The gaming industry had a year for regret

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The gaming industry had a year for regret

Game makers had a dynamic year, but were affected by major scandals even though they were not related to game development, sales, or distribution. Topping the list was the Sea Story scandal, which was the most shocking for the game industry. Sea Story was an adult game room chain equipped with digital slot machines. Koreans are not allowed to gamble with real money except at Kangwon Land, but Sea Story ― as well as a number of other smaller game room chains ― established a gift certificate system. Game players would be able to convert these gift certificates to cash at nearby locations. Coupled with this was the fact that Sea Story game machines were installed with game software that did not meet media rating board screening standards. Investigations showed that Sea Story slot machines had illegal functions such as “messages” on the screen that alert players of upcoming jackpots or functions that enabled players to win gift certificates several times in a row. These functions allow players to earn more winnings than the maximum amount that the state sets for “entertainment” ― 90,000 won ($97) per hour or 20,000 won per game. These laws were created after Sea Story game machines were made, but game room operators deliberately refused to upgrade the software to comply with the laws. Police and prosecutors launched a major crackdown on Sea Story-related entities because of social problems caused by gambling addiction as well as irregularities involving bribes between gift certificate issuers and the government. At its core, the scandal itself was about the act of illegal gambling and whole “underground” system of issuing gift certificates, but since Sea Story was an “adult game room” chain, the issue turned a bright spotlight on the game industry itself, grabbing the attention of the public and the government. Just a few months after it had announced great plans to expand the domestic game industry, in order to make Korea a global leader in game development, the government suddenly reversed course and returned to tighter restrictions in an effort to prevent further mishaps such as the Sea Story scandal. Another negative story in 2006 involved the tens of thousands of people who had their personal information leaked through the Internet to third-party sources. This information was used to create “stolen” accounts in multiplayer online games like Lineage. Although Lineage publisher NCsoft had nothing to do with the matter, it was criticized for not having more secure authorization procedures. The company has now introduced a system that offers a higher level of personal security. by Wohn Dong-hee
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