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"Korean MMO Drives Girls To Sex, Smoking" WTF!

pkim96pkim96 Member Posts: 168
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Slightly old news from 5.16.2007 on kotaku, but I thought it worth mentioning here because it's totally insane!  I saw the thread about dancing MMO's, and since I had never even heard of a dancing MMO, I did a google search and this popped up.



Underage girls are selling their bodies to buy items for their online MMO game avatars?!?!  WTF is wrong with the world?  Audition Online Dance Battle isn't a MMORPG, but the same sort of thing could possibly happen in a MMORPG as well.



Screwed up adults.  Screwed up values in the kids.  Screwed up social interactions.  Screwed up everything.





Quote from kotaku:
Korean MMO dance battle game Audition seems innocuous enough. Just look at the above ad for the PSP version. Nothing out of place going on there! The game has an "All" rating, which means that underage gamers can play it and have their avatars bump and grind into each other. The game play for the PC version is rather revealing. What's more, the online game encourages players to "pair" up with members of the Audition online community, and many of the members are underage females. According to an article on Korean site KH Games, some of these girls end up sexual relationships with adults, selling their bodies to get money to buy items for their Audition avatars. The article profiles one underage female gamer who slept with her adult "partner" and how it affected her mentally and physically — She's picked up smoking. Kotaku commenter Torokun smartly points out that this looks like a "complete failure of the rating system." Meaning, that this isn't exactly an "All" rated game and nor should it be labeled as such. There is an American version of Audition as well which features member profile pictures that are either women or babies, oddly.

Comments

  • PravilicPravilic Member Posts: 45
    And this is what happen when you take MMOs too seriously or any game for that matter. It's just not worth it
  • AzalucelAzalucel Member Posts: 3

    OMG That is the most insane thing that I have ever heard! This will really affect how people will judge other online games, at least I think.

  • pkim96pkim96 Member Posts: 168
    It is a different culture in Korea (and Japan too, where this kind of thing happens as well).  I'm not sure about any other country.  There are underage girls that use dating services with their cell phones to set up these encounters.  You even see it happen on very popular anime (Mai Hime), so it must be a well known phenomenon over there.  But that's usually for money or expensive luxury items.  This is the first I've heard of it happening for online goods.  Still horrible.



    In the States, are there any MMO with a large underage female customer base?  I can't think of any offhand, but then again, I'm not exactly dialed into the teen girl scene.  Seems to me that the kids are more focused on the community websites (myspace, etc.) 



    Even if there isn't a game now, there will be in the future.  MMO's are still a really new activity and eventually will become extremely mainstream.  Easy to imagine the possibilities for huge political uproar as well, as problems like this become more common.
  • tailoutailou Member UncommonPosts: 54

    I wouldnt match MMO with these kinds of social-disorder, i rather say "internet" made the world as it is now.

    these things happens, people try to find a way to make their dreams come true easier, and internet is a way to make that dream come true faster and with less costs.

    imagine decades before, young girls sell themselfs to get better things or even better life by standing in the streets knows as red districts... nowadays the same mentallity is poised in the minds of some youth, the difference is that they could get customers in front of a PC rather than in the streets, well, others sell drugs or piracy stuff, some steal from people ... and guess what, u can do it all now from the internet.

    i found quite outrageous how people now relate those kinds of social problems with MMO, is like MMO is to blame... i mean, some people do it for drugs, some for food and others for fancy stuff... now they include avatars items, so what? is a material world, isn't it? In China, a kid kill himself cause his friend sold his MMO avatar "wonder" sword!!!! it's sick, but who to blame? MMO? that game creator? or maybe his family or his school for not teaching him what life is all about... certainly not about fancy swords.

    blaming MMO for it is like blamming DOOM creators for all that school shooting all over the world.

    --------------Gamer for life.--------------

  • pkim96pkim96 Member Posts: 168

    I don't think anyone is blaming the MMO itself.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with an MMO where people have fun dancing together.  I haven't tried it myself, but seems like wholesome fun...umm...do the avatars grind together or something?  Even still, no problems.

    People do understand that the MMO (and chat rooms and the Internet and phones, etc.) are just a tool that some people use to facilitate their illicit behaviors.  I know these kinds of behaviors have been around for ages.  It's always shocking to hear about it, especially when sex is being used to fund gameplay in a dancing MMO.  it just feels so wrong.

  • turnipzturnipz Member Posts: 531
    Well I dont know about you people but I think its halarious.



    I can imagine they are a lot like zombies except instead of shouting "brains!" they are shouting "OGM ITAMS PLZ!!1".



    "ITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMZ".......



    Anyways I vote instead of getting rid of mmo's we should just get rid of woman, then all the problems will be solved.
  • AZAlex86AZAlex86 Member UncommonPosts: 158
    Originally posted by turnipz

    Well I dont know about you people but I think its halarious.



    I can imagine they are a lot like zombies except instead of shouting "brains!" they are shouting "OGM ITAMS PLZ!!1".



    "ITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMZ".......



    Anyways I vote instead of getting rid of mmo's we should just get rid of woman, then all the problems will be solved.
    Then who will do our laundry?



    JUST KIDDING!!!! JUST KIDDING...





