MMORPGs and IP Bans
By now, I’m sure many of you have heard the news surrounding the IP restrictions being placed placed on one of gPotato’s latest games Aika. For those of you that haven’t – gPotato plans on implementing IP Bans in order to restrict access to Aika for anyone outside of North America. This basically means if you live outside of North America, you won’t be able to play the game. gPotato has actually received a LOT of heat after they announced this little update on April 7. Users certainly have a right to complain, but there’s a lot more to this issue than what meets the eye. Publishing an MMORPG is serious business, and gPotato can’t just do whatever it wants to do. gPotato doesn’t even make Aika – they simply publish it. JoyImpact, a Korean based developer, actually created the game and is responsible for releasing content updates and patches. So before people rail on gPotato, they should get their facts straight.
Aika Online Gameplay
Say JoyImpact just developed a brand new game called…. Awesome Online. They already have the game up and running in Korea, but since Awesome Online has been such a great success, they want to launch the game in North America. They would call up publishers like gPotato, Aeria and Outspark to see which ones are interested in bringing their game to North America. After they find a publisher they’re willing to work with, they negotiate how cash shop revenue will be split and if any upfront payment is necessary or not. JoyImpact would be responsible for keeping the game up to date with new content updates and bug fixes. The game publisher would be responsible for actually hosting the servers in the designated country, marketing the game and reporting bugs / suggestions to the developers. Developers and Publishers need to work together in order to succeed.
Aika Online Character Creation
Now developers like JoyImpact rarely sell ‘global licenses’ to their games and instead sell numerous regional licenses. JoyImpact likely negotiated with gPotato to launch and run Aika ONLY in North America. They will likely sell the license to run Aika in Europe to another company. This isn’t exactly ‘unheard of’ as Dragon Oath is published in both North America and Europe under an entirely different name. I also know that Ys Online has been available in Europe for quite a while, but IP bans prevented North American players from accessing the game. Priston Tale 2 is also scheduled to actually release in Europe soon, while the North American version (published by SubaGames) will likely continue to be delayed.
Priston Tale 2. This Game Been Delayed Forever
Don’t get me wrong, gPotato did ‘wrong’ by its users by announcing this IP Ban out of the blue. I know many European players who have enjoyed Aika for over a month only to have their access to the game completely restricted. That’s just plain wrong. gPotato should have made it clear from the start that European players wouldn’t be able to access the game, but they didn’t. I’m sure the game’s developer didn’t really care that gPotato was allowing Europeans to play early on, as the game just got out of open beta, but I suspect that the IP ban announcement came after Aika’s developer JoyImpact complained to gPotato that they are breaking their contractual agreements regarding their license to run Aika. I assure you guys, gPotato would love for you guys outside of Europe to be able to play Aika. gPotato understands that more users = more money for them. After all of this negative press, it seems like gPotato is trying to work something out with JoyImpact (perhaps they’re trying to purchase the European license to Aika as well?). So don’t lose hope guys. I think worse comes to worse, European players will have access to Aika sometime in the future through another publisher.
Project Torque Is Published by Gamigo in Europe
On the more general topic of IP Bans – I’m not a fan of them. As a gamer, I want to see ‘busy’ servers with large communities. A larger playerbase only adds to the overall enjoyment of an MMO. I personally think developers are shooting themselves in the foot by selling regional licenses to their games. The end result is almost always a fragmented playerbase. Unfortunately, even popular games are usually licensed to specific regions. Fiesta Online for example is hosted in North America by Outspark, but is hosted in Europe by Gamigo. I think it would be awesome if these servers merged, as more people would get to play with each other, which would result in an overall better gaming experience.
What do you guys think? Wouldn’t it just be… better if games didn’t have IP restrictions? I feel that game publishers and developers have to come up with a system that leaves everyone satisfied (Including gamers).
By, Omer Altay
April 10, 2010
#
Agree totally with you mate.
One point is that Y’s & Priston Tale 2 are no longer available in Europe as their publisher “Key To Play” went bankrupt in November last year.
