General Discussion

NCsoft has announced in a press release that they are increasing their efforts to combat illegal online game servers, particularly in Eastern Europe.

NCsoft®, the world-leading, publisher of massively multiplayer online games such as Guild Wars®, Lineage® II and City of Heroes®, today announced that it was stepping up its fight against the growing menace of intellectual property theft. This action comes as a direct response to the rise of illegal online game servers throughout Eastern Europe, particularly in Greece and Russia where NCsoft’s fantasy-based online role playing game, Lineage II, is extremely popular.

The fraudulent servers in question are being used by players playing at home and in internet cafes, but such unauthorised servers often feature – or require users to download – illegally modified and potentially harmful game data, thereby changing the intended online experience.

NCsoft’s European office has identified several prominent illegal servers across Europe and is in the process of taking action against individuals and corporations deemed to be in breach of international copyright laws. In a lawsuit that was commenced last year in Greece, NCsoft successfully obtained a court order against Internet Cafe business, ‘e-GLOBAL’ following which four of its cafes were raided and illegal software was seized. This led to the shutting down of illegal servers on which pirate copies of Lineage II software was loaded. Georgios Katostaris – Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Constantinos Zygouras – Vice-Chairman of the Board and Managing Director, Athanassios Dobros – Deputy Managing Director and Dimitrios Koutsoukos – Administrator of the company under the name ‘INTERNET DYNAMICS LLC’ have all been made personal defendants to the proceedings that are continuing in the Greek Courts in which NCsoft is seeking damages as well as criminal remedies.

Read more here.

The only issue I have with that article is it claims that NCSoft lost up to 6 million on private servers due to them "Stealing" business.

Last time I looked at private servers, they are so different from live its not funny. Faster levels, different rewards, etc. People playing private servers arent going to go back to NCsofts... thats just a legal method to get them to shut down.

However, it is their software, and their ip...however claiming a free to download software is pirated does make me laugh

they will never combat them with any  great success, just as easy for new ones to come out , that they cannot reach lol.  oh no i lost my player controlled lvl 100 char..where i am known.. hmm Ill email my friend and get a new one in the new server we just made 10minutes ago =p.

pretty pointless attempt...and yes I agree with above poster the gameplay on those private server are what the people want in the game, if they wanted to play on the real servers they would be... but guess what, they are not

Unless the private servers are charging....they are just wasting time.  Players that play on them aren't playing because they intend to give anyone 15 a month.  Its because they DON'T.

Legal, illegal...who cares.  Its all about the bottom line, and frankly...its not gonna earn them a dime most likely unless the illegal servers WERE charging lower monthly fees.  In that case...they stand to earn quite a bit from this.

So if a company came out and offered free Whoppers that were cooked faster and didn't have any pickles, Burger King shouldn't claim they lost business because if people wanted the real whoppers they would be paying for them? 

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  Of course piracy and private servers are hurting the Software industry and they should be shut down.  It is illegal and it costs the people that designed the software hard earned money. 

Totally right whatever reason .

Originally posted by Cabe2323

So if a company came out and offered free Whoppers that were cooked faster and didn't have any pickles, Burger King shouldn't claim they lost business because if people wanted the real whoppers they would be paying for them? 

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  Of course piracy and private servers are hurting the Software industry and they should be shut down.  It is illegal and it costs the people that designed the software hard earned money. 

OMGZORZZ!!! free whoopers, I am so there..and  everyone else would be too, you cannot compete with free, bye bye burger king. your analogy is poor lol

PS: I dont like pickles

Originally posted by Cabe2323

So if a company came out and offered free Whoppers that were cooked faster and didn't have any pickles, Burger King shouldn't claim they lost business because if people wanted the real whoppers they would be paying for them? 

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.  Of course piracy and private servers are hurting the Software industry and they should be shut down.  It is illegal and it costs the people that designed the software hard earned money. 

I don't think a company could stay in business very long offering enough free whoppers to hurt Burger King's sales.  Someone has to buy the cow meat.

For reference, WoW just netted 1.2 *billion* last year.

How many yachts can you water-ski behind? When is enough enough...?

NCsoft: don't go the way of the movie/music dinosaur cartels - offer value adds that make ppl want to pay for your services. Anything else is pure greed. Suing your own customers - never good for business, whichever way you slice the cake. Here endeth the lesson.

Originally posted by Nostromo21

For reference, WoW just netted 1.2 *billion* last year.

How many yachts can you water-ski behind? When is enough enough...?

NCsoft: don't go the way of the movie/music dinosaur cartels - offer value adds that make ppl want to pay for your services. Anything else is pure greed. Suing your own customers - never good for business, whichever way you slice the cake. Here endeth the lesson.

And for the record, there are far more "illegal" servers for World of Warcraft than there are for Lineage 2.

People who play private servers do it because they're too lazy or too cheap to play retail. Generally, you can play on a private server for free, forever. Private servers usually run much higher rates for drops/exp/etc than retail does, making the whole experience much more enjoyable for people who have to work and don't want to take 80 days /played to get max level in lineage 2.

The claim that NCsoft is losing business through these servers is just wrong, people who play private servers play them because they don't like what retail has to offer. Shutting down these servers is just going to cause players to migrate to other servers, not to retail.