LD Studio, 9
For several days, the protest went on.
The protesters’ demands were nothing outrageous. They wanted LD Studio to hold a public forum, apologize for the manipulation, and present a solution.
But LD Studio didn’t budge.
In fact, as if backing down here would mean the end of them, they went so far as to file a police complaint against the protesters for obstruction of business.
As the story hit the news and public opinion turned even worse, LD Studio came up with an excuse.
Their aim was to frame it not as “protesters versus a company,” but as “protesters versus a daycare center,” so public opinion would sour on the protesters and they would disperse on their own.
That kind of incitement and manipulation had worked for them before, but this time it didn’t.
The users who had gathered to protest were dumbfounded.
“Wow! If you didn’t know any better, you’d think we weren’t protesters at all, just thugs who came here to threaten little kids!”
“Then I guess we’re going all the way and seeing who wins, huh?”
“Call in a few more trucks!”
“Let’s make it ten. I haven’t been spending on the game lately, so I’ve got money to burn.”
As the controversy grew even larger, LD Studio quietly changed its story, saying the complaint hadn’t actually been filed by them.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
LD Studio was trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Brotherhood M had weathered plenty of controversies until now, yet its sales and stock price had barely taken a hit. This time, though, things were different.
Users were fleeing in a flood, and daily revenue had fallen below 500 million won. That was less than one-tenth of the average daily sales.
This quarter was now all but certain to post a loss.
On top of that, the stock price had been cut down by 80 percent, and investors and shareholders were flooding the company with complaints. Even after such a brutal collapse, the appetite for short selling showed no sign of cooling.
Meetings were held day after day, but there was no real answer.
“Continue Capital and Empty Pool Research say they’re going to analyze every random box probability they’ve sold so far and release a follow-up report.”
“The media and portal sites are refusing to take our ads. They say the backlash is too severe...”
“And the political situation doesn’t look good either.”
Public opinion and the press had both turned completely, and politicians were moving to regulate probability-based items.
Those probability items were the very foundation of LD Studio’s business.
If a bill actually got passed, the entire business structure could be shaken to its core. That was why they had blocked every attempt to regulate probability-based items up to now, no matter what it took.
CEO Jin Taekyeong wore a grave expression as he spoke.
“I got a call from the National Assembly side. They told us to clean this up quickly. If public opinion gets worse, they said we’ll have to appear at the next hearing. What do you suggest we do?”
“......”
While everyone else watched each other carefully, Executive Director Park Hyunjong finally spoke.
“I think we’ll have to roll back the server and issue refunds.”
“Will that really be enough to calm people down?”
“We’ll need to hand out extra Crowns and RT Coupons to soften the backlash.”
The room erupted in surprise at that.
CEO Jin Taekyeong said with concern, “The losses to the company would be enormous. If we compensate people like this every time something goes wrong, won’t that just encourage bad spending habits among users?”
“There’s no helping it right now. Even if we have to absorb massive losses, turning public opinion around comes first.”
If they compensated people with large amounts of Crowns and coupons, then users would spend less going forward, and the company would take a serious hit to revenue.
Executive Director Park Hyunjong said it like a man trying to persuade them.
“We can recover the losses later by creating new monetization elements. Right now, this is the moment for a bold decision.”
“So you really think this will work?”
“Of course. If the company is willing to sacrifice this much, there’s no way the users won’t understand. Brotherhood M users are exceptionally loyal. They’ll forget all the minor issues from before and go right back to enjoying the game.”
After thinking it over for a long moment, CEO Jin Taekyeong nodded.
“Fine. Hold a forum, announce the compensation plan, and release a statement to the press.”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
In the end, LD Studio had no choice but to hold the forum.
For various reasons, they capped attendance at fifteen people. Even then, they initially insisted that no more than ten could come, and only after some wrangling did they finally agree to fifteen.
Since there were so many people hoping to attend, the entry slots were decided by ranking.
CEO Jin Taekyeong never showed his face in the forum room. Instead, Executive Director Park Hyunjong stepped up.
He took the microphone and bowed his head.
“First, I would like to sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding regarding the probability disclosures.”
The person who stood up to question him on behalf of the users was Baek Geumho.
The paper in his hand was packed with the users’ questions and demands.
“Is it true that, right after the release of the First Skill, the company blocked it from being pulled for six minutes and forty seconds?”
Executive Director Park Hyunjong denied the allegation.
“That is not the case. Even with variable probabilities, the company does not arbitrarily adjust them. The algorithm does it automatically.”
“And who made that algorithm?”
“We did.”
“......”
So the company really did manipulate it, didn’t it?
Park Hyunjong went on.
“Variable probabilities are used not only by us, but by every game company in Korea and abroad. No two players experience a game in exactly the same way. Even in the same game, depending on what kind of experience a player builds up, or what progression they show, the supply probabilities for probability-based items by type inevitably differ. Since we’re dealing with tens or even hundreds of millions of users, and supplying item probabilities by type according to each user’s experience and progression, it’s impossible for management to adjust them one by one.”
“......”
So they were claiming they used cutting-edge algorithms to provide personalized probabilities for each player?