May 25, 2010
#1
Priston tale 2 is up and running in Open beta atm in europe
hosted by Gamekraft
April 10, 2010
#2
In one hand the IP bans are usefull, because the distance makes some gamers have a big LAG, so if there are servers on many regions, the IP bans can make the game experience more fluid but, in the other hand, people from different parts of the world can not meet in the game.
April 10, 2010
#3
I think Gpotato isn’t fair at all ,why only North America should have the wright to play a specific game,are americans spending more money on games and european’s don’t?It’s just about money as ussual ,They need money ,money,money and money so they put restrictions and so on.
Gpotato is doing a huge mistake throgh this decision
It’s just wrong to put restrictions on a game
April 10, 2010
#4
@godofrcs, in the article is written they only bought the North American licence, thinking about the position of the servers. Maybe they will buy the Europoean licence and publish it in Gpotato Europe.
April 10, 2010
#5
hah…the IP bans are most likely not related to money issues at all…the problem most likely lies within gpotato’s contractual agreement. and even if that is not the case, without certain bans in place game servers can either A)become overcrowded or b) experience major latency issues for everyone and ruin the games playability
April 10, 2010
#6
Just dumb ip bans if they lift them they get more money and people..
April 11, 2010
#7
“gPotato has actually received a LOT of heat after they announced this little update on April 7″
The reason they have gotten so much heat over this issue is because they opened the cash shop for aika BEFORE they put the ban in place. People from outside the US were putting money into the game then got restricted after the fact and were left with nothing more than a, “tough shit” for their trouble.
On top of that Priston Tale 2 and YS online have both been unavailable in Europe since November of last year. So using them in your examples further leaves your article in the wind.
For someone that actually put the sentence, “So before people rail on gPotato, they should get their facts straight.” in their work, you sure seem to be the one that needs to get YOUR facts straight.
April 11, 2010
#8
Another thing that IP blocks are useful for is language barrier. Sure, it’s fun to play with others from across the world, but when different languages interfere with raids etc, then the overall gaming experiences goes down. There are plenty of people that game in North America.
gPotato should have blocked FUTURE accounts, not ones already playing, like Outspark did with Fiesta once the international version of Fiesta was launched.
April 11, 2010
#9
that is why most people reside to Private servers because they can freely choose what region they can play from and who to interact with. IP Bans and Region restrictions just makes the game boring because there is no diversity when it comes to the community. It’s like having to stay in one classroom while the other class is having fun.
April 11, 2010
#10
langage a barrier?come on give me a break the world was in aika!the only issue there ever had been in that awsome game was goldseller,botter!because in no mater the langage we always understand what they are for some reason
yes we went in lot of group we had spanish,deutch,chinese watchemacallit!
but in the enbd nobody cared,not one person !why?
we were too busy having fun!lol!only time the langage barrier story came out is when came the time to justify ipblock!its the only time
i can tell you !this game is going global soon!when it does,if you got in global server you ll be playing with the same pvp maniac that you had fun till gpotato ipblocked their copy(new user)
April 11, 2010
#11
i hate IP bans…. i am able to play this game (i’m from PR) but i am not able to play SUN or Cabal because they have IP Bans….
April 12, 2010
#12
Blocking forigen IP is common in Korean MMO Market, and as a Korean Gamer, I understand the reason of this.
When I play most of the Korean MMORPGs (in Korean server), 9 out of 10, there are numerous players from China selling game money or running illegal auto-grinding programms, so they can get epic items for selling.
This has been seriouse problem in Korean MMO market since 1990′s.
and even though, most of the games out there in Korea has banned IPs, there are still chinese players running around the town, stealing other people’s xp, or making issues.
So i started to play in American server, because I was sick of those, but look at whats happening. Item/Game Money sellers are dominating in Chat rooms.WTF, I don’t want that. I really think banning IP is a good Idea.
