Triggering Boycott of Nexon Games
Nexon's Maple Story has been found to have provided items to users with unequal probability.
The controversy began to brew from details of a Maple Story balance patch released by Nexon on Feb. 18. Nexon said, "We have corrected an error so that gamers can obtain additional options given to an item with the same probability."
Additional options affect a game character's ability and an item’s performance. Useful options vary depending on the character, and some of them are discarded, so users want to come by good options by drawing straws.
Analysts say that the reason why users have become angry is that Nexon has kept saying that it applies equal probability to each additional option.
In the meantime, suspicion was frequently raised by YouTubers specializing in Maple Story that Nexon was manipulating the probability of each additional option. Whenever such suspicion was raised, Nexon repeated the same answer, "The probability for each additional option is the same."
Shortly after the disclosure of content of the patch, Maple Story users in major online communities began to join a boycott of Maple Story while declaring a "zero-won limit challenge." The challenge reflects gamers’ will to consume Nexon content no longer by setting the limit of cash payment at zero won.
Users who read Nexon’s announcement on Feb. 18 became upset, saying, “Nexon has lied. Even though Nexon has manipulated the probability of acquisition, it has acted as if it was a small glitch and modified it with a patch. This attitude is very deceptive.”
Similar criticism has been leveled at Nexon's game "Mabinogi." Some users have been protesting in front of Nexon’s main office in Pangyo near Seoul aboard a truck since late January. In online communities, users are threatening to consider boycotting the game.