Also from that article on the QQ coin:

Suppose the company behind the QQ coin were increase the volume of the virtual currency in circulation. Due to the scale of the entire operation, the result would be actual inflation. There would be more money on the market, and it would be harmful in the realm of real people and real commodities. It is a very real problem. Recently, former CEO of Shanda Interactive Entertainment was sentenced to five years in jail for coining $250,000 worth of virtual money for himself.

I’m having trouble finding any supporting news information on this though. Can anybody find more detailed info on this? If so, please drop it into the comments.

See also this brief reference as to what Shanda does:

Collins notes that Shanda’s most popular games are known as massively multi-player online role-playing games.

The games, he explains, allow thousands of users to interact with one another in a virtual world by assuming ongoing roles or characters with different features. They are continuous, and players accumulate features and communicate with one another through instant messaging.

Sort of like what we do here, isn’t it?