[이효석의 게임인] Will the’Linger’ truck protest be a revolution in 17 years?

The users of’Lineage’, which is synonymous with Korean online games, are engaged in group action after about 17 years.

Those who wrote a page in the history of the game called’Bartz Revolution’ in 2004 turned their spears at NCsoft, a company that made the game altogether in 2021.

In a situation where the entire Korean game board is shaken due to the problem of probability-type items, even Lineage users, who will be called’the king of the end plates’ of domestic games, are showing up in a related demonstration, and the entire game industry is on the verge of being touched.

◇’Bartz Liberation War’ defeated the tyranny… Recorded as the first civil revolution online

The Bartz Revolution (Bartz Liberation War) is a civil revolution initiated in the game by users of’Lineage 2’in 2004.

Lineage, as is well known, is a game with a feudal system centered on’castles’.

The monarch who has taken control of the castle can give power to other gamers, such as paying taxes.

At the time of 2004, the Lineage 2 Bartz server was dominated by a guild called’Dragon Knights (DK) Clan’ (a gamer group).

The DK Blood Alliance was a group of top-level gamers on the server. ‘Akirus’ (nickname), the monarch who led the clan, was the highest level 51 in all Lineage 2 servers.

The DK Blood Alliance used the power of a strong character and castle lord to control the hunting ground at all, kill rebels, and charge a high tax rate.

It is virtual reality in the game, but like the dark age of real reality,’tyrandom’ has begun.

As the tyranny continued, other users formed a’Allied Army’ centered on the’Red Revolution’ clan to fight against the DK clan.

The Allied forces initially won several battles, but it was difficult to defeat the DK blood alliance, which had money and power.

However, the atmosphere changed as gamers from other servers who heard the news through the community joined in.

When you move the server, the level becomes 1, and only underwear is worn as the basic outfit. The highest level of DK blood alliance is weak enough to kill even one hit.

However, the Allied Forces confronted the DK blood alliance with’Inhae Tactic’ while wearing only underwear.

Hundreds to thousands of users repeatedly ran to death by hitting a member of the DK blood alliance.

In the future, users celebrated these revolutionary participants by calling them’naebokdan’.

Finally, the Allied Forces defeated the DK Blood Alliance on July 17, 2004, occupying Aden Castle.

Gamers around the world, as well as Lineage, refer to this day as’Barts Liberation Day’ and recognize it as an important scene in the history of the game.

There are also several papers on the meaning of the Bartz revolution by scholars studying online content.

◇’Lineage M”Ringer’s wake up in the probability-type item problem… By sending trucks to the National Assembly and the baseball field

About 17 years later, users who became’Linger’ (a compound word of Lineage and Uncle) are preparing for another’rebellion’.

But this time, the target is not the in-game tyranny, but the NCsoft company that created the game.

Users of’Lineage M’will hold a truck demonstration on the 5th to 9th of this month to protest NC.

It plans to send trucks to three places: Yeouido National Assembly Building, Pangyo NC headquarters (R&D center), and NC Dinos home stadium Changwon NC Park.

It is because of the’Lineage M pattern system rollback incident’.

Glyph is a reinforcement system that increases character abilities in Lineage M.

In simple terms, it is a board with 30 holes, and every time you fill a hole, your stats increase.

The process of filling each hole is a probability item. The probability of filling 1 hole at a time is 88.5%, the probability of filling 2 holes is 8%, and the probability of filling 3 holes is 3.5%.

It is known that it costs 40 to 50 million won on average to fill all 30 holes, and there are a total of 6 such patterns.

The problem arose when NCsoft added a’memory system’ that makes drawing patterns a little easier at the end of January.

As the process of filling the pattern became somewhat smoother, the price decreased to the level of 10 million to 20 million won to complete one pattern.

At this point, users of’nuclear whales’ (users who have paid a lot of money) who have spent hundreds of millions of won to complete the pattern have rebelled.

One nuclear whale user declared, “I will never spend money on Lineage again, and I will go around and play with only PK (killing other users’ characters).”

Then NCsoft abolished the memory system in four days and restored all the patterns of users to their original state. The system was’rolled back’ (reverted) to the old one.

However, NC did not return the money the users spent for four days and paid all the rewards as items.

Eventually, the users who have even led a truck demonstration are asking NC to disclose the compensation standards, give a full refund and sincere apology, clarify the suspicion of manipulating probability, and clarify excessive speculative induction.

Lineage users named their truck demonstrations the “Dog Liberation War.” It was taken from the Bartz Liberation War 17 years ago.

Some users are pushing out “let’s boycott NC” by creating an image that says’NO NC’.

As public opinion deteriorates unprecedentedly, NC stock prices are also fluctuating. NC stock price, which had stepped on the 1 million won mark last month, has recently dropped to the late 800,000 won range.

The Bartz Revolution of Lineage 2 17 years ago remained a brilliant history of’the first civil revolution online’, but in fact, the DK blood alliance remained in power even after Bartz Liberation Day.

This is because the Allied Forces split over the distribution of loot.

After the DK blood alliance lost its strength a few years later, the “Red Revolution” blood alliance, the main axis of the Allied Forces, took control of the hunting grounds and became dictatorship.

After all, ordinary’mincho’ users who couldn’t afford to spend as much money as a nuclear whale always suffered.

Lineage M users’ truck demonstrations are an extension of the’game industry chain wave’ surrounding the operation problems of Korean games such as probability-type items.

Could the current situation be called another’revolution’ in the future?

[※ 편집자 주 = 게임인은 게임과 사람(人), 게임 속(in) 이야기를 다루는 공간입니다. 게임이 현실 세상에 전하는 메시지, 게임을 만드는 사람들의 뒷이야기를 두루 다루겠습니다. 모바일·PC뿐 아니라 콘솔·인디 게임도 살피겠습니다. 게이머분들의 많은 제보 기다립니다.]

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