40,000 worth of equipment was "confiscated" when the player retired? The customer service said that the props cannot be returned

　　Recently, a topic of "Player Retirement worth 40,000 Equipment Was Recycled" has nearly 10 million views on the Internet. A 25-year-old girl, Xiao Luo (pseudonym), said on social media that she is worth a lot in the game QQ Three Kingdoms All props are confiscated by the system.

The Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter found that recently, there have been many disputes caused by virtual props in the game: last year, they went to court, and recently they were named by the China Consumer Association.

　　Yangtze Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Jiang Tiansheng

　　"The player's equipment worth 40,000 was recycled"?

The game customer service said that the props cannot be returned

　　In the event of "Player Retirement worth 40,000 Equipment Was Recycled", Ronaldinho said that he has recharged 200,000 to 300,000 yuan in the past three years since playing the game QQ Three Kingdoms, and put 80,000 yuan worth of props into himself. The business house opened in the game, because it hadn’t logged into the game for a while, and didn’t recharge the money, the business bank closed down, and all these props were confiscated by the system.

　　It is reported that QQ Three Kingdoms China Commercial Bank is a store opened by players in the game, and players can choose to open or close.

In the business state, you need to pay a certain fee every hour. If the fee is insufficient, the business will close down, and all the props in the business will be confiscated; in the closed state, there is no need to pay the fee, and it will not go bankrupt.

　　Ronaldinho said that these props can be sold for at least 40,000 yuan, and he does not want the manufacturer to lose money, but only wants to get the equipment back. However, the customer service said that it is not only Ronaldinho who encounters the closure of the business and the props are confiscated, and expresses that the props Cannot be returned or exchanged.

　　Currently, the matter is still under negotiation.

　　The China Consumers Association has recently named the virtual property

　　The reporter found that in recent years, there have been many controversies caused by virtual properties on the Internet.

On January 30 this year, the China Consumers Association (hereinafter referred to as "China Consumers Association") announced on its official website the "Top Ten Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Hotspots in 2022", among which "the suspension of online games and the deletion of files caused virtual property infringement disputes" was named .

　　The China Consumers Association stated that in recent years, some improperly operated online games "stopped service and deleted files" caused disputes over virtual property, and incidents that led to consumer complaints have repeatedly attracted public attention, and named Tencent's mobile game "Yunshang Yuyi".

In February 2022, "Yunshang Yuyi" suddenly announced that it will stop serving after the large-scale event just started. The compensation plan only allows players to exchange the balance in the account for props and gift packs of three other Tencent designated games according to the price range.

A large number of players were dissatisfied with the compensation plan and complained to the regulatory authorities and third-party platforms.

On March 18, 2022, the China Consumers Association stated that it had paid attention to this matter. With the intervention of the China Consumers Association, "Yunshang Yuyi" announced on March 30, 2022 that it would suspend the service suspension process and continue to provide game services.

However, the reporter learned that although "Yunshang Yuyi" is still in operation, the update record has stayed in August 2021. After the game was suspended and the service process was suspended, the content update was not resumed, and the registration and recharge services were not reopened. Can't find this game in store.

　　In addition, China Consumers Association also named the Blizzard game "World of Warcraft".

In late November 2022, NetEase Blizzard announced the cessation of cooperation, and when the contract expires on January 24 this year, it will remove games such as "World of Warcraft" in China.

NetEase has announced a refund plan for players’ in-game top-ups. The refund channel has been opened, but there are still many problems. Regarding the problem of players’ role data retention in the game, Blizzard unilaterally announced that it will allow players to transfer their own game data. The data is downloaded locally (commonly known as "electronic urn"), but Netease claims that "electronic urn" has potential safety hazards.

　　The China Consumers Association pointed out that in the relevant (game suspension) cases, the focus of public opinion controversy is that most games will delete game-related data archives after suspension, which is suspected of violating the rights and interests of game players.

Moreover, most of the compensation measures proposed by some game operators are gift packages or benefits diverted to other games of the company, which has led consumers to question that the so-called compensation plan is a different way for game operators to "cut leeks".

The China Consumers Association believes that the rights and interests of consumers cannot be "deleted as they want", and online game operators must respect consumers' wishes and choose a method acceptable to consumers when adjusting their business strategies.

Regulatory departments should urge enterprises to perform their duties well, consciously safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, and punish illegal acts that infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with laws and regulations.

Relevant laws and regulations should also be continuously improved to build a solid protection wall for consumers' virtual property and better protect consumers' assured consumption.

　　Past cases: Suspended mobile game was sentenced to bear infringement liability

　　In addition, the China Consumers Association also named an incident of "a game operator was sued for suspending its service". The reporter learned about the case from the Beijing Internet Court: In 2019, a mobile game operator issued an announcement to stop the game operation, and stated that it would 5% of the total historical recharge amount of game players will be transferred to other games as compensation.

Mr. Cheng, who recharged about 200,000 yuan, took the mobile game operator involved in the case to court, claiming that the mobile game operator involved in the case stopped the game operation and violated his legal rights, and demanded the return of more than 30,000 yuan of unused virtual currency, as well as compensation for the termination of operation. And the invalid game service is equivalent to more than 1 million yuan and interest.

The mobile game operator stated that it was not at fault for terminating the operation of online game services and does not need to bear infringement liability.

　　After the trial, the court held that the mobile game operator’s cessation of operation of the mobile game involved caused the loss of relevant online virtual property in Mr. Cheng’s game account involved in the case.

According to the facts ascertained in this case, a mobile game operator had neither the statutory right nor Mr. Cheng’s agreed consent when disposing of the above-mentioned property. Therefore, there was a subjective fault and it should bear the tort liability such as compensation for losses.

In the end, the court ruled that the mobile game operator should compensate Mr. Cheng more than 30,000 yuan and interest, and the judgment of the case has come into force.

　　Lawyer: Internet virtual property is protected according to law

　　Zhang Yafei, a lawyer from Nanjing Knowledge Law Firm, told reporters that Article 127 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China stipulates that online virtual property is protected according to law.

That is, the game props in online games that have the attribute of property interests belong to online virtual property and should be protected by law.

In the game, virtual property can be divided into virtual currency and virtual props.

For the virtual currency remaining when the mobile game involved in the case ceased operation, it was obtained by its recharge. After the operation of the game was terminated, the virtual currency that the online game user had not used had not been exchanged for other game props, and the game user had not obtained the corresponding Therefore, the operator shall refund the user in legal currency or other methods accepted by the user according to the proportion at the time of purchase by the user.

　　For the remaining game props when the mobile game involved in the case ceased operation, it is usually virtual property such as virtual equipment obtained by game players by paying a certain fee or occupying a certain amount of game time for leveling, which exists in a specific electronic virtual space in the form of data. The electromagnetic records of simulated property may have economic value under certain game environment and technical conditions, but this value is limited to meeting the needs of game users for certain game functions, and cannot be directly equivalent to the value of legal tender. Some game props are directly converted into RMB.

According to past cases, the general court will consider comprehensive factors such as the source and difficulty of obtaining the property to determine the value of the virtual props and determine whether to make compensation as appropriate.