[MUD-Dev] Article: Korea, Lineage..

[SavantKnowsAll at cs.com]

There's a great article at Time.com about Lineage and Korea - It's got
everything from brawls, to extortion, to corruption at NCSoft.

  http://www.time.com/time/interactive/entertainment/gangs_np.html

Some excerpts:

"Five rough-looking men stepped out of a black sedan and burst into
the Seoul PC cafe where Paek Jung Yul hangs out with Strong People
Blood Pledge, his clan of online gamers. "Is the wizard here?" 
demanded one of the toughs, asking for the player who killed his
character in an online game called Lineage. The "wizard" was there,
alright, and he was feeling bold. He boasted that he had offed the
gangman's virtual character just for the fun of it. Bad idea. The
roughnecks dragged the 21-year-old into the urinal and pummeled him
until he was covered with real-world bruises."

"Actual violence has become so commonplace among computer-game players
that concerned authorities even have a term for it that borrows from
the game: "off-line PK" (player killings)."

""In reality, I have few ways to express myself or show off," Paek
says. "But in the game, if I put in a little effort, many people will
know who I am.""

"Why does Lineage have such a hold in Korea? "This is a small
country," explains Joonmo Kwon, an educational psychologist. "If
everyone you know plays Lineage, you have to play it.""

"Girl characters, meanwhile, have sometimes been known to offer sexual
favors to experienced male gamers in exchange for virtual
weapons. But, as one Lineage clan's guild master notes, who's to say
the girl characters are really girls?"

"The game has also caught on with the loan-sharking gangsters active
in the Korean entertainment industry. Some have seized control of
Lineage castles, gamers say. They do a brisk side business trading in
virtual weapons and levying taxes in the game. In between off-line
heists, they boast among themselves about their online exploits."

"Even Lineage developer NCsoft has gotten caught up in the virtual
world of its own making. Systems administrators, often gamers
themselves, have been fired for throwing online events in favor of one
gaming clan or another. The company recently issued an online apology
to its customers for one such incident and promised it would
investigate any allegations of employee corruption. Kim Taek Jin,
NCsoft's president, says gamers have attempted to buy off his staffers
with gifts of up to $1,000 to manipulate the game. Korean newspapers
report that some gangsters recently turned up at the company demanding
personal information on online rivals to extract off-line
retribution."

""The game doesn't affect reality," says a red-eyed addict after
spending two nights playing virtually nonstop. "Reality affects the
game.""

Comments?
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