Breaking News: Death of Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong Region!?

Just few hours ago (31-Mar-2008 afternoon Taiwan time) the official website of GW's Taiwan region posted a formal notice that the service of GW in Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong region will be stopped start from 1-May-2008, due to the expiry of the contract period.

The Taiwan agent is still dicussing with NCSoft regarding the details of the handling of Taiwan region accounts, however, the whole Taiwan region will be isolated from the International District step by step start from tomorrow (1-Apr-2008, yes! less than 24 hours since the notice!), by "introducing" the following features:
1. Cannot drop inventory items on ground
2. Cannot whispers to any non-Taiwan region accounts
3. Cannot switch to International District
4. Cannot trade with any non-Taiwan region accounts
5. NPC item price will not float with the whole International market in-game.

For those who can read Chinese, here is the link to the official notice

http://guildwars.nctaiwan.com/news/n...bid=13298&ct=2

april fools? (or is it too early?)

If it's an April Fools joke, and the timing sure is suspicious, it's from NCSoft.
It's on http://guildwars.nctaiwan.com/

It is not April fools, it is real news from taiwan homepage

Ah lol so my taiwan friends go homeless?

Don't think so (although I hope so, because I have a Taiwan account, as storage...). There was another official notice posted 2 days ago, said 1-Apr-2008 morning (Taiwan time) the Taiwan server will be shutdown 5 hours for maintenance...obviously match with the "new features" update timing.

For those who can read Chinese, here is the link to the official notice
http://guildwars.nctaiwan.com/news/n...bid=13296&ct=2

I'm guessing April Fools... it's almost midnight over there anyway.

The Korean GW site hasn't even been up for the past 6 months or so. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the small, isolated servers began dying off.

http://www.guildwars.co.kr/

the chinese mainland servers will also be shut down on 31 March, 24:00. but they were still is a open beta period.

there were complains, but since you could get an accout for free, the company did not have to refund anything.

the notic for the mainland server shutdown was announced on the 16th March

does anyone else find it odd that the actions that are being taken...seem like the actions taken against...bots.

-it's just convenient that the contract period is up, I guess.
I smell a wicked truth covered up here.

I'm speechless... Tragic... Just, tragic.

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Vengeful/南非

Totally sucks guys, sorry to hear that things are getting messed up for ya, hope that NC/ANet get something sorted for you so that you can continue to play gw

Isn't Taiwan were most of the bot masters reside?

Could it be related to that?

Are they cutting the Gordian knot?

This seems to apply only to new accounts? Unfortunately, I am not fluent in gobbledygook, but this is what Google translate says:

Man, from the title I thought something happened to the real region... not in-game. I think that's what I get for surfing 5 minutes after I wake up =_=.

Anyways, that sucks for players in those regions >_<.

Well.. the economy will become better.. 90% of the bots come from Taiwan.

I was from Hong Kong and brought my account with me to US. Due to timezone problem, I can't play much with my Chinese friends. I also can't play with America coz most of them stay in Am district. I asked NCSoft if I could move to US server and I got a "NO" answer.
I have to ask my friend back in Hong Kong to buy me new chapters. Now even no more trade with non-Taiwanese account!? Sorry but WTF!!!!!!

I doubt they would joke about this

It's not april fools... If it is then it's a really bad joke.

Yea thats a bit like burning down a petting zoo with all the rabbits and fluffy little animals locked inside, then yelling "April Fools"

If it's not an April Fool however, I wonder who's next to have service terminated?

Once Hong Kong goes can we get more Panada's (I heard thats why they stopped giving them out, some Asian law)

the next server might be korea or japan, only predictions though :P
they might just keep shutting down servers
till we only have America/Europe servers
then it would be nice to have the old favor system back

not that i want the servers to be down though :/

Why are we shutting off services to so many players??

That was actually my thought too. Extremely harsh to the (admittedly few) real players, if so.
Other possibilities include legal problems with the Chinese - I seem to remember that there is a law against violent games in China, plus the present Chinese crackdown on communication via MMO's. Maybe NCSoft couldn't or wouldn't comply with demands from the Chinese government?

Can you not read?

GW1 comes to an end, and was never successful on the asian market. The9 also no longer host GW.

I just wonder what they will do in GW2. Try to cater to the Asian crowd as well or to focus solely on western desires, whatever they might be.

If they shut down the servers does that mean no more asian tag names aswell because that would we a shame.

Everyone seems to be acting as if this is the fault of the game provider. According to the news release about this two weeks ago NC Soft had made many attempts and expended good effort to be able to continue to provide game service, but hadn't been able to do so. I think swearing at A-Net is incredibly inappropriate in this instance, although I can sure sympathize with the frustration that not being able to continue to play or to trade would bring. I thought it was particularly harsh that they were saying they didn't know if the server data would be saved so that if the game were to be brought back on-line people would be able to access the characters and inventory they had built in the past.

I do understand that there would have to be some attempt to isolate the economy though -- consider literally thousands upon thousands of people discovering that they won't be able to play soon -- I would think that most would begin to sell or give away the things they have accumulated in their accounts which would definitely impact the overall economy.

Sincerest sympathies for all of those that are affected.

That's just it -- there was longer than 1 day notice. This post was make on 3/16/08 http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forum...d.php?t=475551 and it has been on the home page of GW Online since that time.

Pardon my ignorance about how they do things in other countries, but I believe that I have read in the past that there is another, government controlled, company that NC Soft has to go through to provide service to Taiwan and China. Can someone more in the know than I am shed some light on this?

China has very, very strict rules and filters for the internet. Did you know that Google has to filter its search results to chinese IPs according to the government? If they tried to search for 'democracy' they would have found no matches!

