Playing on someone else\u2019s count to level them up will now get a stiff fine<\/b>
\nBoosting \u2014 basically one person playing on another\u2019s account to rank them up \u2014 is going to be a criminal offense in South Korea with some stiff punishments awaiting the booster.
The new measure comes courtesy of an amendment to the country\u2019s Game Industry Promotion Act, reports The Daily Dot. That law was passed in June 2017. This new measure was developed in collaboration with the video games industry in the country and will punish boosters with a fine of up to 20 million won, which is roughly $18,000. They also get a two-year suspended prison sentence.
As you probably understand, South Korea is a hotbed of esports competition and enthusiasm, and so boosting is a problem of commensurate importance over there. Evidently, sanctions game companies could levy through their usual terms of use weren\u2019t enough to deter or curb boosting behavior. Surrogate players is something of an industry, notes Esports TV & News Network. Surrogates were even registering as businesses and advertising and selling their services as if they were legitimate.
The act goes into effect in six months, and defines a \u201cproxy game\u201d as \u201can act that interferes with the normal operation of the game by arranging or providing the service to acquire the score or performance of the game in a way that is not approved by the game-related business operated.\u201d
If that sounds like expansive language, well, yeah it is. But welcome to lawmaking, where industries of considerable visibilty and importance co-write legislation all the time. U. S. based companies will benefit from the law, of course, as League of Legends, StarCraft, Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive are all popular in the country\u2019s robust gaming scene. Riot Games gave a mostly neutral statement \u2014 \u201cthis law will help us catch them even better once it\u2019s passed\u201d \u2014 to ESTNN.<\/p>\n