Koreans massacre Chinese over etiquette dispute

[JS80]

Link

According to recent reports, South Korean Lineage players have been ganging up on Chinese players in an attempt to wipe them from Korean servers. The recent killings are a response to rumors that Chinese gamers have not been following the unspoken rule: don't take money or items dropped by a monster slain by another player.

Items from the game are sold for real money on online trading sites, and Chinese gamers have been reportedly joining South Korean servers because there are greater opportunities for making real money in these matches due to an abundance of trade. Unfortunately, Korean gamers have begun to see the Chinese presence as a threat, prompting some of these players to stage violent massacres. In areas like the Island of Dreams, where it is relatively simple to earn money, gangs of Korean players have been hunting down any Chinese player that dares to enter the region. One Korean player claims, "you can tell they are Chinese because they can't speak Korean."

Lineage continues to be plagued by identity theft, which may be linked to reports that suggest there are Chinese sweatshops where workers play ceaselessly to earn money using Korean identities. More than 220,000 South Koreans have reported their identities stolen. NCsoft, makers of the game, are aware of the virtual genocide and have begun blocking Chinese IP addresses on Korean servers. NCsoft has sided with Koreans because the company is against item trading, which NCsoft apparently considers an exclusively Chinese practice.

 

[Zysoclaplem]

Ok
Can't we all just get along?

 

[Demon-Xanth]

That's racist!

 

[skim milk]

when it comes to online gaming, koreans > chinese
lineage is a south korean game anyway

 

[neutralizer]

So they automatically assume that all the Chinese on the servers are trading items?

 

[lobbyone]

Go play WoW

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: neutralizer
So they automatically assume that all the Chinese on the servers are trading items?

Racial profiling!

 

[Inspector Jihad]

stupid gamers. mmorpgs are terrible.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

lol. the US servers had the same exact problem, and I remember going on raids against them.

lol, damn, mmorpgs are horrible. I wasted away my life from that stupid game.

 

[Thraxen]

I remember back in the Diablo II days when many people complained about all the Koreans on the US servers.

 

[neutralizer]

Originally posted by: Thraxen
I remember back in the Diablo II days when many people complained about all the Koreans on the US servers.

There's still a crappy load of Koreans when I play B.net for Starcraft. Half of the games are titled in Korean.

 

[uhohs]

lol koreans
lol chinese

 

[Chrono]

omg. such dumbasses.

 

[AUMM]

wow

 

[CKent]

This is actually a huge issue in MMORPGs. It's really startling how much their economies mirror real ones. Five years ago you could actually make money playing them. When I quit EQ just 3 years ago, I sold my accumulated platinum (game currency) for over $3,000 USD. That was around the time the Chinese outsourcing had really started, and you had professional farmers playing 24/7 (different people playing the same characters in shifts to farm game currency). Much as the article said, you knew they were Chinese because they couldn't speak your language - English in our case, not Korean. The game rules in EQ, at least on most servers including mine, didn't allow killing them, and I wouldn't anyway as their intent isn't malicious, but merely to make money from their mostly American employer who's outsourcing the labor to them to save money. It has irreparably hurt the genre and I can understand why the Koreans would be upset, but as long as players fuel the demand by purchasing game currency it won't end. The Chinese are merely working for their largely American employers who in turn are simply providing the supply.