Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency has decided that a system widely adopted by online game operators on SNS websites (social networking service) violates a law on sales methods.
In the said online games called complete gacha (kompu gacha), players could win a rare virtual item or a prize after he buys a specific number of items required.
The agency started the probe on the game services following complaints of extremely high payment charges on players of SNS sites like Mobage and Gree.
This gaming system was first introduced in online games by SNS last year. Kompu gacha is an advanced level of gacha where players can get rare items after collecting a specific combination of objects available in the games.
However, the gacha games have continuously been criticized for banking on the players' gambling tendencies, especially then the specific item they will get is not known at the time of purchase, which makes it similar to a lottery.
The gacha game was supposedly inspired by vending machines that sell small toys inside capsules. But in this case, online players are buying virtual items for hundreds of yen, which they can use in the game, as opposed to physical, real ones.
The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily.
The former leading social network site Myspace announced in Monday that it's getting a resurgence in popularity due to their introduction of a new online music player. Over a million new users have registered at myspace.com in the previous month, averaging 40,000 accounts activated daily.