Shanda Entertainment - one of Mainland China's heavy hitters in the gaming industry - announced that their subsidiary, Aurora Technology, has frozen accounts of male players who play as female characters in the King of the World MMORPG. Aurora stipulates that only female gamers can play female characters in the game, and it requires gamers who chose female characters to prove their biological sex with a webcam, according to the report. Just how much the player will be required to reveal and who is watching the webcam? Many players express concerns that this will discourage females from playing games.

EA to buy online game developer Mythic

First posted 09:25am (Mla time) June 21, 2006
Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO -- Electronic Arts Inc., the world's biggest video-game publisher, said on Tuesday it will buy Mythic Entertainment, beefing up its portfolio of online roleplaying games.

PARIS, France, 6th of June 2006 - GOA, the France Telecom-owned publisher of online games, is extremely proud to announce that it has secured exclusive publishing and online operational rights for the massively anticipated MMORPG, Warhammer Online: Age of ReckoningTM from Mythic Entertainment.

James Cameron, Academy Award-winning director of Titanic as well as Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss, has an unusual new project in the works: Project 880, which Cameron intends to launch as an online multiplayer game prior to the release of the eventual film.

1/6/2006 10:12:39 PM, by Ryan Paul

Legal Affairs ran an extremely peculiar article this month about the taxability of MMORPG goods. Virtual items found within popular Internet roleplaying games are commonly sold or auctioned to other players for real world currency. Since such items clearly have legitimate market value, tax law is applicable. In the article, Ultima Online trader Julian Dibbell examines some of the implications. In June 2003, Dibbell stated that he would report his gaming income to IRS and pay taxes accordingly:

"On April 15, 2004, I will truthfully report to the IRS that my primary source of income is the sale of imaginary goods and that I earn more from it, on a monthly basis, than I have ever earned as a professional writer."