
South Korean law to punish boosters passes in the National Assembly - walterbell
https://dotesports.com/overwatch/news/south-korean-law-to-punish-boosters-passes-in-the-national-assembly
======
jmts
Having not done much gaming in the last 5 years or so, and never having been
particularly competitive, I'm wondering if someone might be able to give a
description of what 'boosting' is, and how it benefits a player? My point of
reference is something like having a friend grinding away on Starcraft for you
until your profile achieves a certain status in the ladder. Ultimately
wouldn't that all be for little if you then play consistently against much
better players than you, and lose continually until your profile reaches
equilibrium again?

~~~
dmoy
> I'm wondering if someone might be able to give a description of what
> 'boosting' is, and how it benefits a player?

Bragging rights as far as I can tell.

There are a few games where boosting helps (helped?) you gain higher tier
items. In WoW TBC my team would sell spots on our teams. The buyer would stand
around in a corner while my 2s/3s partner and I would play 2v3 win maybe 8-9
out of 10 games, and the buyer would then be rewarded with in-game currency
used to buy items they wouldn't be able to get on their own. Eventually
Blizzard patched the game and changed the rules so that it was not possible to
boost without account sharing, so we stopped.

But, as far as I can tell that's usually an exceptional situation, and most of
the time it's exactly what you describe - bragging rights that would quickly
disappear if you tried to play on your own, because you'd tank your rating.

~~~
Shivetya
to follow up, while blizzard has "cracked" down on real money exchanges a few
favored guilds can still pull it off. the method is to charge a large amount
of gold in game. this of course if paid out in gold bought from blizzard nets
them a lot of real money so it benefits the company.

example, recent highest difficulty full carries, where your character
basically just dies at the start of each encounter so you don't screw up the
mechanics, was going for more than ten million gold. With blizzard tokens
returning about 110k/200k US/EU in gold that adds up unless the player has
amassed that. There are end runs on the in game gold with very scripted in
game conversations and money exchanged outside of game.

usually the reward is better gear but many do it for the achievements; these
have become a cancer in my opinion in the gaming world; to special items like
mounts and titles only obtainable to those who can do the content and do it in
a timely manner.

~~~
dmoy
Oh to be clear, we only ever did this for arenas, and only charged in-game
gold. But even that became impossible when they changed the ranking system. I
never did anything but arenas so I can't comment on pulling someone through
raids.

We couldn't pull anyone past top 5% or so 2v3, so mounts were infeasible.

I totally believe that a lot of people would be doing that for real money
though.

------
ronsor
The South Korean government's obessession with regulating video games is quite
interesting.

~~~
Nasrudith
I have heard some complaints about South Korea being a geritocracy - even by
the standards of the US. I don't know the fine details but that sounds
consistent with some of the other stuff like the porn ban. If they really are
being run by a bunch of old men. I don't know nearly enough about the culture
or context to know how true or widespread the perception is but it does sound
consistent.

~~~
ekianjo
> South Korea being a geritocracy

Isn't that the case of most countries, at least in the West? If you look at
the median age of most public officials (ministers and all), they are usually
more likely to be in their 50,60s and 70s in some cases.

~~~
d0100
There is old in age and old in customs, opinions and close-mindness.

------
dang
Url changed from [https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/9/18133391/south-korea-
boost...](https://www.polygon.com/2018/12/9/18133391/south-korea-boosting-
esports-league-of-legends-law), which points to this.

------
oh_sigh
So does this make selling accounts illegal too? Isn't the workaround simply to
not play on someone elses account, but to play on your own account and then
sell it to that person later?

~~~
dmoy
In SK your game account is usually tied to your national ID, no?

~~~
ndnxhs
How dystopian. Why would anyone accept such a restriction?

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
Because there is real money at stake? Athletes in other sports compete under
their real identity (and presumably have to prove it at some point in their
career) after all.

~~~
fiblye
I can think of no other country that says "license and registration, please"
before playing a game or sport of any sort. South Korea is undeniably
dystopian and backwards in this situation.

------
xrd
If it is a game that permits players playing as proxies, won't this just be
outsourced to Cambodia with this law? These proxy players don't have to come
into your house to do this, afterall.

