Bleeding someone else's accounts has become a criminal offense in South Korea
A few months ago, the South Korean government took the initiative to make pumping (boosting) other people's accounts a criminal offense. Officials offered to fine violators for $ 18,000 and put them in jail. Now this bill was passed and it entered into force.
According to industry experts, three factors exert a negative influence on eSports and the whole sphere of online games: various kinds of cheats, third-party game servers and professional boosters. In South Korea, they decided to take the protection of their gaming industry seriously.
No one will punish the customers of the booster companies, at least in the law there is no mention of this. But professional "surrogate" players - yes. The authorities will pay particular attention to the protection of such popular online games like Overwatch and League of Legends.
Boosting called the process of pumping someone else's character. Experienced gamers with various methods accelerate a set of various parameters, help to get top-end gear, that is, game clothes and weapons. As a result, a character who has just appeared can get significant opportunities within a few days, or even weeks.
Bleeding characters - an occupation that brings a lot of money to performers. Of course, it all depends on the game and the order, but it can be a reward of hundreds and thousands of US dollars. Gaming companies began to fight this phenomenon quite a long time ago, because the influence of boosters is so strong that the game is out of balance.
According to some players and game developers, boosting destroys the confidence of the community of any game that you can play honestly. In many online games, the ecosystem is based on equilibrium, and if the system of "social elevators" is violated, there can be no question of a normal game. Of course, if there is a demand for such services, then there will definitely be an offer. Moreover, it is not very clear how effective the legislation of South Korea is in relation to violators of the “gaming law” - as far as it can be understood, the system can still be deceived. For example, when using a VPN, a player accounting system will be able to check which particular country the gamer came from.
Not so long ago, the famous player from Fusion Kim "Sado" Su-min was disqualified for 30 matches. After that, he will be able to recover. A few more well-known players were banned altogether.
Participants in the gaming industry in South Korea pay special attention to the creators of game hacks. One of them, who developed the hack for Overwatch, can go to jail. 28-year-old developer, accused of creating a hack, can be put in jail for 1 year with the next 2 years probation. With his program, he managed to earn about $ 180,000.
Two other Overwatch burglars also received a charge this year. True, none of them were put in prison - one received two years conditionally, the second was fined $ 10,000.
The company Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Overwatch, is actively cooperating with the cyber division of the National Police of South Korea. Violators of "gaming legislation", in turn, do everything not to leave traces. In particular, they enter other people's accounts, which need to be promoted, in an Internet cafe. Similarly, come and all sorts of cheaters. True, it is more difficult to continue this activity, since game developers are not sleeping either. In particular, members of the Overwatch community from South Korea have to enter their social security number from February 2017, otherwise it is impossible to enter the game. Those who use foreign accounts must pay a license to use the game.
As for gamers from other countries, so far they can easily cheat their own and other people's accounts. The maximum that threatens it is for the account ban. Nevertheless, the tendency to toughen the rules of the game and the corresponding legislation is very obvious - if game developers continue to lobby for laws that allow criminal prosecution of cheaters and boosters, they will also be punished in other countries.