Recently, the Consumer Quality News received a complaint from Ms. Lin, a consumer, that a mobile game "Food Language" she played was about to be suspended, and the official announced that all game data would be deleted, and there was no legal tender compensation for the loss of virtual property caused by the suspension of the game, which caused dissatisfaction among the majority of players.
has a monthly income of more than 100 million
The game "Food Language" has been announced to be discontinued
Screenshot of the announcement of the suspension of "Food Language".
On April 17, the mobile game "Food Language" developed by Guangzhou Baitian and operated by Tencent Games released the "Food Language Suspension and Completion Update Notice" on its official Weibo, announcing that due to the imminent expiration of the game's agency agreement, "Food Language" will officially stop operating in Chinese mainland at 11:00 on June 18, 2024. After the news was released, it caused an uproar, and the entry of "food language is suspended" immediately appeared on Weibo's hot search.
It is understood that "Food Language" was launched in 2019 and is a development type mobile game, with its unique Chinese food anthropomorphic setting and exquisite painting style, it successfully attracted a large number of players at the beginning of the service, and has created a "highlight" result of a monthly income of more than 100 million yuan.
"In fact, we players have a premonition about the shutdown. Ms. Lin introduced that before the official announcement of the suspension of "Food Language", the game had not produced any new content for nearly a year, and some of the game's resident recharge packages were removed from the shelves one after another. After the official suspension news was released, many players had a feeling that "the hanging heart is finally dead".
Game data will be deleted
Caused a large number of player complaints
Although the suspension is not surprising, the follow-up measures given by the official have caused strong dissatisfaction among the majority of players.
"Food Language" officially said that it will delete the player's account data and character information after the game server is closed. At the same time, the production team announced on the official blog of the adaptation animation that it will launch a completely free "Food Language Companion Edition", promising to retain all important features in the game and never turn it off. However, the companion version does not inherit the data of the original game, and players need to create a new account.
"Removed the game data of the original version, and this companion version is meaningless to the player at all. Ms. Lin told reporters that in the past 4 years, many players have poured a lot of money and energy into the game, and the game data carries the player's hard work and memories. In addition, as of now, the official so-called companion version does not have any actual machine pictures, and it is difficult not to doubt its authenticity.
Screenshot of the compensation plan for the suspension of "Food Language".
What makes players unhappy is also the official compensation measures for paying players. For users who make a payment and have paid tokens in their accounts, "Food Language" officially proposed that players can redeem relevant gift packages for other Tencent games according to a certain percentage, and said: "Once you participate in the compensation activity, it will be deemed to be an endorsement of the compensation/replacement plan." If the user does not participate in the compensation activities within the aforementioned period, it will be deemed to have automatically waived the right to compensation/replacement. ”
The reporter searched on the Internet and found that a large number of complaints from "Food Language" players appeared in the official Weibo comment area of the China Consumers Association, the Black Cat complaint platform and multiple social platforms.
Ms. Lin told reporters that according to incomplete statistics, the number of players participating in rights protection is more than 6,000 people, and the cumulative recharge amount of rights defenders is tens of millions of yuan, of which the highest recharge for a single person is 700,000 yuan, and there are not a few who recharge tens of thousands of yuan. "Our current appeal is to retain player data and refund the remaining paid tokens in the player's account in fiat currency, i.e. RMB. ”
On April 26, after the Consumer Quality News released a report on the suspension of "Food Language" on the official Weibo "@消费质量报社", a large number of players reposted comments. As of press time, the Weibo has reached 84,000 views and more than 600 comments, and a large number of players have called for the official data to be retained.
Screenshot of the official Weibo related report
Screenshot of player review
Lack of legal basis
It is difficult to protect the rights of game data loss
In response to the player's demands, the reporter interviewed Peng Yu, a lawyer from Sichuan Henghexin Law Firm.
Peng Yu said that player data mainly refers to game virtual asset data that is highly related to consumer rights and interests, including user data generated by game characters, props, levels, progress and other game games. At present, the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China only stipulates a minimum retention period of 6 months for network logs related to network operation, security status, and network behavior, but the current law does not clearly stipulate the retention period of player data after the game is suspended, which mainly depends on the agreement between the user and the operator and the producer. Therefore, it is difficult for players to realize their demands for retaining or transferring game data, and it is very difficult to protect their rights.
However, Peng Yu believes that player data is the hard work of players, and it is often poured into the feelings of players, and out of the protection of players' interests, game operators and producers should reserve sufficient time for players to retain and archive game information and images through screenshots, screen recordings, etc.
Regarding the plan of "Food Language" to compensate players with paid tokens with other game-related gift packages under Tencent, Peng Yu said:
According to Article 127 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, game props and paid tokens with property interests are online virtual assets and shall be protected by law.
Article 11 of the Notice of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce on Strengthening the Administration of Virtual Currency in Online Games also stipulates that if an online game operator plans to terminate the provision of its products and services, it must make an announcement 60 days in advance. When terminating the service, the online game operator must refund the virtual currency that the user has purchased but has not yet used, in the form of legal tender or other methods accepted by the user.
In this case, after the suspension of "Food Language", players were forced to redeem a certain percentage of the balance of paid tokens for relevant gift packages of other Tencent games, which not only violated the right of consumers to choose goods and services independently, but also infringed on the property rights of players. Players have the right to refuse and take the form of complaints or lawsuits to the market supervision department and consumer supervision department to protect their rights and interests.
Game outages are not uncommon
There is a precedent for "suspension of operation and non-stop service".
In recent years, there have been many outages of the game, and the problems experienced by Food Language players are not unique.
The reporter found in the online investigation that in February 2022, the "Cloud Clothes and Feathers" jointly developed by Tencent and Xishanju announced that it would be discontinued, and the account data and character information in the game will be deleted, and the unconsumed virtual currency and unexpired game services in the user's game account can also be exchanged for virtual currency packages for other games under Tencent through a certain percentage. This is almost the same as the shutdown of "Food Language".
After large-scale complaints from players to defend their rights, on March 18, 2022, the China Consumers Association said on its official Weibo that it had paid attention to the problem of the "Cloud Clothes and Feathers" game reflected in consumer messages. On March 30 of the same year, "Cloud Clothes and Feathers" issued an announcement in response, deciding to suspend the service, the game will no longer be paid, and users can still experience the game normally.
In addition, the mobile game "The Boss is Too Busy" also adopted a similar method of "suspension of operation and non-stop service" after player complaints, canceling the suspension plan, the server and game data will be retained, but the game content will stop being updated, and the exclusive customer service will stop the service.
All-media reporter Li Jingwei
Source | Consumer Quality Report
Edit | Chen Ruini
Proofreading | Li Xingtong
Editor-in-charge | Zhang Ke
Audit | Tu Wei
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