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Lift the Vietnam IP ban

MinhMeozMinhMeoz
Reactions: 300
Posts: 4
Member
edited August 2017 in Suggestions, Feedback, and Requests
Just thought I'd remind you that Vietnamese players do exist and we're still banned from playing the game despite our server getting shut down 7 years ago :( . Please do something about this :(

Comments

  • SlicedTimeSlicedTime
    Reactions: 1,720
    Posts: 105
    Member
    edited August 2017
    I recon the ban is due to legal reasons, most likely licencing or something similar. I recall similar issue being discussed some years ago regarding some european countries and EMS.
  • MinhMeozMinhMeoz
    Reactions: 300
    Posts: 4
    Member
    edited August 2017
    SlicedTime wrote: »
    I recon the ban is due to legal reasons, most likely licencing or something similar. I recall similar issue being discussed some years ago regarding some european countries and EMS.

    I'm well-aware, but shouldn't this be addressed by now? It's been almost 10 years for God's sakes Dx.
  • KhongiKhongi
    Reactions: 2,140
    Posts: 159
    Member
    edited August 2017
    Unsure if you are aware but this isn't a developers problem. Back in 2011 the Vietnamese government officially censored their internet (censorship has been around years prior in other forms) which affected everything online, not just gaming. It was major as those who owned and ran internet cafes, if they didn't shut down, were placed in jail, something amnestry international is fighting even to this day.

    There is a myriad of reasons why they did this, many papers have been written on the topic from both a social point of view, legal and economic, even theological.

    A computer game developer has zero power to do jack about this, even if they programmed the game to break through the government placed firewall you playing it is considered breaking the law and it does come with jail time. Sadly I'm not even joking about this.

    If you're interested in more information as to why or how this censorship came around google 'Vietnamese government censorship' as well as 'bamboo firewall', (unsure if we can link wikipedia on here but here is a start: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Vietnam ) since it does involve internet censorship you will find more information in actual books and articles (newspapers) as many papers published online were removed and continue to do so, even the wikipedia pages go down from time to time.

    Various south east asian countries have varying degrees of censorship which affects gaming. It's why some developers, if they want to be in China, for example, need to develop a unique platform just for China. However Vietnam is one of the worst.
    DarkPassenger
  • MinhMeozMinhMeoz
    Reactions: 300
    Posts: 4
    Member
    edited August 2017
    That's funny, out of all the games in the wolrd, some silly 10-year-old 2D looking game is the only game banned according to the censorship. Doesn't sound right to me
  • KhongiKhongi
    Reactions: 2,140
    Posts: 159
    Member
    edited August 2017
    totally agree, was thinking of the whys a while ago and all I can think of is the game does celebrate country days, like Canada day, Australia day, Independence day for USA... all capitalist countries and since Vietnam has this communist government censorship maybe that's the clash.

    The other possibility is the gambling, marvel machine for example, since gambling is also heavily governed by the Vietnamese government.

    it's strange but my bet is the littlest thing is most likely the problem.
  • MinhMeozMinhMeoz
    Reactions: 300
    Posts: 4
    Member
    edited August 2017
    I don't think that's the point though. Accounts made before 2008 (aka before the game was brought to Vietnam) are still playable on Vietnam IP. I did hear a while ago that it's got to do with license issues with Nexon KR :( . I just really hope this can somehow be resolved. MapleStory was a very fond memory of mine and so many others where I'm from.
  • OccireOccire
    Reactions: 1,935
    Posts: 140
    Member, Private Tester
    edited August 2017
    Yeah, it's almost definitely a licensing thing. After a region is licensed to a certain version of Maple, if that version closes, that region is basically just left out in the cold. For example, after ThaiMS closed, they didn't reassign Thailand into MapleSEA, it was just IP banned from playing Maple at all. Luckily for them, Nexon just acquired a Thai company that became Nexon Thailand, and they're preparing to release ThaiMS again. Sometimes regions are folded into others, though, Brazil eventually became part of EMS some time after Brazil MS closed.
  • DarkPassengerDarkPassenger
    Reactions: 8,980
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    edited August 2017
    They probably wont make it so the game bypasses the restrictions on the Internet because that would mean Nexon would be enabling you to break a law. They would be liable. And you cant use a VPN since that too is against the ToS.
  • AKradianAKradian
    Reactions: 40,310
    Posts: 6,340
    Member, Private Tester
    edited August 2017
    DarkPassenger wrote: »
    They probably wont make it so the game bypasses the restrictions on the Internet because that would mean Nexon would be enabling you to break a law. They would be liable. And you cant use a VPN since that too is against the ToS.

    If accounts from before 2008 are allowed to play GMS, that means there are no government restrictions on the internet (that apply to Maplestory).
    Even if there were, it's not Nexon's job to enforce Vietnam's laws.

    As stated above, it's a matter of contracts. Some company in Vietnam holds the rights to publish Maplestory in that country, and for whatever reason the contract they have with Nexon does not allow Nexon to take back those rights, even if the licensee shut down the service years and years ago.
  • DarkPassengerDarkPassenger
    Reactions: 8,980
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    Member
    edited August 2017
    AKradian wrote: »
    DarkPassenger wrote: »
    They probably wont make it so the game bypasses the restrictions on the Internet because that would mean Nexon would be enabling you to break a law. They would be liable. And you cant use a VPN since that too is against the ToS.

    If accounts from before 2008 are allowed to play GMS, that means there are no government restrictions on the internet (that apply to Maplestory).
    Even if there were, it's not Nexon's job to enforce Vietnam's laws.

    As stated above, it's a matter of contracts. Some company in Vietnam holds the rights to publish Maplestory in that country, and for whatever reason the contract they have with Nexon does not allow Nexon to take back those rights, even if the licensee shut down the service years and years ago.

    Oh, for sure. You're right.
  • VeryVNguyVeryVNguy
    Reactions: 100
    Post: 1
    Member
    edited July 2018
    I know this is necro posting, but NEXON has to do something with this issue, I have been waiting to be able to play this game legitimately for almost 9 years since VNG corp. shut down the service, which was this game.

    VNG at that time when they shut down the game service, said that the contract between them and NEXON ended so they could not host the game anymore AND NEXON would no longer block our IP from accessing GMS. But nothing has changed since then.

    About the IP Block from NEXON at that time, the reason for it was their contract with VNG, which should have been ended already.

    So the real question is, why NEXON still blocks Vietnam IP although the contract was no longer exist, is there any secrets that NEXON and VNG try to hide from us ?

    My English isn’t so good, you might find it hard to clearly understand.
  • VannieVannie
    Post: 1
    Member
    Trying to reset my password for MS account to find out that Vietnam is banned from GMS. Heart-broken. Wow. It has been 10 years already, a decade. I think it's no hope for GMS to lift the ban. The only way is playing Maple Story M (for mobile).