{"id":39054,"date":"2024-10-29T15:57:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-29T06:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=39054"},"modified":"2024-10-29T15:57:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T06:57:18","slug":"korean-game-dev-testifies-gacha-odds-manipulation-and-leaking-player-info","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/korean-game-dev-testifies-gacha-odds-manipulation-and-leaking-player-info\/","title":{"rendered":"Korean game dev testifies before National Assembly about gacha odds manipulation and leaking player information to Chinese government\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As reported by 4Gamer<\/a>, Webzen CEO Tae-Young Kim appeared as a witness before The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on October 21. Webzen is a South Korean game developer that publishes free-to-play MMORPGs like MU Online, Archlord and C9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kim was summoned to testify at a state audit by prosecutor-turned-politician Seong-Dong Kweon about several controversial issues, including manipulation of gacha probabilities, leaking users\u2019 personal information, and one-sidedly discontinuing services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For context, in March this year, Korea passed a law<\/a> stipulating that game companies must inform players of the acquisition odds of all probability-based items in their games. This was followed by investigations of companies like Ragnarok developer Gravity, Lineage M developer NCsoft and Webzen by Korea\u2019s Fair Trade Commission (source: Korea JoongAng Daily<\/a>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MU
Image belongs to Webzen<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the recently held state audit, Kwon pointed out a discrepancy in Webzen\u2019s reported gacha odds versus the actual odds in their mobile game MU Archangel. \u201cContrary to what was announced, the probability of winning an item increased by 0% up to the 149th<\/sup> draw, and only increased by 0.1% from the 150th<\/sup> draw onward. If we were to put this in terms of agricultural produce, it would equate to falsifying the origin of the produce. It\u2019s a typical act of fraud,\u201d Kwon commented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Kim was questioned about Webzen signing a contract that enables users\u2019 personal information to be leaked to China. In response, the CEO said that the scope of the data that Webzen provides is compliant with Korean laws and similar to what other game developers are doing, but the matter is still under investigation by the Fair Trade Commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MU
Image belongs to Webzen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Kwon also criticized Webzen for one-sidedly terminating services and continuing to sell in-game items to players until the last moment, asking the CEO, \u201cHow would game companies exist without players?\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Korean MMORPG developer Webzen was summoned to testify at a state audit about several controversial topics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":39057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-39054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nKorean game dev testifies before National Assembly about gacha odds manipulation and leaking player information to Chinese government\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"South Korean MMORPG developer Webzen was summoned to testify at a state audit about several controversial topics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/korean-game-dev-testifies-gacha-odds-manipulation-and-leaking-player-info\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Korean game dev testifies before National Assembly about gacha odds manipulation and leaking player information to Chinese government\u00a0 - 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