When Azure Files was adjusted from 15+ to 18+, some players in South Korea took the initiative to petition and uncover corruption in the Korean Game Management Committee.
From January 30 to February 24, 2023, the Korea Audit and Supervisory Service (KRAC) conducted a 15-day on-site audit investigation of GRAC, and reported the results on June 29, which revealed that GRAC has serious corruption problems.
The Korea Audit and Supervisory Service is the auditing and supervisory agency of the Korean government, responsible for reviewing and auditing national revenues and expenditures, and supervising government officials; GRAC stands for "Korea Game Management Council" and is a public body established and evolved under the Game Industry Promotion Act of South Korea to manage the production and distribution of Korean games and conduct content review of games.
Originally, according to the plan, GRAC wanted to build an "integrated network system" that liaises with game companies to integrate and grade games, and carry out post-management and so on. This plan began in 2017 and has not yet been made. However, the budget had been paid and acceptance had been approved. The contracting company that built the system did not complete the task, but had already taken the money.
The investigation by the Control Yuan said that GRAC required the acceptance agency of the project to write a false report and misreported the progress. It was falsely reported that the "Integrated Network System" had reached 97 per cent completion, while the actual progress was only 47 per cent.
According to the Korean Encyclopedia Namu wiki, it cost 5 billion won to build the network system, but this data handiwork did not find the source, so he did not accept it. According to the report provided by the Control Yuan, at least 600 million won (more than 3 million yuan) was lost.
How was this corruption detected? That starts with a big petition from South Korean players last October.
In October 2022, GRAC promoted the age rating of many mobile games to be raised, including "Girl Frontier", "Azur Route", "Ark of Tomorrow", "Azure Files", "Fate/Grand Order", "White Night Aurora", "World Project Colorful Stage", "Horse Racing Girl", etc., among which "Azure Files" positioned the age of Hanbok at 18+, and carried out some harmonious processing, intending to launch a "teen version", which caused dissatisfaction among mobile game players.
The reasons for GRAC's upgrading are varied, some say that this is related to some of the more extreme gender confrontation incidents in South Korea, some say that it is related to the sexual assault that occurs in South Korea, and some say that the topic was later used by some factional struggles in South Korea.
However, the increase in the age rating has definitely had an adverse impact on the content and publicity of the game itself, and many Korean players are also indignant. To this end, they carried out an online petition, and the effect was quickly achieved.
After arousing the dissatisfaction of players, GRAC's speech at the press conference was really imbecile, which caused even greater complaints. So on October 29, with the help of Lee Sang-heon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, more than 5,000 players came to the National Assembly to sign a petition offline. Lee said that without the 5,489 users' signed petition, the truth behind it would not have emerged. At present, the relevant person in charge of GRAC has resigned, and GRAC will be reorganized.
The housekeepers just wanted to play a game, and didn't think about helping to catch corrupt officials.
It's quite Korean.
Good night.