Korean online gamers are joining forces to slaughter Chinese players, and all over a load of monster droppings.
The problem, reports the FT, is grounded in etiquette.
Proper protocol for online fantasy games such as NCSoft’s Lineage is that once you’ve whipped your monster, other players nearby stand back and let you go through its pockets for gold and special items.
Not so the Chinese, apparently. Due to the popularity of the games, some special items in the game are being exchanged for real money, creating a lucrative market for the skilled, and a tempting target for rude opportunists.
But the line appears to have been drawn between the law-abiding Koreans and the Chinese players that log on to Korean servers posing as Korean players but prepared to forgo good manners and pick up other players’ monster droppings.
In some popular areas of the game, the Koreans are now challenging other players as to their ability to speak Korean, and those that fail quickly feel the edge of a digital sword.
The FT quotes Chinese-speaking South Korean gamer, Sunny Choi as saying: ‘I befriended some Chinese teenagers and tried to teach them [Korean], but Koreans kept trying to kill them so they all left the game. I just cried.’
NCSoft told the paper that it is trying to block IP addresses originating from China, but that this is in order to prevent game items being traded rather than to safeguard the online lives of its players.
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