Via billsdue comes mention of another nationalist incident in a Far Eastern MMO. In this case 10k players protested in a Netease game (China, "The Fantasy of the Journey West") when an "(in-game) government office had a background that looked liked a rising sun. For more details including screen shots, see EastSouthWestNorth...
In March, responding to "a massacre of Chinese players by Korean players in Lineage", I wondered whether AI could help to get players out of the critical content path and help defuse situations like this. However, Bill's discouraging speculation is that these sorts of incidents may be good for business as large numbers of players swarm to an MMO. Netease apparently locked the culpable player avatar in "The Great Tang Permanent Incarceration Prison" for two years with this explanation (translated, see here - including screenshots):
In changing the name of an individual player or handling the case of an individual guild, we do not want to cause any unhappiness to people. We do not want such an incident to affect the patriotism of everybody. But this is a game. When we operate this game, we follow the state's regulations on Internet administration and we are monitored by the National Internet Supervisory Bureau. People come here to experience joy, and we therefore emphasize health, relaxation and happiness and we should not bring in politically sensitive topics. The experience of history tells us that patriotism should be expressed rationally under the grand theme of protecting the interests of the nation and the people. Patriotism requires passion, but it requires rationality even more so. Passion and rationality form our correct way of expressing our patriotism.
... We appreciate everybody's patriotism. Like everybody else, we deeply remember the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Marco Polo Bridge incident, the Nanjing massacre, the Diaoyutai issue and so on. These solemn histories make us want to become stronger because we are all Chinese. Patriotism is a form of respect, and it is a belief. Patriotism is the soul of our people, it is the soul of our nation. But we sincerely hope that everybody's patriotic actions are rational . We hope and we believe that everybody can make rational expressions.
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