Op-Ed

Korean court jails distributors of MMOG bot program

From The Korea Times, May 9, 2006:

"A Seoul court took sides with NCSoft, Korea's biggest game company in a battle against makers of game cheating programs, but the accused remain skeptical whether NC really wants to fight with them.

"The Seoul Central District Court last week sentenced two distributors of 'LinMate' computer program to suspended jail terms of two years and a 10-million won penalty on the charge of obstructing NCSoft's operation of its 'Lineage' game.

"Many gamers have blamed game companies like NCSoft, saying that they have been deliberately overlooking the use of bots, because they are worried that they may lose profit if bots are banned.

"The bot sellers also insist that NCSoft has been benefiting from such cheating programs and 'LinMate' was just a scapegoat.

'We think that NCSoft themselves want those cheating tools to be used,' a program engineer at Otobox, one of numerous bot sellers, said in a telephone interview. 'Many gamers pay service fees for two accounts at the same time, one for himself and one for the bot. If NCSoft bans the use of bots, that means its revenue will decrease by half.

'Officially, NCSoft tells the users not to use bots. But as a programmer, I know that NCSoft purposely designed the game to easily go with the bots,' he said."