Chinese student arrested after making 150 million yen selling items for online RPG

[bubbe]

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/nation...na023000c.html

Chinese student arrested after making 150 million yen selling items for online RPG KUMAMOTO -- A university student from China has been arrested for illegally engaging in business activities outside the restrictions of his student visa, police said. Wang Yue Si, 23, came to Japan on a student visa in April 2004. He started selling items such as weapons and currency for online games through an Internet auction site in April this year, without obtaining the appropriate residency status. Wang, living in Kumamoto, has admitted that he sold the virtual goods for about 6 million yen, in violation of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law. A bank worker became suspicious when Wang regularly sent money back home to China and alerted police in August, prompting Kumamoto police officers to investigate the student. Police suspect that Wang has sold a total of 150 million yen in virtual items and sent more than 100 million yen to China. (Mainichi)

Weird! It's kinda impressive making that much money.

[Havock]

Impressive and sad at the same time. Its hard to believe that people would pay that much for weapons out of videogames. It just seems like such a total waste of money.

[johnny]

I guess he forgot to fabricate that Cloak +5 against Japanese lawenforcers. And instead of transfering all that cash by bank, wouldn't he have been better off stuffing it all in the Bag of Holding ? Sheesh...what a stupid idiot.

[SpiritWarrior]

I know. Obviously he didn't get enough points in Diplomacy either. I hope his maxxed out Concentration serves him well in jail. What a moron.

*Grabs d20 blow-up doll and walks away*

[Yorick]

Originally posted by Havock: Impressive and sad at the same time. Its hard to believe that people would pay that much for weapons out of videogames. It just seems like such a total waste of money.

It's paying to enhance one's entertainment experience. How is it different than paying $500 instead of $80 for better seats at a concert? At least the weapons last longer than one night.

How about paying thousands for seats at the Olympics or World Cup?

People pay through the nose for entertainment. It's all supply and demand. Waste of money? Depends on your priorities. It's only paper after all.

[ 11-27-2006, 09:08 PM: Message edited by: Yorick ]

[Yorick]

Oh for anyone interested, 150 million Yen is around $1,293,173.44 USD

[Iron Greasel]

Originally posted by Yorick: Oh for anyone interested, 150 million Yen is around $1,293,173.44 USD

Thank you, I was wondering that but was too lazy to check myself.

[Sever]

Originally posted by Yorick: How is it different than paying $500 instead of $80 for better seats at a concert? At least the weapons last longer than one night.

I suppose they would, except they're virtual and, if i'm reading this right, have no substance apart from the digital. This guy gets a [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] from me by vitue of the fact that he's just sold ice to eskimos. Better than the guy who auctioned his air guitar on ebay...

[Olorin]

I had some experience with virtual sales playing UO. I found a way to make some decent gold in the game, and sold my excess millions to pay for my subscription fees.

By the time I quit after 8 months, I had made back almost all the money I'd spent on monthly fees and the original price of the game.

[Timber Loftis]

You guys don't understand. With MMO's you have to invest lots of TIME to get cool items and gear. Some people have lots more money than time, so time becomes very valuable, money less so.

If I ever took a notion, I would have no compunction against trading my cash for my time in an online game. It becomes a very simple analysis -- why spend 10 in-game hours working for an item that I can spend 1 hours worth of my salary to obtain? Pretty simple if you ask me.