Image source @ Visual China
Text | Game Pizza, author | Jia Qi, Editor | Zhou Yabo,
The suspension of the game is not a new thing, but after the announcement of the suspension, and then "aborted" the suspension process of the game, "Cloud Dress Feather" seems to be the first one.
On March 30, the China Consumers Association released a message through the official Weibo, saying: "After I will pay attention to and promote, "Yunsheng Haori" issued an announcement to suspend the suspension process and continue to provide game services. And accompanied by a screenshot of the official statement released by the game.
"Cloud Dress Feather" is a dress-up mobile game, developed by Xishanju and represented by Tencent, which issued a suspension announcement on February 20 this year, for the same reason as some mobile games that announced the suspension: the agency agreement expired. Subsequently, on the day of the suspension of recharge (February 24), the official released a suspension compensation plan, replaced by the gift package of the three mobile games "Miracle Warmth", "Brilliant Star Road" and "Acting Raiders of the Phoenix in Flight" that were also represented by Tencent.
As of this point, the handling of "Cloud Hagoromo" is no different from other suspended games. However, what really caused players to be dissatisfied was not this series of suspension operations, but the "return activity" launched in conjunction with the "Cloud Feather" in January this year.
Since "Cloud Feather" has not updated the plot line for two years, the player group has been circulating the news of suspension. As a result, the return event called "Miaobi Danqing Painted Scrolls" launched in January this year was regarded by players as a positive signal of "long-term operation", and thus triggered a wave of "Kryptonite tide", and even players who had not logged on to the game for a long time were "recalled" and actively participated in the activity.
This kind of "give you hope first and then disappoint you" operation makes it more difficult for players to accept the news of suspension, and thus launches a vigorous rights protection action. In a long letter released by players, it was mentioned that after learning of the suspension, they spontaneously submitted articles to the State Administration, China Consumer Daily, CCTV315 and other channels to defend their rights.
It wasn't until March 18 that the China Consumers Association paid attention to the news and issued an announcement through the official Weibo saying that "I will already pay attention." 12 days later, the China Consumer Association gave the results of concern and announced that "Yun Qiao Yui" was "suspended".
"I aborted your abort", which sounds like a cliffhanger, but the effect is unknown. Some people pointed out that "suspension" is not "termination", if it is only a delay strategy made by the game party in order to cope with the China Consumer Association, then the game may be sooner or later, or it will go to the fate of saying goodbye to the player.
On April 2, the China Consumer Association once again issued an announcement on Weibo, accompanied by a questionnaire inviting players to participate in the "Online Game Suspension Survey". Perhaps it is the rights protection process of "Yun Bao Yu" that has played an exemplary role, and the comment area of the Weibo is almost all the mobile game players who have made demands.
The road to rights protection seems to have ushered in the dawn, but rather than a single case, the more worthy of discussion is that a game must be stopped, does the player have the right to speak?
Reasonable and legitimate, not reasonable
It is a pity that the temporary success of rights protection is a pity, but this "high cost and not necessarily profitable" behavior cannot be reproduced in every game suspension message. A game account that has poured countless hours, money, and energy into its life seems to never be in the hands of the player.
Looking back at the "suspension history", when a game is ready to be suspended, players who have been paying close attention to the dynamics of the game will know at least two months in advance that their account is about to disappear, and the rest of the time can be used to say goodbye to the account.
"Two months" has a regulatory basis. Article 11 of the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Virtual Currency in Online Games issued by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce clearly stipulates that if an online game operator plans to terminate the provision of its products and services, it must be announced 60 days in advance. From this point of view, "Cloud Dress Feather" meets the suspension regulations.
In addition, the above-mentioned notice also states that when terminating the service, for the virtual currency that the user has purchased but has not yet used, the online game operator must return the virtual currency in legal tender or other methods accepted by the user.
When many companies stop serving a certain game, they will provide other game packages under the company as compensation for players to choose, just like "Cloud Dress Feather". The hidden logic behind this is that the player becomes the company's "fixed asset" and can do a certain degree of conversion between different games.
The reasons behind a game announcing the suspension are mostly similar, either because the number of players is seriously lost, or the game itself has not kept up with the development of the times, and these reasons all point to a result: the company is starting to be unprofitable. Online games are no better than stand-alone, follow-up updates, employee salaries, server maintenance... These are all costs that require fixed expenses, and when the core players can no longer meet the company's profitable needs, it is the end of a game.
Some games will take care of the player's feelings a little bit within the tolerable range. "Warm And Warm Around the World" chose to stop the update of some of the content, changing the game to a more single-player casual dress-up game, rather than directly announcing the suspension; "Battle of the Mountains and Seas" updated a period of character and player farewell plot on the eve of the service, while releasing a large number of game resources as compensation, and also released some of the art resources in the game after the shutdown, for players to download for free.
