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For some Korean games, you need a Korean Social Security number to play.

I don't understand, why is it a requirement? What's the justification?

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    This is a question better suited to asking the people who made the Korean games, not gaming experts. All we can give is conjecture on the reasoning.
    – Grace Note ♦
    Jul 15, 2010 at 15:04
  • @Grace Note : Yes please.
    – rlb.usa
    Jul 15, 2010 at 15:11
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    Pardon, rlb.usa?
    – Grace Note ♦
    Jul 15, 2010 at 15:16

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The reason behind this is the Korean "Cyber defamation law" forbidding users from making anonymous comments.

One way of ensuring this requirement is for game developers to couple each account to a uniquely identifiable attribute for each person, in this case, their Korean social security number.

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    Most, if not all, Korean services require real-life identification, including music services and social media sites. The "netizen" culture in Korea (and Japan) is pretty ridiculous and much more extreme than any in the United States. There are plenty of cases of suicides by people in the public eye due to the actions of "netizens". I'd imagine it'd be much worse if anonymity were allowed.
    – SAGExSDX
    Jul 15, 2010 at 16:19
  • @sAGExSDX: Not that i'm an advocate in any way of that system, but i will point out that it most likely (i don't actually live in an area where this exists) that it eliminates or drastically reduces such things as trolling, online crime, and misbehavior.
    – RCIX
    Jul 15, 2010 at 22:36
  • @RCIX I know this is a super old question but it makes you wonder how effective it is in stopping a knowledgeable person from avoiding it by using fake IDs and so on. There's a lot of gamers that purchase that info to register for korean / chinese games.
    – coolpasta
    Oct 18, 2018 at 23:07

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