April 13, 2010
#13
@NellK, you are either very naive or very ignorant if you think a simple ip ban is going to stop them from selling. You know you can easilly avoid this block using a proxy right?
April 16, 2010
#14
@joooh Yeah, Bypassing IP bans on games are really easy if you know what programms to get! I’m from norway but can still get into America Only games using an IP Faker that’s compitable with ALL programms accesing internett
April 17, 2010
#15
You’re also very ignorant if you think an IP ban is going to stop people from playing.. If there is an ip block. I’ll just use a VPN. I’ve played many restricted locations games like that. And since most American companies = corporate fascists, you will have 0 on a scale from 0 to 10 to ever get a version in your country/continent anytime soon.
April 17, 2010
#16
I think ip bans are a dumb idea. It might stop the game being overcrowded, but as iHaz proved, you can get around it if you know how.
I tried to play Wonderking yesterday. Game is ip blocked to europeans on nDoors, NA only. There’s a european version, yes….in German. They’re supposed to be translating in to english, which was promised back in January time from what I can make out. There’s also a Philiipean version in english. I can’t get that one to work for me.
Same thing, different company. It’s not going to keep out gold sellers or anything else, just restrict those who are from different countries from playing with each other. If it’s got to be done then, it’s got to be done. Perhaps the publishers from each region should warn their players when the game is in beta that although they can play then but won’t be able to play for long due to regional contracts instead of suddenly springing it on ppl.
With fair warning the players can then make their own decision as to whether they will participate in the betas or not. Informed decisions are better than sudden surprises.
April 18, 2010
#17
IP banning is like laws… It only restricts those who already obey them, and would not be breaking them in the first place. I believe it has more to do with content and copyright laws. Copyrights are only protetion in the country they are purchased, as are game-ratings and other such legal junk. Just because something is legal in the USA for a teen to see, does not make it legal or acceptable for a Euro-teen or China-teen to do. Just as “Nike” can be legally manufactured in any country that “Nike” does not hold a trademark… Like China… No, wait… They purchased a trademark there a few years ago.
April 18, 2010
#18
In the end, it is always about money. Nothing is free, and this stuff does not create itself.
May 4, 2010
#19
i just dont like how this always happens to games, once a game gets delayed to america, you end up playing the classic instead!
May 8, 2010
#20
Ip bans are a big no no for me. Recently I’ve played Aika and yes, I’m from Europe, but didn’t get banned just because my gpot acc is very old, yet after hearing the news I refused to play on the US servers. I will wait for the eu release.
Let’s take a look at Perfect World for a second. One most important thing is they’re global, and they have servers in EU and US – you just download one client from one publisher and you can easily choose where you want to play. I think it’s a great move, drawback is people don’t play on one big server, but in exchange they have very low latency for their region – I’ll admit that I’m usually a little annoyed while playing mmorpgs on US servers due to latency. Everything above 100ms for me is quite uncomfotrtable, especially in pvp ;D
Anyway, I think companies would make more money if they went global with their games (or found respectable publishers to do so) – so it would be a win win situation.
May 18, 2010
#21
i am from aus i find it hard to join any game with an ip ban why becase i am nether na or europe trying to join these games is a pain. i like playing with all people. i think ip bans are a bit to much i mean why not just have a few diffrent servers one or 2 that every one can play on. then one for europe ips and one NA ips. i mean its not hard to do and then your player base is happy and the companys keep bringing in our hard erned money
January 17, 2011
#22
i like this game !!! awsome !
February 20, 2011
#23
Well in my opinion, to sum it all up it’s like this:IP bans are useful because they prevent lagg and crashing, yet it also lowers the playerbase, fun and sometimes update speed(for example Maplesotry -_-)…1 good thing < 3 bad things…
March 8, 2011
#24
IP bans are very useful. It reduced large number of lagging and dc. It greatly increase enjoyment of players, especially games involves action and combos. One bad example would be Lost Saga, being a action mmo that advertised on combo attack, but it doesn’t have IP ban. There are many of players quit the game because of the distance lag.