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Lineage: Players Threaten Lawsuit
Koltrane
Member UncommonPosts: 1,049
The league claims that the game is too expensive. It noted that the monthly fee of 30,000 won ($25.40) was almost double the rate in some other countries. Monthly rates are $15 in the United States, 2,000 yen ($17.60) in Japan, and $480 NT ($14) in Taiwan. "Korean game players are being discriminated against," they said. The league also said that the game's server crashed too often, and that there was significant fraud or hacking of the game, yet the company has not taken action to improve conditions.
Another problem that users pointed out was the cash trading of game items offline. Within the game, there are many different "items" such as weapons, clothing or potions, that have different levels of power. Acquiring more powerful items can take hours of playing time. The ability to acquire more powerful items also depends on the level of skill of the player. Therefore, for players unable or unwilling to devote the necessary time, buying and selling items for cash has become a widespread trend.
Also included is this eye-popping statistic:
Since the game was launched in 1999, 520 million accounts have been opened in Korea alone. That figure can include multiple accounts for an individual subscriber.
According to the Korea National Statistical Office, the population of South Korea was estimated at 47.6 million people in July, 2002. Someone's obviously playing a lot of Lineage in the Pacific Rim.
Read the entire article here.
Kudos to spirdal at Gamebunny for sniffing this one out.
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There are 10 types of people in this world...those who understand binary, and those who don't.
MMORPG.com Staff
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Old timer.
Comments
That's an interesting angle to take: claiming discrimination in pricing due to nationality. As I know nothing about Korean law (or really any law besides American) I'll withold judgement about the possible success of that stratagem till maybe another poster can illuminate my ignorance.
But wether viable or not, it certainly threatens to give NCsoft some very bad publicity in a country of rabid online gamers. So for that reason alone there might be a price drop.
As for the rest of thier complaints: server crashes, the Ebaying of goods, et. al. I don't think they got much of a leg to stand on. I've yet to see a EULA that gauranteed any server stability whatsoever. If the game is up one hour a week, hey thats just gravy. And no business can be responsible for the actions of individuals outside the jurisdiction over which that business has control (for a real world, and much more serious, justification of that past statement I refer readers to http://www.reedsmith.com/library/publicationView.cfm?itemid=20917 ).
In the end, I think business's should be allowed to charge whatever they want for their services, as long as those services are not of a necessary nature. If a gaming company is charging too much, let the consumers resolve the issue by voting with their dollars.
...Pika
...Pika
Why anyone even plays this game is beyond me. It is the single biggest piece of garbage released in a long time.
Laying in bed, looking up at the stars, a single thought passed through my head. Where the fuck is my roof?
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