The Truth about Private Servers

[sleepyxdude]

Over the past few months, Nexon has taken many actions to enforce its rights against private servers. For the community to understand what this means, we'll briefly explain our position and why action is taken.

Private servers- it doesn't matter what game it is; it doesn't matter what the justifications is; the bottom line is that all private servers are illegal. The content that appears on Nexon's website and in its games are Nexon's protected intellectual property. Intellectual property rights are defined as legal property rights, both artistic and commercial, in tangible form (as opposed to ideas). It is recognized by the laws of all the countries in the world and there are severe penalties for those who violate those rights, whether through expensive statutory fines or criminal jail time. The use of intellectual material such as Nexon's requires the permission and authorization from its owner. Using unauthorized intellectual property for personal gain without permission is both illegal and actionable.

The major issue with private servers is that they bypass the creative process of designers and developers. They make copies of the original game by using the creative assets of which they have no legal right to use. Please know that intellectual property has more than a monetary value; private server creators violate the intellectual property rights on games by using it for their own personal interest. It is for this reason that we take legal action against any and all private servers running Nexon games. There is no such thing as a Nexon-approved private server.

Another danger private servers pose concerns the security of information. When you register to play on a private server, you are blindly surrendering your personal information to non-professionals who have no legal obligation to keep your personal information secure. There is no telling what they can do with your personal information!

We have heard some claims that private servers don't make money or ask for donations (some do), it is technically not illegal. This is incorrect. First of all, collecting donations does not automatically make a website a charity or a non-profit organization. To become a charity or have non-profit status, strict guidelines must be followed and government approval needs to be met. We doubt any of the private server sites would fall under those guideline. Therefore, a private server website accepting donations would still be classified as a commercial endeavor which is performing illegal activities. Nobody is fooled by the "donation" scam.

You may have criticism towards Nexon's games that you feel are addressed in private servers. Keep in mind that we are continuing to try to improve our games on a daily basis, which is challenging since we are on a large scale in regards to a player base. It may not be too difficult keeping 5, 20 or maybe even a 100 players happy, but we cater to the thousands that log onto our servers daily, and the millions that play our games worldwide.

We will continue to pursue any and every action necessary, whether legal or otherwise, to stop those who continue to illegally use our intellectual property. If you are currently running an unauthorized server, we advise you to discontinue your service immediately.

Thank you for your understanding.

-MapleStory Staff-

http://maplestory.nexon.net/WZ.ASPX?...ZM&pageIndex=1

Thoughts?

[masterchocobo]

It's as big of a deal as piracy. Everyone knows it's illegal, but they still do it. Plust you get a +20% save from headaches when you play on a private server.

[Tesiqurasa]

I can see nexon's point with this, it IS their game, and pservers DO take away income from nexon. Im actually suprised they havent done MORE to take down most Pservers.

Not only do I play GMS, and have made 120+ 3 different times, but I also enjoy playing Pservers. It is a nice break from the grinding of maple, but cannot replace the satisfaction of normal maple.

[FyrFrost]

I don't see the point of private servers.

You play MMORPGS (massively multiplayer online role playing games -basically, RPGS that are online) for the community, not so you can get to max level and be like "AILJREWOIJLK LOLOL I'M SO PWN."

Honestly... if you play so you can do that, go play a non-MMO; a game that's not online, because you play MMOs so you can interact with the community and actually have fun.

To have fun when you're doing something, you enjoy the journey, not the destination.

The destination (level 200? level 120? Whatever you want) is... not fun for long. Sure, you're level 200. Sure, you've got 500m. Whatever. The point is, what are you going to do after that? You have nothing else to accomplish; you've accomplished it all.

THAT'S why I think Private Servers are pointless.

Last thoughts: If I was Nexon, I wouldn't care about private servers unless they started to actually muscle in on my business (and enough big pservers don't exist yet, to do that). Then it's suing, smackdown time.

BTW I gotta stop making such long posts.

[Tharticus]

Nexon has made this point since taking down specific private servers (I will not name them) that can make other servers quake in fear of being "Cease and Desist" or "We will sue you for $500,000 USD".

It is their IP, and they will do whatever they want, regardless if the crowd boos or hisses at them. They have already taken down the most popular and first Private Server, and other servers that still standing either doesn't care or soon will be run down by Nexon.

[Asianese]

I don't see the point of private servers.

You play MMORPGS (massively multiplayer online role playing games -basically, RPGS that are online) for the community, not so you can get to max level and be like "AILJREWOIJLK LOLOL I'M SO PWN."

Honestly... if you play so you can do that, go play a non-MMO; a game that's not online, because you play MMOs so you can interact with the community and actually have fun.

To have fun when you're doing something, you enjoy the journey, not the destination.

The destination (level 200? level 120? Whatever you want) is... not fun for long. Sure, you're level 200. Sure, you've got 500m. Whatever. The point is, what are you going to do after that? You have nothing else to accomplish; you've accomplished it all.

THAT'S why I think Private Servers are pointless.

Last thoughts: If I was Nexon, I wouldn't care about private servers unless they started to actually muscle in on my business (and enough big pservers don't exist yet, to do that). Then it's suing, smackdown time.

BTW I gotta stop making such long posts.

Some players get tired of doing all of that. They don't care about "accomplishments". They just want to see what is at the end. Take a shortcut. And nexon has sued a few pservers (one of them, i will leave out the name, had a HUGE amount of members (2k or so?) If nexon gets $1 from each of those people, that is a lot of money they are not getting

[vladekxbootes]

'If one falls, another one will rise"

[Dae314]

I attempted at one time to play on a private server. I must've chosen a very unpopular one because there might have been about 10 people on at any given time including gms. It was the most boring experience ever. Sure I could train at 5000000x exp and level to 100 in a matter of hours with 999b mesos and fully maxed int,luk, dex, str, and skills, but there was no interaction (I stopped playing at lv 30).

The reason why I still play ms even at such a high level is not the massive damage that I do, although this is a good point about it, it's the interactions that I get durring the game. No other type of game has the interaction that a multiplayer online game has. You get to talk to real people and deal with the game situations with them. That is what makes maple story fun for me. If I was going only for leveling and power, I would have quit a long time ago. Leveling at 19x (I'm 14x but I know 19x ppl) will take days, maybe weeks depending on how long you play everyday. Nexon has a warning at 3 hours telling you to get off the game, but at 19x 3 hours of playing on 2x will get you about 3%. Nexon cannot expect you to play maybe 6 hours a day and level every 2 and a half weeks. That is insane. Only crazy people could live through that. So the main goal of my online time is to make friends, and build on the friendships that I have. Leveling is secondary.

This is not to say that you can't have friends on ps, but I believe that nexon has every right to take whatever legal action they believe necessary against ps who are infringing on copyright laws.

[Poomanchu3]

Decrease the experience needed to level, quests giving much better experience and you will have a much better game.

Well not better per se, but it would reduce the amount of people flocking to private servers.

[Pyxis]

Overall, I don't think they're really taking much action. How many PS' are actually shut down because of Nexon so far?

Sure, they sued a few companies/PS, but compare that to the total number of private servers out there.

I think they're going low key ATM.

htt p://ww w.playpark.net/for ums/viewannounce/5679_36/