Source Article:

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2012/06/129_112964.html


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Very shortly from now, the Korean times has indicated that legislation in Korea (this is south korea indicated by this article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/06/15/south-korea-banning-virtual-item-trading-botting-and-farming/) plans to pass a very strict anti-virtual item trade law that looks to stop the F2P transactions of real money for virtual items. The law also contains an anti-botting clause that is targeted at stopping the acquisition of virtual items through automated means.

While it is not final whether this law will pass in its current state, any implication of this law may result major impacts to games like TERA, which currently is running a F2P model with a virtual goods item mall in Korea.

The law may outright kill smaller games, but what impact will it have on large international titles like TERA? The ban to botting and virtual items sales may force TERA to concerntrate more on the NA and EU audiences to remain successful. TERA may need to completely change or revamp it's business model in its home country and legislation like this may greatly impact the way that future development is shaped for TERA.

I thought this would be an interesting discussion as this law may inadvertently force TERA into a more westernized game model. In Korea (and many other asian countries), although it is frowned upon, there is a hotbed of virtual item sales and botting communities currently active. These hotbeds make up a very strong audience of asian MMO subscribers and players. When these activities become illegal, many games that relied on this communities will find themselves catering to a different audience.

The future developement of Korean products under this law may be forced to take an approach that is less friendly to botters (as many don't even grind, but instead use automated programs to autolevel).

This may result in a completely different genre of MMO type in Korea, which may impact the development, reception, and future of TERA here (in which way, it is unkown).

Companies may even start taking different developmental strategies to avoid the F2P model just in case this law goes into effect.

From the article, you can see that the repercussions for breaking these laws are pretty hefty, sometimes resulting in 5 years in prison.

This law may lead to some major changes in TERA's future development.

I thought this article was very interesting and may lead to discussions about how TERA might change.

Personally I wish all countries, including our own, would adopt laws such as these. I would even go as far as criminalizing DLC on top of the cash shop. They go hand in hand in many cases. I have never and will never purchase any kind of post release material or items, with the one exception of expansions to raise level cap and add a new tier of play.

If you can't release a COMPLETE game, get out of the industry.

As I've stated before, the people who blow money on useless crap, content that should have been included already, pay2win items, gold and item shops online, and leveled characters are as much the cause of the problem as the people who are on the selling side. If you starve the beast IT WILL DIE.

So many excuses for buying this stuff, too: "It's too hard to earn the items." "The game takes too long." "Farming sucks." Etc etc etc etc........

Do what any sane person would do, people. FIND A HOBBY THAT IS FOR YOU AND LEAVE GAMING TO THOSE WHO FREAKING GAME.

/endrage

I love how you said "North" Korea, OP.

interesting, although I dont agree with it. Its korea so i have no clue about politics over there.

I could see the point of some sort of regulation on these types of transactions but outright outlaw them? geesh!

F2P and micro transactions clearly have a market, and while they are mostly considered taboo in western countries, i personally dont mind them at all.

I use to hate them until i played one i liked and simply jsut limited myself to the same amount per month as i would be paying for these pay to play games. I will admit the temptation to go beyond that is there though.

DLC?? thats a good thing. I equate both F2P and DLC with the change itunes and mp3's did to the music industry. I dont have to spend 20-30 on an album jsut to get one or two songs I like. IT also free developers to produce content for more platforms, and keeps IP from staying console exclusive.

Mostly to crack down on bots in games. Glad you removed the North Korea part, smart move since South and North Korea are two vastly different countries, and still at war to this date.

I can be wrong however, from what I understand many Video Game companies have various rules and restrictions in different countries. When this has been the case, I have noticed that there are minor changes from each region. Maybe in the case of Tera, this may not have any effect on NA or EU at all.

I fixed the article, it is South Korea that the article references. South Korea is also where the most MMO development of games like TERA and AION originate. Apologies for the mix up there. A secondary article from FORBES magazine was added to reinforce the validity of this information.

Quote: ShadowOptik on 06/16/2012, 05:11 PM - view

The base coding and game comes from Bluehole Studio, a South Korean development team. These changes will DIRECTLY affect TERA because the base code is still the backbone of the game.

I love how the "korean times" looks like a cheap geocities website with more advertising flashing on a white back ground than actual story.

Quote: Underverse on 06/16/2012, 04:19 PM - view

DLC is not a bad thing at all. Developers needs to make money too you know? Providing additional content for a small fee is a great way for a company to make money and to add content to a game, providing more to do for veteran players who've been there-done that.

A couple games have released DLC days after release (Think DA2 was one of them) and that's pretty shady. But, BF3 for example has been out for a while, and the new DLC was very much appreciated. Bottom line is, if you don't want to support the people who make the games, by paying for the extra work they put in after release, then go get a new hobby, or better yet, a real job.