    Nah but seriously, this is a bit extreme, and I don't really believe any of these articles. I'd much rather have some interviews with the people involved (although they most likely would not want to come forward, but there are easy ways to keep their identities hidden)
  • HexacoatlHexacoatl Member Posts: 9
    MMO´s sind bereits für viele Spieler zur Suchtfalle geworden, so verwundert es nicht, das eben auch diese Dinge in der Welt passieren. Letztlich bleibt nur die Frage offen, bewegt sich die "moderne" Gesellschaft immer noch in die richtige Richtung? Oder muss es so sein, das der Größte Teil der Menschen durch minderwertige soziale  Strukturen sowie gesichtslose Institutionen und Firmen zu einem unfreiwilligen/freiwilligen Leben in der eigenen Isolation verdammt wird.



    No translatoin available....
  • PravilicPravilic Member Posts: 45
    Originally posted by Hexacoatl

    MMO´s sind bereits für viele Spieler zur Suchtfalle geworden, so verwundert es nicht, das eben auch diese Dinge in der Welt passieren. Letztlich bleibt nur die Frage offen, bewegt sich die "moderne" Gesellschaft immer noch in die richtige Richtung? Oder muss es so sein, das der Größte Teil der Menschen durch minderwertige soziale  Strukturen sowie gesichtslose Institutionen und Firmen zu einem unfreiwilligen/freiwilligen Leben in der eigenen Isolation verdammt wird.



    No translatoin available....
    Translation:  MMO´s already became for many players case of craze, then it does not surprise, which evenly also these things in the world pass. In the long run only does the question remain openly, does move the “modern” society still in the correct direction? Or it must be like that, which the largest part of humans is condemned by inferior social structures as well as faceless institutions and companies to an involuntary life in the own isolation.



    Google comes in handy :D
  • GrimReapezGrimReapez Member Posts: 463
    It's been happening for longer then most people think. I personally don't really care about what other people decide to do with their ingame items and/or personal pictures, aslong as they .. let me buy some! ..... jk

    -
    Do not hate it, but instead embrace the diversity.

  • GreenChaosGreenChaos Member Posts: 2,268

    Sounds like the big down side for little girls sleeping with adults is they may pick up smoking?  I think someone has some messed up values.

  • Flyte27Flyte27 Member RarePosts: 4,574
    I guess 14 hours of school a day doesn't teach common sense.  I do believe this is a cultural differnce though.  They do a lot of things that would be considered taboo in the west.  Things that are very acceptable in Asia.
  • JittanJittan Member Posts: 15

      I think I take a litle off the wall approach to it myself, being that I feel that online additction, and transactions like this stem alot from our deep seated need to be "better" than our peers.  Better jobs, better looking spouses, faster cars, better equipment in online games, etc.  Honestly, I see it as a very ugly downside to the human competitive nature.  I don't think a lot can be done about it except better arrearage at younger ages, but who knows if that would even help anymore.

     

     

    Http://almostheroesgaming.blogspot.com - Your favorite Blog for Free 2 Play MMO's .... Coming Soon!

  • pkim96pkim96 Member Posts: 168
    I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's acceptable.  But it definitely is a different culture from the US.



    In a strange way, it reminds me of the anorexic/bulimic 'community' online.  There are websites that openly support these illnesses and provide forums and advice on how to become a 'better' anorexic/bulimic.  They know it's bad.  They know it is detrimental to their health.  But there is still a community that supports it.  I'm not saying that prostitution is the same thing as anorexia, of course.  But it almost seems like there must be a subculture in Asian that supports it, even though they know it's wrong and dangerous.
  • gnlLucidgnlLucid Member Posts: 310

    "but the same sort of thing could possibly happen in a MMORPG as well."

     

    http://www.youhavenofriends.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6

  • Flyte27Flyte27 Member RarePosts: 4,574
    I've watched some Anime from Japan here and there and I see a lot of cultural differnces.  For one thing I've watched some Anime on cable at night and relasionships between student and teacher in highschool is portrayed as a normal thing.  There are multiple dating type relationships between the students and the young female teacher.  In the USA you could never get involved with a teacher at the high school level.  It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it is a big deal here.
  • AntiocheAntioche Member UncommonPosts: 132

    Blaming the internet is basically just as flawed as blaming mmorpgs for this type of problem. Obviously it is very complex. The girls who do this probably have other serious issues going on in their lives. Their parents aren't there for them, or their parents have divorced. Ethics slips by the way side as the girls attempt to fulfill their wants, which unfortunately they mistake for needs. Without someone there to explain why doing such a thing will only damage them there is nothing to prevent it aside from laws, and the hope that police forces can prevent such meetings/acts from happening, which of course they can stop it all. This is a social issue. The internet, and games have nothing to do with it. They are merely outlets for people to allow themselves to be abused/abuse, just like the red light district that another poster mentioned previously. Unfortunately there are lots of stupid people who don't understand this to be the case, and these people will make claims that games lead young people to sell their bodies for sex. Greed, and a warped sense of values/ethics do that, the inherent motive of people to think of themselves only, and try to fulfill their own desires is the most probably cause. And of course the adults who do this sort of thing are very much to blame as well. Sadly it happens all over the world, Korea and Japan are just two of the many countries it occurs in. I'm sure it happens in the USA too.

    It is pathos we lack, and this lack of pathos makes the worlds we explore quite stale.

    http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Antioche

  • Azeroth04Azeroth04 Member Posts: 215
    You will always hear the extreme stories involving games because the public thinks video games corrupt the minds of people. Heck, there was a guy in China, I believe, that killed someone over an issue on World of Warcraft. The media can't sell any stories that talk about the friendships or fun of games, but they definitely can sell stories about their faults and causation of absurd circumstances.



    Edit: Also, you never hear any stories on how the media corrupts the mind and influences ideas. "Believe nothing of what you hear, and half of what you see."
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