[Korea] 5 Key Trends for 2009– ④ Auto, friend or foe?

This is the fourth installment of the five-part series: 'Auto', friend or foe?

Auto is another keyword to define the Korean online gaming market in 2009. Auto is short for auto mouse or automouse. Game companies employed two very different strategies toward auto mouse. One is to ban players who use it and the other is to include it in their game system and make it legitimate.

NCsoft is one of the companies came on strong. The company continuously banned a large number of auto users. The action brought out collective civil complaints but so far NCsoft maintained its position on the matter.

EYA Soft is on the other side, however. The company sold an auto mouse item inMurim Story (무림외전: Kor, 武林外传: Chi) but later integrated it to game system because it failed at getting ratings by Game Rating Board. EYA Soft is applying same tactic to Angel Love Online and became the center of pro-auto.

Auto has been a controversial issue all throughout the year among players and game companies. Some users resent auto while there was a movement to make it legitimate as some of Chinese games started supporting auto mouse in their games. Auto programs developed by a third party are illegal but it's not if they are developed by game developers.