I would imagine that NCSoft and ANet would have to do the same thing. And China considders Taiwan as part of China, even though Taiwan is recognised as an independant state by western countries.

But i dont know how this relates to the issue. Its just speculation.

Bad one

I must confess the conspiracy theorist in me did think along the same lines as Flubba and Numa... very odd

That post is about the CHINA Beta server, which also end in 3/31. We're talking about the Taiwan/Hong Kong/Macao server, which only has 24 hours notice.

that was for the mainland servers, look on my comment on Page 1
btw here's the link....although it's in chinese
http://gw.the9.com/news/main/88878.shtml

Makes sense to me from a political perspective.
And this won't stop/is dirrected at bots. They will just run a proxy and get on the regular servers.
This is likely due to laws/political reasons in the region.

All I've seen is that they're "doing it because of bots" - which is stupid. There are actual players in these areas, you know.

well I hope when they shut our servers down they give us a little more than a few weeks notice (or hours---)....but the writing is already on the wall ~

here's the rough translation if any1 is interested...

Title fierce combat Hong Kong and Macao area termination service bulletin Announces the time 2008.03.31

reading number of times 1,154 The dear fierce combat plays

the family hello:

Under thank your for more than two years to come to the fierce combat support and the loving care, the fierce combat Hong Kong and Macao area accompanies in a your group, has experienced the many times edition correction as well as many activities, still remembered when the Taiwan earthquake, the international partner spontaneous initiates [ likes spreading ] and so on the activity, lets Hong Kong and Macao play the family to feel completely the warmth.

Since the fierce combat unique game characteristic, has thank very much plays families continuously the support, but because the Hong Kong and Macao area agent contract soon expires in 2008, we are very regrettable must inform play the family, we soon in 2008 May 1, stop the fierce combat game service, we just and original factory ArenaNet carries on the member following rights and interests the processing discussion, both sides also agreed in will not affect plays the family to carry on the game under the premise, will discover the best solution way. .

In order to confirm the Hong Kong and Macao effective member account number as well as the rights and interests, we from April 1, will limit 制台 the Hong Kong and Macao account number part function, will carry on the detail consultation with the original factory after termination service member rights and interests, the correlation following detail as well as the member plays carries on the rights and interests to be able to announce Yu Kuanwang as soon as possible.

In order to avoid playing plays the family rights and interests to suffer injury, in has discussed after original factory ArenaNet, we will terminate the new account number in April 1 to open and so on the measure, the detailed content will include:

4/1 noon 12.00, the termination open the fierce combat game service function, no longer accepts the new fierce combat account number application.
4/1 noon 12.00, terminate the NCOIN purchase fierce combat game time commodity, the NCT platform no longer sells sells the fierce combat correlation game commodity
4/1, entire family will facilitate the store no longer to sell sells fierce combat entire family to buy the game serial number immediately.
4/1, carries on the partial games account number function to revise, throws including the cancellation the goods falls the ground function
The cancellation transmission code gives the non- Hong Kong and Macao account number member function
The cancellation enters the international region function
The cancellation plays the family transaction function with the non- Hong Kong and Macao area
Cancels the merchant price and the international area gearing function
5/1 noon 12.00, terminate the NCT platform serial number to store the value function
6/3 noon 12.00, closure fierce combat game homepage
The correlation following detail as well as the member will play will carry on the rights and interests to be able to announce Yu Kuanwang as soon as possible

Has thank you since once more to a fierce combat group support, and reiterated once again, 4/1 game content revises, cannot affect you to carry on majority of main PVE, PVP to the war game function, in following processing, we already aim at affect play the family to carry on the game under the premise, carries on the consultation with the original factory, please play the family not to have to worry and to be panic, if you on hand still have not yet Chu Chih fierce combat serial number, asks you immediately to carry on by all means must to the NCT member platform stores the value.

Achieves by no means regarding many services perfect or creates the game to inconvenience place, in this, the crew sends the deepest apology to all group support fierce combat members, and thank you once more to the fierce combat support.

The ginn sets up transport business team to present respectfully

That is pretty unfair to those that bought the game there. :/

It did coincide with NCSoft taking a more active interest in Guild Wars (e.g. taking over support), possibly as a result of NCSoft feeling the squeeze of the Auto Assault flop and lukewarm reception of Tabula Rasa, so... quite possibly an NCSoft idea, yeah.

(Frankly I'm surprised ANet's managed to keep NCSoft from changing GW2's business model into subscription-based.)

Or, equally possibly, just a stopgap-measure to keep people from defecting from the guild wars franchise while GW2 was developed. Or perhaps both.

I don't believe Guild Wars is as attractive in Asia as it is to Europe or America.

There are only two reasons to this lockdown:

1. As for the given regions, it was rather expected. Chinese players, in general, prefer to spend a lengthy amount of time to leveling up their characters or getting wealthy. In short, they prefer the traditional type of MMORPG. I believe that most of these players were bored when they beat the storyline, and perhaps they have even made their exit by that point. Although Guild Wars can be an one-player game, to solo with Heroes and Henches, it is not very entertaining to play alone. Relevantly, with the decline of players, there weren't much profits to be made at that point to cover up the server cost and such. It is only logical to close down the server.

2. The recent Tibet issue may have been a trigger to it. Many western news have been making biased reports to sabotage China, and to ensure that no bandwagon effects are placed within its citizens, a further lockdown to internet is issued. The bandwagon problem has only been taken this seriously mainly due to the 2008 Olympics.

From the thread title, I was thinking that something happened over there in real life. o.O

Too bad the GW fans from over there won't be able to play. Hopefully at some point GW can be available to them again.