"Even Spending Big, No Wins" Nexon Faces Ongoing Controversy Over Probability-Based Items

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] Nexon, which faced criticism for not disclosing the probabilities of 'random chance items,' has once again been embroiled in controversy.

According to the gaming industry on the 9th, users are outraged after it was revealed that some grades achievable by purchasing random chance items in Nexon's game 'MapleStory' were originally impossible to obtain.

The details of the incident are as follows. As user dissatisfaction over the random chance item controversy grew, Nexon disclosed the detailed probabilities of the cash item 'Cube' in MapleStory on the 5th and attempted to address the issue. However, another problem arose.

According to Nexon's announcement, some potential ability options such as 'Boss Monster Attack Damage Increase' and 'Ignore Monster Defense Rate' can be set up to a maximum of 2 out of 3 in total. Nexon explained this as "to prevent situations that excessively exceed the balance standards of boss hunting or item acquisition when the Legendary potential ability was first added in August 2011."

The problem is that users were unaware of this fact until Nexon's announcement. Some users referred to having three 'Boss Monster Attack Damage' potentials as 'Bobobo' and three 'Ignore Monster Defense Rate' potentials as 'Bangbangbang,' investing large sums to obtain them. However, 'Bobobo' was a grade that was impossible to achieve from the start.

As random chance items have been criticized for encouraging gambling with low probabilities, another controversy has sparked ongoing backlash from users. One user claimed, "Most people bought Cubes to get Bobobo," calling it "a clear fraud." Some users are even considering legal action.

Random chance items, a major revenue source for domestic game companies, are a type of 'gacha.' Users cannot know which item they will obtain before purchase. Due to issues like lottery-level low probabilities causing excessive spending by users, criticism has been raised. Consequently, the government and ruling party have taken action. Lee Sang-heon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, has proposed a 'Game Industry Promotion Act Amendment' requiring the display of types of random chance items and their supply probabilities.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.