[McClintock]

Hi all,
I noticed this PW webpage while cruising the Internets, and I couldn't believe that this sort of thing is still done! Apparently, seven whole countries of the world are banned/blocked from registering (and probably playing their games as well!).

These countries are banned regions for Perfect World Entertainment:

China
Hong Kong
Macau
South Korea
Taiwan
Vietnam
Russia

Unfortunately, we are unable to allow new registrations from these regions.

We are obligated to block regions which have their own localization of certain games. Some regions are also blocked for administrative reasons. The same regions are blocked for all of our games.

I.E. "Too bad you live in the wrong country, we don't want your kind here, so shove off". Nice. Talk about Big Brother. I wonder if that goes hand-in-hand with the ideals of the Federation, hm?

Gobsmacked, but then I shouldn't be surprised. I can smell that Great Firewall of China from here, but why so many countries? What possible motive(s) could be behind that I wonder. What do you guys think about all that?

[Silynn]

I'm not sure if it is for ideological reasons as for business ones. Perfect World already runs many MMOs in Chinese and Korean languages, as some of their games were developed and released in Asia prior to being released elsewhere.

With that said, it could be their business model for the Asian countries are different and would be hurt if they opened up access. Currently, I believe they are mirrored. At least that is what I saw in regards to "Forsaken World" when a friend recently moved to Taiwan for work, we tried to find a F2P mmo to try. He could not access the Forsaken World US server from Taiwan, as it was blocked. But he could access the Forsaken World Asia servers.

I have to check if he has tried to access STO from there. Kind of curious if that will be blocked as well.

[Three of Seven]

Seen this done in MMOs before, it's not uncommon, the main reason for doing so is to reduce the workload and administration, considering the Perfect World HQ is in China, it's probably logical to speculate that there is a localised version of the game for China.

You consider that the servers can't take the load at the moment, imagin how bad it would be if every country was allowed on the same server.

[Dale]

Well, like they said 'We are obligated to block regions which have their own localization of certain games.', which only makes sense really. Why spend money on providing servers and such when they aren't going to use them?

[deuZige]

I would've thought that the people developing the tech behind the web would've implemented techniques that would prevent governments, like it does normal users or corporations, to control what is and is not accessible on the www. It's possible, technically, to make the web truly free. Ow wait... The web was developed for the most part in the USA, by americans and to this day the USA is a mighty force on the web. And there's one thing the US is famous for and thats the spying, controlling and manipulating everything they can manipulate. Not for idealistic or moral reasons but for economical ones. And before you go feel insulted and take my head of please think of Megaupload.com and i think you'll know what i mean. No one, not governments, not individuals, not corperations NOONE should ever be able to block ANY content on the web! The web should be free and one should be able to go everywhere on it without fear, and put anything up on it without fear.

[Noram]

As I understand it it's not as much a political issue as a localization one.

[Carmen les Toreadors]

I'm afraid to say I may be a minority here but the last few times I experienced persons from the PRC or other parts of Asia being able to play in a European or American server, the gameplay experience was horrible and there were enormous problems with spam bots and other exploits. Not to mention the huge PRC player population caused server load to be enormously high - definitely these high-population playerbases should get their own Chinese exclusive server instead.

There's one other thing - communications.

In STO I am guaranteed a chance that everyone I see online is conversant in English, the demographic is predictable and everyone on Zone / sector chat is a joy to talk to. I also meet a lot of German players and I like interacting with them as well.

Outside the Fleet there -are- working and effective unsaid protocols of mutual respect between virtual starship captains both in an out of character, that guarantee I can work with them on a professional level without any risk of intrusion into my personal affairs. As a result half my non {UFP} friends list are ladies I exchange pleasantries and RL notes with on a regular basis. This is indicative of a safe and conducive mature gameplay environment and I do my part upholding the same standard shown to me by other players.

There is a reason why I do not play MMO games located in Asia. And yes I'm Asian. lol.

[JCarrill0]

World of Warcraft had issues with that, but they make so much freaking money now they still keep opening new servers to new countries, STO should be able to do the same, that's just wrong!

[Silynn]

World of Warcraft had issues with that, but they make so much freaking money now they still keep opening new servers to new countries, STO should be able to do the same, that's just wrong!

True. But multiple servers brings forth a whole new set of issues. In WoW, how many times were friends separated on different servers? SWTOR is the same, people are all over the place.

At least in STO, there is one server where everyone is localized. Instead of logging into different servers, STO parses out the players into diffeent maps (which I prefer). I can easily change maps. Trying to play characters on completely different servers is... not fun.

