(This post is my interpretation/summary of two ESWN articles entitled Red Rubber Ball & Freedom of Identity, Speech and Assembly on the Internet.)
This all began when someone, somewhere thought that a Japanese company bought some Netease shares. The same certain someone (or some people) then noticed that one of the in-game walls in 梦幻西游 (The Fantasy of the Journey West) was decorated with a red rising sun. They believed that the rising sun was created to appease the new shareholders.
The next day, nearly 10,000 gamers gathered at the wall in protest.
In response, Netease locked up a powerful guild leader, who they believe to be involved in the protest, in a virtual prison and threatened to disband his guild. Oh by the way, the guild leader’s alias is 干死4小日本 ("Kill the little Japs")and his guild is named 抗日同盟会 ("The Alliance to Resist Japan").
Netease cited various officious rules about offensive guild names as the reason for guild termination. Yet, the guild leader and his guild had been playing for 2 years already.
iam happy