"Incident of Gross Misconduct" in Dungeon & Fighter Happened Again

 Author:  Gameusd

Not long ago, the Live director of Dungeon Fighter Online in South Korea announced that while monitoring activities related to the 2020 Dungeon&Fighter "Serious Misconduct Incident", the developer discovered that DFO was also engaged in similar activities. This discovery was made earlier than the post, as the company was advised to postpone its disclosure due to legal reasons. Now that things have progressed, they are notifying MMO players.

Using Administrative Access To Earn More than $2000,000 Worth Of Illicit RMT Activities

Some game players should be aware of the serious misconduct incidents that occurred in September 2020 during the Korean service of Dungeons and Warriors. Since this incident, we have been regularly checking and updating our internal security procedures.

I am so sorry to inform you that during our monitoring activities, we have tracked similar activities in the Dungeon Fighter online. We have found that an account holds an abnormal number of specific items, and after further investigation, we confirm that the administrative item creation right has been utilized.

Before I continue speaking, I deeply apologize for this sudden announcement, which is understandable and shocking for our community.

Last year, we noticed that from 2020 to November 2022, A previous member of the DFO team embezzled an operational account used to process CS requests. The employee used the management permissions of the account to create a project with high gold value. Then, these items are sold through an NPC store on another personal gaming account and exchanged for gold for real money trade. The value of these unauthorized items has been confirmed to be close to 7 trillion of gold.

To apologize to the players, as this issue may have affected their time quality in the game, the DFO team presented an apology gift containing several boxes. Detailed information on how to claim compensation can be found in the live director's letter.
Here are the measures:

  1. All relevant administrative rights were immediately revoked. In-game accounts used for crimes have been sanctioned and recovery actions have been taken to prevent the further spread of gold. We have reported our investigation results to the headquarters and will continue to investigate the game accounts which is related to it.
  2. The reason why we only made this announcement now is that we have received legal advice on the confidentiality of all information, and a premature announcement would affect the ongoing investigation process.
  3. Finally, my predecessor was responsible for this issue at the time of the incident, and his work has ended. And as the successor manager of DFO services. I will take full control of all systems and workflows to prevent similar issues from occurring. I am determined to do my best to provide better gaming services and rebuild players' trust in us.

Next, let's review the process of the Korean server DNF event

2020.9.8 PM
A player found that the team leader's equipment was highly crafted, with all his equipment being red 12 while forming a gold team. This is considered a top player in the Korean server, but the number of players in the game is already small, and there are very few top players. This "rising star" aroused the player's suspicion and decided to investigate.

2020.9.9 15:00
A post appeared on the Korean server forum, roughly stating that a well-known player in the game is very suspicious, with over a dozen characters graduating and no records in the timeline (Korean server game behavior history software). The post also listed the following suspicious points:

  1. All characters in the account have graduated with Red 12 gear, and in addition, the newly created characters also have exclusive equipment for Hillock, which they obtained on the same day.
  2. A level 95 swordsman wears level 100 epic equipment and wields a broom, even graduating from the newly updated CP armor in the Hanbok.
  3. Sell a large number of +12 growth coupons in the game and check through the software for no box opening records.
  4. The above content cannot be found in the Korean server software, but the characters in the account are perfectly graduated.

2020.9.9 20:00
Because of COVID-19 in South Korea, many game staff worked at home. Except for a few maintenance staff on the first floor of the company headquarters, other staff were at home. But after 20:00, the company headquarters kept returning to the company.

2020.9.10 PM 23:58
Jong released the phased results of the incident investigation and sorted out the items and modified content that were leaked through the GM account.

2020.9.17 14:00
Neople announced the outcome of the incident online:

  1. Suspend the illegal account and suspend all responsible personnel related to this business.
  2. Dismiss the party involved and file a criminal lawsuit together.
  3. Compensate all server players with 1 set of transparent, 1 set of brilliant badges, 1 set of platinum badges, and a 100% chance to choose between +12 enhancement coupons and +8 forging coupons.
    The Korean server's GM participation in the game incident finally concluded, with the main participants being dismissed and held legally responsible, management personnel being suspended and fined, and the biggest victim, the player, also receiving corresponding compensation,

In Conclusion

The destruction of games by game managers is often fatal, always resulting in huge consequences. Of course, it is always the game players who get harmed. This will seriously undermine players' enthusiasm and trust in the official game. Trust will always run out one day, and we hope that all game companies will take care of their games well since this is respect for all game players.