Game Rating Board(GRB) is worrying about speculative in-game cash items called jackpot items.

The jackpot items are made to generate (great) sales for the company by providing its players certain (little) chance of winning high value items.

Although many complaints over the speculation have been filed not a single company seems to change the successful business model. Even more, GRB is having difficult time providing reasonable guide lines upon this circumstance.

GRB “Game Companies Are Not Cooperative”

10 game companies on request. Neowiz, Smile Gate, CJ, WeMade, NCsoft, Actoz Soft, Mgame, NHN, Nexon, and Hanbit Soft

Today’s GRB evaluates items wheather they are speculative by investigating if they are only available by cash and if there is any possible loss by having it. These criteria are made in the past so they don’t just fit in today’s issue well actually.

So GRB has requested 10 game companies to submit their DB including name, purchasable currency, and cost of the jackpot items and feature and value of winning items. But they haven’t really followed GRB’s direction and have submitted only type, cost, image, and feature of the jackpot items but not limit in usage, percentage, number of purchase per player of them for reason of confidential log records. They haven’t even participated a meeting held by GRB.

Why? They consider the jackpot items as a business model not a criterion of rating. So they refuse to be evaluated by GRB.

In other words, evaluating the in-game items could be another regulation upon the game industry followed by Forcible Shutdown System and other recently adopted restrictive laws.

So they insist to follow self criteria made in 2008 instead of submitting requested data in order to preserve market order.

Different Point of Views of GRB, Players, and Companies

Let’s say you got pitiful items from the jackpot items and your friend got a high end item from a single chance. What would you feel?

Obvioiusly, terrible. You also might feel this is speculative since the players like you are paying their real money to get the superb item just like the adult’s gambling at casino.

However, accroding to today’s law it isn’t speculative at all because you got items no matter if they are useless to you. You paid money and the company gave you promised rewards. That’s it.

“Game companies ask us why GRB tries to touch their business model and refuse to our request. But the jackpot item is a content of the game. We don’t care whatever they do outside of the game but what is matter to us is that it is a part of the game,” said GRB’s chairman SooKeun Lee. “There should have been no problem if they have followed the criteria they have made by themselves. But we doubt if they are abiding by it now. To us, it is nothing more than a dead recommendation.”