Let’s say you really care about your competitive rank in a video game, but you don’t have the time to actually practice and get good at the game to improve your rank. This is where boosting comes in; you let someone else log in and play on your account to artificially inflate your rank, usually for a fee. And it’s enough of a problem in South Korea that it has now been declared illegal, meaning that you can get a prison sentence for boosting someone’s account.
It is admittedly a suspended sentence.
Boosting companies operate for several popular games in South Korea, most notably Overwatch and League of Legends, and the practice is accused of disrupting the actual high-end balance of the game. The new rules are an extension of the 2017 Game Industry Promotion Act, and while it doesn’t directly affect gamers in the US it will have an indirect effect on the overall gaming environment.
