Chinese gamer sues Netease
p2pnet.net News:- A Chinese gamer is suing Netease subsidiary Guangzhou Wangyi Computer System Company for deleting his online game avatar.
Zhang Yong says he was playing "Jing Ling" (Genius)“and devoted so much time to building the character up that he was eventually ranked sixth overall, says ChinaTechNews, going on:
“However when he reached Level 87 of the game, Netease deleted his avatar and sealed his account for thirty days because he violated some rules of the game.”
Zhang claims the "Zhang Jinming" character is his legal property and he wants Netease to apologise, reinstate it and pay him RMB2100 for economic loss and RMB5000 for mental anguish, says the post, adding:
“Guangzhou Tianhe District People’s Court initially refused Zhang Yong’s petition in May 2005. Zhang has now appealed to the Guangzhou Secondary People’s Court, where a verdict should be handed down soon.”
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See:-
ChinaTechNews – Guangzhou Online Game Player Sues Netease For Removing Avatar, August 9, 2005
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August 10th, 2005 at 6:35 am
I can see this whole “i own my character/items/wealth etc because i spent days/months/years playing and paying for it….” vs the company’s line “we retain ownership of everything in the game as stated in the eula…” becoming a bigger and bigger problem over the next few years. All the lawyers out there who read this site should probably start playing mmo’s of all kinds to become more familiar with what i’m sure will become regular work for them.
I mean what would happen if origin decided to shut down ultima online now? There are ppl who’ve been playing it for years, and I’m sure many of them would sue at the first rumours of a shutdown. And when they’ve invested hours per day for years of their lives, can you really blame them?
August 10th, 2005 at 8:06 am
With some online games, some companies are too fast to delete or ban players from their VERY hard earned characters… just because of false accusitions… or suspitions… I’ve know friends that spent hundreds of hours on characters, only to be banned and deleted because someone falsly reported them, because they didn’t like them…
I my self have also had a simmilar problem, luckly it wasn’t after I had spent too much time on it… but still…
These companies should REALLY think about, and fully investigate, before they delete/ban… bans and deletes are for final punishments, not first offences!