Enter 2021.03.11 06:00
Users spend 10 years on items that don’t even exist
“No matter how much money I spend, it doesn’t come out, it’s not a scam, it’s something”
The legal community “could constitute a fraudulent crime”… Is criminal punishment possible?
Users claim that Nexon made the missing item appear to be real as it did not provide a separate guide for the item. In the end, users have been spending money to get items that don’t even exist. Users strongly protested, saying, “There was a reason that it didn’t come out no matter how much money I spent,” and “This is not a scam, what is it?”
The legal profession is expected to be able to apply the crime of fraud over Nexon’s related actions. The fact that non-existent items are sold as though they exist can be viewed as deceptive to users. It is analyzed that this controversy is also highly illegal in that Nexon received a penalty from the Fair Trade Commission for probabilistic items in other games in the past.
If the user class suit becomes a reality, it is expected that Nexon’s violation of the law will be masked through investigations by law enforcement authorities. If the crime of fraud is established according to the user’s claim or the perspective of the legal profession, criminal punishment for probability-type items is possible.
On the 5th, Nexon revealed the probability of the appearance of all items currently sold in the game in order to resolve the controversy over the probability-type items in Maple Story. However, in the process, it is revealed that the probability of the appearance of the reinforced item that has not been announced until now is 0%, and users are reconsidering.
MapleStory user A said, “MapleStory was first released in 2003, and the users who have enjoyed it since then have been adults for a long time.” “I have.”
The controversy over fraud is caused by MapleStory’s probability-type item’Cube’. When you open one cube, you will see 1 out of 15 potential abilities, which are reinforcement options, which can be applied up to 3 to the equipment used by the game character. The most popular potential is’Boss Monster Attack Damage +% (Increase)’, which increases hit damage when hunting boss monsters. It is known that he has spent a considerable amount of money to complete it.
User B, who has been enjoying Maple Story for more than 10 years, said, “The money spent on Maple Story including Cube is tens of millions of won.” More than 500,000 people watched it,” he said.
Nexon has set it so that’Bobobo’ cannot appear through logic, but it was found that it was not properly informed. It is a very low probability using the terms’random’ or’random’, but it caused a misunderstanding that it could be applied three consecutively.
However, according to the’Cube’s potential reset logic and detailed probability disclosure’, which Nexon announced after 10 years of item sales, some powerful options such as’Boss Monster Attack Damage Increase’ can only be applied to a maximum of two at the same time. Nexon said, “This is for the purpose of preventing excessively exceeding the balance threshold for boss hunting or item acquisition when the potential ability was first added in 2011.”
Mr. C, a user representative who is currently preparing a class action lawsuit against Nexon, said, “This cube case is not different from operating a casino slot machine that does not come out with a triple seven (three numbers 7). “I think there is a deceptive intention for not notifying consumers for 10 years.”
Nexon was also punished by the Fair Trade Commission for a penalty of 935 million won in connection with the sudden attack of the first-person gun game (FPS) in 2016, four years ago. At the time Nexon collect all 16 puzzles IU, tree Weiss, etc. I continue the invitation to the event that can meet celebrities, 16 of the collect only puzzle is three to four appearance probability of a puzzle piece in the event finished any adjustments did.
Even if all 15 pieces of the puzzle were collected, the puzzle could not be completed without the last one. Random adjustment of the probability in this event was a very important factor in determining the success or failure of the event. However, Nexon did not inform not only about the probability adjustment, but also about the probability. At the end of the event, he made a notice that “the probability of the appearance of some pieces may be low,” but he did not reveal the exact probability.
In response, the Fair Trade Commission determined that Nexon corresponds to Article 21, Paragraph 1, No. 1 of the E-Commerce Act,’an act of inducing or transacting a consumer using a false or deceptive method’. Nexon filed an application for provisional injunction to the court for the disposition of the penalty fine. The court cited the request for provisional injunction on the grounds that there was an error in calculating the penalty for Nexon. However, the court pointed out that “Nexon’s behavior is highly likely to cause consumers who use online games to misunderstand the probability of obtaining items, which is an important matter in purchasing probability-type items.”
The legal community believes that the recent Maple Story case can be applied for fraud charges. Article 347 (1) (fraud) of the Criminal Code stipulates that’a person who deceives a person to receive property or obtains property gains shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than 10 years or a fine of not more than 20 million won’. It can be seen as a user deception. This is true in that they did not announce the fact that it was a ‘0% probability’ in a situation where they were paying a large amount for a specific strengthening option.
Shin Min-young, lawyer of Ye-Hyun Law Firm, said, “I believe that fraud and criminal punishment are possible.” He said, “Because I received the item price from users by deception, I think that the conviction of fraud is sufficient.”
On the other hand, there are observations that it will not be easy to establish a fraudulent crime under the current legal system. There is also a response that it is questionable whether the investigative authorities may be interested in that the game is not a necessity. Lee Gwang-wook of Law Firm Hwawoo said, “Because the Fair Trade Commission has regulated it for violation of the labeling and advertising law, it seems that the crime of fraud is being discussed.” Deception can be applied, but it will not be easy with this case,” he said.
He said, “In order to apply the crime of fraud, the prosecutor must prove that it is a deception, but the deception is proved only when the algorithm behind the disclosed probability information is verified,” he said. “It may be different if a user who has been using it for 10 years has spent millions of won on this item, but this case is difficult to identify the deceived person or the victim.” And said.