In South Korea, Kakao Games is suing a player for harsh criticism of the MMORPG Black Desert in a gaming forum. He is accused of defaming the game.
The Korean site, Daily Korea, reports on “Mr. A.” The user wishes to remain anonymous.
A journalist from the site met with Mr. A in Gwangju who shared his troubles. He is being sued by Kakao Games. He is accused of having defamed the MMORPG “Black Desert.”
Therefore, the source situation is difficult: It is hard to follow the exact events because it takes place in Korean. Moreover, Mr. A does not say for what exactly he is being held accountable. For that, he would have to admit responsibility for the things he is being dragged to court for.
However, he tells Daily Korean that he is being sued for things he said against Black Desert in the popular Korean forum Inven.
As users on reddit have inferred, it likely relates to this Inven post, which Mr. A allegedly made.
Huge post in forum creates a big stir
This happens in the forum post: Someone on Inven is calling for a boycott of the game, and Kakao Games believes that Mr. A is behind it.
In the thread, it says that Pearl Abyss made a great game but fails to operate it. They are ruining it, and criticism falls on deaf ears. With the boycott call, they want to make Black Desert a better game.
The forum user accuses Black Desert of:
- leaving a bug intentionally in the game to earn more money in the cash shop (thus a Pay2Win accusation)
- that certain players are favored, even if they should actually be banned from the official forum
- and exploiting events to shower their developers with prizes
- additionally, there are numerous other criticisms, such as the refusal to publish DPS numbers
It is a very long post over many pages, with numerous screenshots, images, subsections, and statistics. The post currently has 380 comments.
This is what happened next: The player was banned from the official gaming forum. And he received a letter from the court stating he is being sued for defamation by Kakao Games.
Mr. A was offered an out-of-court settlement if he agrees to certain points:
- Mr. A must delete all posts and comments
- sign a cease and desist declaration
- maintain confidentiality
- If he breaks this cease and desist declaration, penalties of 1.5 million won would be due. That is about 1160€.
Mr. A agreed to the points and signed to continue playing Black Desert, but ultimately the deal did not materialize, and Mr. A was banned and sued.
Confusing situation
This is how the player reacts: Mr. A suffers from a chronic illness that already weighs heavy on his mind. The account was banned on October 15.
He saw his only option in reaching out to the newspaper “Daily Korean.”
He is described by Daily Korean as “hot-blooded” but now seems to be defeated. He says that if he could turn back time, he would never touch Black Desert.
He seems to deny ever having written anything negative about Pearl Abyss. He has nothing to do with anyone calling for a boycott against the company. Both companies have always done their best.
Daily Korean contacted Kakao Games, and they admitted that they had previously consulted Pearl Abyss on how to deal with Mr. A. Pearl Abyss acknowledges that they were aware of the case and agreed to take it to court.
Even here in the West, Black Desert often faces criticism, but to our knowledge, no one has ever been sued for it:
