payment, and tax for cyber money can be paid in cyber money. The others say that trading cyber money for real money can be a natural phenomenon in today’s economic situation, because the cyber money and item is a kind of product in the economy, so people who want the cyber money can buy it in cash, if they had money for it. However, this argument is illogical, because an immaterial thing, like cyber money and item, has risks with keeping property right. It can cause crime such that people who want to get easy money can deceive people who want to buy the cyber money or item, like fraud and hacking. The real world and cyber world should be separated to prevent the financial crime. If the government and company allowed the trading of cyber money for real money without any control, it would get worse in our economic situation.
In conclusion, trading cyber money or items causes lots of problems now. It causes imbalance of economic market, financial crime and destruction of game’s surroundings. As the online world gets bigger, we need specific solutions to make better online and real world. Through the government and company’s regulation of rules and policies, we can prevent imbalance of market system, and considering it as a crime so that the government and society can prevent financial crime. However, the most important thing is that the government, company and individual have to cooperate to prevent many risks. It should be protected by some kind of control, and we have to know that a game is just a game, not for a fast buck.
Reference:
Dibbell, J. (2007, January 30) Virtual gold could draw real taxes. About.com. Retrieved March 31, 2008,from http://pcworld.about.com/od/onlineentertainment/Virtual-Gold-Could-Draw-Real-T.htm
Kirkpatrick, D. (2007, January 23) Second Life: It's not a game. CNN.com. Retrieved April 23, 2008, from http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/22/magazines/fortune/whatsnext_secondlife.fortune/index.htm
Mulligan, J. (1999) History of online games. Happy Puppy.com. Retrieved April 9, 2008, from http://www.tharsis-gate.org/articles/imaginary/HISTOR~1.HTM
Real-Money Trading Policy. (n.d.). Guildwars.com. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.guildwars.com/support/rtm/rtm-en.php
Ward, M. (2008, Feburary 6) How cash can change online games. BBC News. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/Technology/7226818.stm
Wingfield, N. (2007, December 17) Start-Up to create market for trade of virtual goods. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2008, from
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1399624091&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId =1509&RQT=309&VName=PQD
Yunyun, L. (2007, Feburary 25) Virtual world, real fortune. Bjreview.com. Retrieved April 5, 2008, from http://www.bjreview.com/print/txt/2007-02/25/ content_56736_3.htm
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