04-05-2005, 09:23 PM
actualy while working as a qa tester about a year ago, one of my co-workers told me this story.
he and his girlfriend at the time were living together and played EQ. He bought the initial game cd's (one for her one for him), but over time she took over payment of both accounts. couple years later, they broke up and she apperntly moved out. while doing this he said she changed the password on both their accounts and later sold the accounts on playerauctions. For some reason or another SOE wouldn't help him out, so he said he took her to civil court(maybe it was small claims court, I forget), and claimed he won, recieving a cash ruling, based on similar account prices on playerauctions listings.
always wondered if this was true, but does sort of hook up with whats being discussed.
one of the leads while working there was a korean native, when he last visisted home, he said the local police starting up a division for "gaming guild crimes". Thats not realy the right term, but from what he said, the local morpg culture in korea is one of local orginizations much like US unions or "gangs" in terms of orginazation. You join a gaming guild. That influences where you play at, as guilds usualy play together at the same internet cafe (sort of like a US club chapterhouse). The bigger guilds have chapers in mutiple cities etc.
THe problem he said is in mutiple instances, espiecily in Lineage guilds, one guild from city x will win in online battle/war over another guild based in city Y. THe city x guild will get together in RL, bus over to city x, and trash that guild in city x much like a gang beat down. I actualy believe wired magazine wrote an article about this a few months ago where being the recipitant of such a beating is a mark of pride for korean youths.
Then he said theres another smaller issue where "some" guilds, since their organized and full of young people, have subplanted local gangs and sidelined in drug selling, prositution (game player kiddies need there sex after a in game pk i gues), and other ilegal activites.
he and his girlfriend at the time were living together and played EQ. He bought the initial game cd's (one for her one for him), but over time she took over payment of both accounts. couple years later, they broke up and she apperntly moved out. while doing this he said she changed the password on both their accounts and later sold the accounts on playerauctions. For some reason or another SOE wouldn't help him out, so he said he took her to civil court(maybe it was small claims court, I forget), and claimed he won, recieving a cash ruling, based on similar account prices on playerauctions listings.
always wondered if this was true, but does sort of hook up with whats being discussed.
one of the leads while working there was a korean native, when he last visisted home, he said the local police starting up a division for "gaming guild crimes". Thats not realy the right term, but from what he said, the local morpg culture in korea is one of local orginizations much like US unions or "gangs" in terms of orginazation. You join a gaming guild. That influences where you play at, as guilds usualy play together at the same internet cafe (sort of like a US club chapterhouse). The bigger guilds have chapers in mutiple cities etc.
THe problem he said is in mutiple instances, espiecily in Lineage guilds, one guild from city x will win in online battle/war over another guild based in city Y. THe city x guild will get together in RL, bus over to city x, and trash that guild in city x much like a gang beat down. I actualy believe wired magazine wrote an article about this a few months ago where being the recipitant of such a beating is a mark of pride for korean youths.
Then he said theres another smaller issue where "some" guilds, since their organized and full of young people, have subplanted local gangs and sidelined in drug selling, prositution (game player kiddies need there sex after a in game pk i gues), and other ilegal activites.