온라인 MMORPG 약관의 아이템 현금거래 금지 조항에 대한 이용자들의 인식 연구

초록

This study started from the notion that as a lot of bills to regulate item cash transaction behaviors in online games were proposed lately, the effectiveness of the regulations came to stand at the center of the controversy. Under this situation, this study was intended to examine how real users understand the agreements that prohibit the cash transaction. For this, it investigated recognitions and attitudes of users who actively participate in the MMORPG games. The users were considering item cash transaction behaviors as an investment in their hobby and a part of game contents. It was found out that the users’ recognitions of the existence of agreements related to item cash transactions turned out to be relatively high, but recognitions of specific contents were low, and their attitudes towards fairness and equity of agreements, excluding work places, turned out to be relatively negative. Most of the users claimed that cash transaction prohibition should be improved and strict standards or the penalty level should be modified. However, concerned about the negative effects on the game market, they suggested modification of standards of agreements rather than complete deletion of clauses of agreements.

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