Last week we reported that Chinese gamers could pay female companions to play online games with them. This type of behaviour has created an online industry dedicated to selling companion gaming services, however it seems this industry is a bit shadier than originally reported.
Over the weekend, Chinese cosplayer Zhao Mengyue (赵梦玥) came out against the companion gaming industry. Upset over the fact that her image was being used against her will, Zhao aimed to the set the record straight.
Paying for online gaming companions has become a big thing in China lately and has led to a few discussions on its legality. The concept is that players can pay for female gamers to play online games with them either in person or online. There have been some issues with such services, ranging from fraud to pornographically related issues
Basically, photos of Zhao and a young man were posted on various web stores on the Chinese online super retail site, Taobao.com. These photos showed Zhao and the young man in various states of fun (nice clean sfw fun). They offered the gaming services of a young woman, Zhao, for $6 an hour. The photos were used to show would be customers that real “beauties” were available to play games with them, games such as League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients.
It turns out that those photos of Zhao were personal shots of Zhao and a former classmate. According to Zhao the photos were taken when Zhao visited her friend in Australia and that her friend has never played League of Legends.
Upset that her photos were being used for something she has nothing to do with, Zhao took to social media to voice her feelings. Zhao showed chat logs between her and the Taobao store, where an unrepentant store clerk claimed that the image was of one of the agency’s female gamers and a customer. The clerk even claimed that the image came from a client.
Eventually Zhao was able to get a response from the owner of the agency. Despite getting an apology Zhao isn’t too happy, writing on her Tencent Weibo that if she didn’t take the issue public, she wouldn’t have gotten any response.
[网店兜售陪玩服务 涉嫌盗用知名coser照片] [People’s Daily]
[ReneeYusa’s Tencent Weibo] [Tencent Weibo]
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