[JCarrill0]

True. But multiple servers brings forth a whole new set of issues. In WoW, how many times were friends separated on different servers? SWTOR is the same, people are all over the place.

In wow they have the REAL ID system, play with your friends on any server, groups, raids, you name it!

At least in STO, there is one server where everyone is localized. Instead of logging into different servers, STO parses out the players into diffeent maps (which I prefer). I can easily change maps. Trying to play characters on completely different servers is... not fun.

But if that server goes down, no one can play, that's why WoW has multiple servers. Blizzard did consider only having 2 servers to start, one for PVe and One for PvP, but the game progressed they made special RP server and RP-PVP servers, and if the serve crashed only a certain area would be affected.

There is 5 seperate loading regions in WOW PER server (one for Eastern Kingdoms, One for Kalimdor, and One for Outlands, and One for Northrend). If something crashes, the entire server is not shut down. something could crash on Kalimdor, and if I was in a dungeon or another continent I could be playing still. They used to also have one for dungeons and raids, but that's got mixed into entirely NEW system where people play on cross realms within a limit of Battle-groups. Mind you all this is for ONE server. WOW hosts over 100 serves that holds over 100,000 accounts for each server!

They eventually made the REAL ID system, where no matter what server you play, your friends can join groups for party and raids.

By all means though this isn't world of Warcraft, this is Star Trek! I just think STO should have something like a Real ID system, this way no matter what game you play you can keep in contact. If they had that, I would be forever locked in to STO!

I think its just stupid they don't wana take the effort to hire people that can admin those countries!

[McClintock]

Wow thanks for all the great opinions, good to hear them from everyone and some healthy debate!

I never thought about localization, and now that I think about it I imagine latency wouldn't be too great if your connecting on the other side of the world! I suppose that's a perfectly logical explanation, my point was that the way that was written made it sound like something sinister was going on. The workings of a paranoid mind.

Personally I partly agree with Lt. JCarrill0 in that they should have more than one server but have them all hooked up so nobody is split up like WoW. I've never had much inclination to playing WoW (*cough*subs*cough) but now that STO is heaving with new players (such as myself, whoops) the one-server solution is looking increasingly creaky, especially during the weekends.

Again it's great to hear such great thoughts that never crossed my mind!

[JCarrill0]

Defiantly. Thanks for your input as well for my question I had

[Silynn]

Ah, yes, the Real ID thing... I left shortly after it was implemented. I just remember being able to queue for Heroics or Raids with across servers, but not do regular dailies or quests with them. That was kind of neat and fun.

The server load balancing was eventually perfected by Blizzard, but they certainly didn't start that way. Even after two years, they still had issues on 'patch tuesdays'. However, they did use their great wealth and resources to load balance things very well that in the end, I rarely experienced any hiccups. Other MMOs hopefully have looked and used Blizzard as a good model for patch roll-outs and server balancing.

As far as Cryptic and a Real ID system... it is sort of there (minus grouping). If you play Champions Online, you can chat, PM, and even mail (text only, as attachments are barred) between there and STO. I remember playing Champions and talking to a few people from my old Supergroup who were playing STO via a channel much like {UFP-UFPK} or sending PMs back and forth.

[JCarrill0]

really how do I access mine?

[Carmen les Toreadors]

By all means though this isn't world of Warcraft, this is Star Trek! I just think STO should have something like a Real ID system, this way no matter what game you play you can keep in contact. If they had that, I would be forever locked in to STO!

I think its just stupid they don't wana take the effort to hire people that can admin those countries!

You do make very good points there.

But a part of me is asking myself - how popular is Star Trek in Asia? I've never seen a single Star Trek convention here in Singapore for my entire life, people -liked- Nemesis "because it was action packed" (Lol! Interesting perspective), etc.

To Asia, IP like Gundam and Final fantasy are king, and people still do get all fanatical over literally ancient games like Warcraft 3 (DOTA) and MapleStory, whereas the Western world is seeking to push the boundaries of technical capability with each new game title.

There is already talk about Star Trek Online not feeling canon and all, and that its premise is very military-oriented. Bring it to China without doing anything to garner cultural appreciation for a far-future utopia, and it becomes yet another grindfest farmland.

I for one think that instead of taking a big risk and spending millions to advertise an unfamiliar and generally un-loved IP to an Eastern population, Cryptic should just focus on the Western market which from what I garner from the STO forums, does still show very strong support for this game just because it's named Star Trek..

I'm sure the powers that be have also done their part in market survey and viability of opening STO to those 'Eastern' markets.

As for me being here, well, let's just say it's a bonus that I took some initiative to seek out new frontiers, instead of being content with a ten year old installation of Counter-strike