In 2022, South Korean players of the MMORPG Lineage 2M filed a lawsuit against the developers from NCSOFT demanding financial compensation. The reason, according to the plaintiffs, was dishonest advertising and manipulation of other players through advertising streams. Streamers received money from NCSOFT and spent it in the game, and given the monetization system, this led to character strengthening. Viewers did not know that these were promotional streams, and did not want to lag behind in progress and lose in PvP, so they were forced to make more purchases.
The class action lawsuit was signed by 381 players, and the case was handled by a hired law firm. The main goal of the plaintiffs was to draw attention to the situation, since the amount of compensation was symbolic – 100,000 won for each person.
After holding several hearings, the court found that there was a violation on the part of the authors of the broadcasts, since they did not notify their viewers about their participation in promotions. However, the NCSOFT company itself did not violate the laws, since all payments were made as part of advertising campaigns, and all agreements were with advertising agencies. No payments were made directly, and certainly there was never any talk that this money was intended to be spent in the game and to gain an advantage over other players.
Despite the loss, users partially won: both the media and government agencies drew attention to this situation. And NCSOFT promised to strengthen its work with the community and avoid misunderstandings during further maintenance of the game.
The result of this process may also affect the KFTC investigation, which we wrote about earlier. Recall that in March 2024, Lineage franchise players filed a complaint with the Korean Fair Trade Commission and accused NCSOFT of using “super accounts.” The results of the inspection have not yet been announced, despite the fact that the inspection was carried out from April 22 to April 26, 2024.