Screenshot of the farewell of the characters in "The Battle of Mountains and Seas"
In terms of compensation, the direct exchange into virtual currency is also more "intimate" than forcing users to exchange packages for other games. In 2010, Sword of Excellence, which was discontinued, removed all items in the mall on the eve of the suspension and transferred the player's account balance to the e-wallet for the company's other games.
Players' investment in game accounts includes both implicit time and effort, including explicit money investment, the former is difficult to be fully quantified, and the latter clearly represents the value of an account.
In kryptonian mode, the relationship between players and game manufacturers is also very delicate. Since the beginning of this year, "Glory of Kings" has launched a number of legendary skins, and many players have joked that "so anxious to make money, is it time to run?" Conversely, "Krypton gold points" means that the game content is updated, and if a game does not have krypton gold points for a long time, players will feel unappreciated. This contradiction seems to be something that game companies always have to balance.
Krypton gold always has a sunk cost. Although objectively speaking, whether it is the direct purchase of game items or the roulette consumption under the "Skinner Box" theory, the service purchased by virtual currency has been experienced in the course of the game. But the longer and longer kryptonite bars have invisibly become a chain that binds players and games. In other words, the more money you spend, the angrier you get when the game is closed.
As for the parts of the game that cannot be quantified, a friendship that unfolds because of the game, a memory hidden in a certain map, or countless sleepless struggles, these things cannot be inherited and transferred, they are attached to a game account, and drift away with the disappearance of the game.
Who does the game account belong to?
The history of the development of online games is also the history of the suspension of online games. The times are developing rapidly, and the industry is changing rapidly.
Take the past 2021, for example, there are more than 840 game companies that have collapsed on the enterprise check, which naturally has countless games that have been suspended, and more game accounts that have been "disappeared".
Just as Weibo can shut down anyone's account, the ownership of game accounts is never in the hands of players. Tencent, NetEase, Mihayou and many other game companies have stated in their licensing and service agreements that the game data generated by users in the use of corporate game services, ownership and intellectual property rights should belong to the enterprise.
The ownership of game accounts has always existed in a legal ambiguity. On the one hand, for players, game accounts are personal virtual property, and the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China also recognizes the property rights attributes of online virtual property from the legal level ("Where the law has provisions on the protection of data and online virtual property, follow its provisions.") ”）
But on the other hand, the survival of the game account, based on the network services provided by the company, will disappear with the shutdown of the server, and the player will no longer have the right to dominate and use any virtual property. In the early stage of creating a new game account, the terms of "the game account belongs to the enterprise" have been written in the agreement, and the premise for players to continue to play is to check the "accept" in the user agreement.
In April last year, there was a dispute that sparked a discussion in the entire game circle, which revolved around the virtual property of the game. Tencent sued the game trading platform DD373 and claimed 40 million yuan, on the grounds that the latter provided the "Dungeons and Warriors" account and virtual prop trading services, infringing on Tencent's interests. Although the lawsuit ended in defeat by Tencent, the ownership of "game account ownership" is still not clearly defined.
Further ahead, the first case of virtual property dispute in China dates back to 2003, "Red Moon" player Li Hongchen found that all the game equipment worth more than 10,000 yuan in his account was lost, so he sued the game company and demanded the restoration of the game equipment, the case ended with Li Hongchen winning the lawsuit, and the court ordered the game operator to restore all the virtual equipment that Li Hongchen lost in the game: "Although the virtual equipment is invisible and exists in a special online game environment, However, it does not affect the legal proper evaluation and remedy of virtual items as an intangible property. ”
After nearly two decades, the protection of virtual property in the game by law is still in the stage of "appropriate evaluation and relief", and no further specific provisions have been introduced. The deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law mentioned in an interview with Nandu that although there are general provisions on virtual property in the Civil Code, it lacks specific operability and evaluation standards, making it difficult for users to protect their rights.
With the development of technology, it is gradually believed that some features of blockchain may solve the problem of virtual property. For example, as long as the player of a game is willing to pay the corresponding cost, then the game can always exist on the blockchain. In addition, after players are chained in digital assets in different games, they can introduce NFTs as a medium to carry out indiscriminate transfer on the chain and transform in different games.
However, when the future is not yet coming, the only thing we can do for our game accounts is to leave some more cherished memories.
Resources:
1. Economic Analysis Hidden Behind the Virtual World, RCT Studio
2. Online game suspension and deletion of data was complained about Who is the game account? How is the recharge money compensated? Southern Metropolis Daily