~~~
derekdahmer
Maybe but boosting requires real talent, and the vast majority of the players
good enough to do this are in SK.

------
sandov
Good things die soon or live long enough to be ruined by nosy lawmakers.

------
raxxorrax
Everone knows that they really should have banned camping instead.

------
nyolfen
when i was a kid, i thought the stuff about freedom in rhetoric about america
was silly and nebulous, but as i get older it seems more true. don't get me
wrong, i hate the surveillance panopticon, drug war, and permanent security
state as much as anyone else, but at least the government doesn't put you in
jail for cheating at video games.

~~~
zik
From where I live (not in the US) the US doesn't look particularly good as far
as civil liberties go. Not that my country (Australia) is great either. We're
just messed up in different ways.

~~~
int_19h
None of the countries look particularly good, because we're on a backwards
trend globally. But US still looks better than pretty much everybody else.

~~~
int_19h
People who disagree with this should bear in mind the context from the parent
comment - we're talking about _civil rights_ specifically, not whether one
country is better than another in general. I don't think there's much room for
debate on whether US has the most expansive freedom of speech protections, for
example. Many people would argue that it doesn't do a good job of balancing
those rights with other matters of importance, but that is a different
conversation.

------
mirimir
Off-topic question: What output does deleting the "I'm OK with being tracked"
node give the site? The only possible answer here is "Yes", so does deletion
mean null? But whatever, the site is usable after that, so hey.

~~~
quackSpeak
The newspeak/doublespeak for cookies is such that placing users under
surveillance without prior consent is fine, you just have to tell them after
you start doing it. And after you tell them, you can just keep doing it, and
they can leave if they have a problem with it. No one ever has to stop
tracking anyone else, even if people ask nicely or tell you they aren’t okay
with it. The only option is to close the window, clear cache and never come
back.

Meanwhile, this has given way to lots of “dialogues” where the dictatorship
asks you to mark a check box for how you feel about being tracked, which is of
course tracked. The deception being that even when you reply “NOT OK” there is
no real effect. The pixels are there. The cookie is there. You are on camera,
being recorded for QA purposes. This call will be reviewed for training
purposes.

This differs from opting out of mailing lists, where they stop emailing you.
Opting to respond with disdain for tracking does nothing to change whether you
get watched.

~~~
mirimir
Yes, I get that.

But I am curious about what shows up in their log.

I'd love to send "fuck no", but have no clue how one might do that. And I'm
guessing that "yes" is the only possible value.

~~~
intrarTrode
Joke's on you. That widget never gets logged. It's a placebo.

More likely, duration of stay, IP and cookies cross-referenced from other
sources are the only things they look at.

Instead of recording your response as to whether you enjoy getting kneecapped,
they just let you scream into a sound-proofed vacuum. But hey, at least you're
not bound and gagged.

~~~
mirimir
Hey, thanks.

I did look at the code, but over my head.

~~~
intrarTrode
Vote with your feet. The longer you stay, and the deeper in you click (url to
url), the more implicit your assent.

~~~
mirimir
Well, only my Mirimir persona uses this VM, with this VPN chain and exit IP.
And I have Firefox delete all cookies at exit. So they don't get much from me,
no matter what.

~~~
walterbell
Any advice on economical methods for persona-specific VM chains? E.g. 5
personas times $X/month for a commercial VPN adds up quickly, not to mention
the inconsistent reliability/transparency of VPN providers.

~~~
mirimir
I use pfSense VMs as VPN gateways, so VPN chains are virtual networks. But you
could do the same thing with physical routers. Given that most providers allow
multiple connections, you just need a few accounts.

Let's say that you have accounts with two providers, VPNA and VPNB. So you
always connect first to a VPNA server, and then through that to a VPNB server.
Given that each provider likely has many servers, there are likely hundreds of
possible chains. Not all of them will work well, for whatever reasons, but
enough to be useful.

------
time-domain0
I don't understand: is this paying or convincing other higher ranked to help a
lower ranked player?

What action(s) is/are specifically outlawed?

Assuming there's direct evidence, how would this be legally-enforced?

What's the recourse for lower-ranked players who are kicked out based on this
law but didn't do anything for gain, say a spouse who was invited to
participate for social reasons but doesn't play very often?

Do we really need a law?

