Can En Masse really Make TERA a Clean Game by Blocking Half of the World's IP?

"En Masse will block IPs based on region. Asia, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East are included on the block list. While we appreciate that there are players in these regions who would enjoy playing on En Masse servers, it's unfortunate that the vast majority of Internet traffic we see from these regions are from cyber-criminals relating to account theft, gold-farming and other hacking behavior."





Above was the statement En Masse made in response to the ip block that will be implemented in TERA North American servers. It's good to see that En Masse is seeking every means to protect the TERA community, but blocking half of the world's players from playing TERA might not be the best choice and it might not be able to keep TERA clean.


It's true that most gold farmers, botters, and spammers are from Asian countries such as China, but it's inappropriate and prejudiced to say that "the vast majority" of players from Asia, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East are "cyber-criminals". The reason why so many Chinese gold farmers in US and EU servers is that there's larger profit. Hiring some cheap labours in China to farm golds and selling them in the west for US dollars and Euros are something many people will do. On the other hand, there are a lot of legit gamers in Asia, Africa and Russia.





IP ban doesn't kill gold farming and bots. Nexon, known for blocking oversea IP, is still struggling for clean gaming environment. Because there are always ways to bypass the block by using vpn and proxy, and gold farmers and bot makers will find the way as long as there's profit, just see the bots in Dragon Nest and Vindictus NA. Besides, players from NA, EU, South America, and Oceania (these areas are not on En Masse's block list) aren't 100% legit ones.

Chronoscroll (tradable gaming time) is another thing that En Masse uses to counter illegal RMT and third party gold selling websites, but can it really keep the community health? Players who need golds can buy Chronoscrolls with real money and sell them in game for virtual money, but we'll see how it will affect the game's economy. A foreseeable thing is that rich fanboys can be very rich in game and those who want to earn their money from playing may suffer.

Are you for or against TERA NA's IP block? Will it make TERA a clean game?

Frankly, let's consider this a test phase with regards to the battle against any form of illegalities in-game. Although I admit that it is quite unfortunate that we Filipinos will not be able to play TERA, this actually is a double-edged weapon against us and the rest of Asia.

If TERA's regional IP block does result in a clean game, what does that say about us? It would imply that it is our fault that online games close, lesser and lesser people play, and customer service is as bad as your breath. It would lead to us getting crappy games in the future because of the way we play - relying heavily on hacking and other types of third party programs. What's worse, the current games we have could consider pulling out or completely shutting down their servers and just opt for the "clean" regions.

I'm not saying that that's what's going to happen. But of course, it is always a possibility, a worst-case scenario that we should all think about.


Credits: MMOsite

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