He refused to back down from the position that this was not “probability manipulation,” but “variable probability.”
“This is also the official position of the Korea Game Industry Association. According to the opinion paper they submitted to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee before, ‘In the case of probability-based items, the way each game operates them differs enormously, and because they have a variable probability structure, those probabilities constantly change depending on the user’s progress in the game. In some cases, even the game developers cannot know the exact numerical probability, and for game operators there are many cases in which it is fundamentally impossible to calculate the precise supply probability of a specific probability-based item.’”
For the record, the Korea Game Industry Association was an organization formed by game companies. In other words, it represented the interests of the game industry.
So of course they could put forward an opinion so shameless no one would even bother to sniff at it.
As the forum dragged on, every user in the room had the same thought.
This game is finished!
Holding his anger in check, Baek Geumho kept pressing him.
“So what exactly is the company’s plan for this mess?”
After clearing his throat, Park Hyunjong answered, “Although the incident arose from a misunderstanding, we are taking this situation very seriously, and we plan to roll back all Brotherhood M servers to the state they were in before the First Skill was released.”
To roll back, in the literal sense of the word, meant returning things to a previous state. The skills users had pulled during that period would all disappear.
“Then what about the money we spent on the pulls?”
“We will return that in Crowns.”
The users in the forum room immediately protested.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“No, we paid cash, so why are you refunding us in Crowns?”
But on this point, the company absolutely could not back down.
If they refunded in cash, the company would have to pay out more than 70 billion won. Strictly speaking, though, not all the money users had spent had even gone directly to the company.
Brotherhood M was a mobile game.
More than 90 percent of users had paid through Enple’s App Store or Guble’s Play Market, and those platforms had taken a 30 percent cut.
To refund that money, LD Studio would have to absorb the fees as well.
That alone came to 30 billion won.
By contrast, Crowns were in-game currency. They could simply print more of them. The company wouldn’t lose a single won right away.
Since they had expected a flood of protests, Park Hyunjong didn’t panic.
Once they heard the rest of the announcement, the mood would change completely.
He said magnanimously, “As additional compensation, we will provide 1.3 times the amount of Crowns used for the First Skill pulls.”
In other words, if a user had spent 10,000 Crowns, they would receive 13,000 Crowns back.
A murmur rippled through the users.
Watching them, Park Hyunjong smiled to himself.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Now it’s time to drive the nail in.
He declared, “In addition, we will provide three RT Coupons to every user who pulled the highest-grade Skill Pack.”
RT in RT Coupon stood for Retry.
True to its name, it could restore an item that had been broken during enhancement.
Depending on who used it, a single coupon could be worth tens of millions of won.
And they were handing out not one, not two, but three of these incredible coupons!
From the company’s perspective, it was a compensation package offered with tears in its eyes.
It was, without question, the most generous, unprecedented payout in the history of Brotherhood M!
At this level of compensation, everyone should be moved to tears, right?
That was only his own assumption.
The users thought something entirely different.
“Fuck! We’re done with Brotherhood M anyway!”
“Who the hell is going to keep playing a trash game that manipulates probabilities?”
“The black-market price for items has crashed to one-fifth, and they’re still talking about Crowns?”
“You fucking bastard! Do we still look like pigs to you?”
“Refund it in cash!”
With a reaction no one had expected, Park Hyunjong was thrown off balance.
“As stated in the terms and conditions, cash refunds are absolutely impossible. When you created your accounts, you all agreed to the terms and conditions, didn’t you? It’s unreasonable to demand this now.”
“What bullshit are you talking about?”
“Why didn’t the terms and conditions mention that you were manipulating the probabilities?”
Everyone in the forum room shot up to their feet at once.
These were the Brotherhood M veterans, the so-called old-timers, the people who had poured in thousands of dollars at the low end and over a billion won at the high end.
Among them were more than a few people like Baek Geumho, who had not only emptied their entire fortunes into the game but had also gone into debt on top of that.
It was no exaggeration to say that they had all but poured their lives into this game.
What they had paid with had unquestionably been cash, and the debts they still carried were cash too. And yet, somehow, what they were being offered back was Crowns.
How was that supposed to make any sense?
“So you’re telling us to repay bank loans with Crowns?”
“Try handing Crowns to a loan shark and see how far you get!”
“Give us our cash back, you bastard!”
“Cancel the card payment right now!”
“I lost my house because I kept pulling for something that never even showed up!”
The promise of repayment in Crowns rather than money was like pouring gasoline on the fury of the users.
Park Hyunjong shouted into the microphone.
“Everyone, please calm down! We’ll give you two more RT Coupons each....”
“Ah, fuck! Forget the coupons!”
“You’re saying this bullshit so confidently?”
“Hey! Grab that bastard!”
Startled, Park Hyunjong barked at the security guards.
“Block them! Drag them all out!”
Park Hyunjong, Director Hong Nakhyeon, and the staff hurriedly fled, while the security company’s employees moved to block the attendees.
Baek Geumho had his body restrained by a guard and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“You fucking scammers! Take your own salaries in Crowns, you sons of bitches!”