VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese gamers, who have been playing game through foreign servers, now do not know what they should do after hearing that a Vietnamese distributor has got the copyright of the game and the license to distribute the game in Vietnam.

The story of Dragonica

The most notable event of the Vietnamese games community last week was the announcement by FPT Online that it has got the license to distribute Dragonica in the domestic market.

This is the first MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) licensed in Vietnam after two years of licensing interruption.

A problem has arisen that Dragonica has been present in Vietnam since May 2011 already. However, the game has been distributed under the Vietnamese name “Kiem Rong” – a game with Vietnamese version with the server located in foreign countries. This means that gamers had been playing the game for the last six months by the day FPT Online got the license.

As a result, gamers have been put on the… crossroads. They have to choose either to give up the achievements they have got over the last six months with Kiem Rong, to begin from the start with the licensed Dragonica, or continue playing with Kiem Rong.

If the former solution is chosen, gamers would lose a lot of achievements, time and efforts they spent in the last six months. If they choose the latter one, they would have to continue playing an unlicensed game with the server located in foreign countries. In this case, under the current regulations on games management, this is considered “illegal games”, which means that gamers will not be protected in any case of disputes.

In fact, in the last two years, Vietnamese gamers had no other choice than using illegal games, as the watchdog agencies decided to halt the licensing to consider applying necessary measures to keep a tighter management over the games market.

Analysts have commented that FPT Online will have to find out a flexible policy for the just licensed Dragonica and the current Kiem Rong players.

The story with Kiem Rong seems to be similar with MU Online game in the past. FPT Online also obtained the copyright to distribute the game and decided to remove a lot of illegal servers. However, the move discontented players.

With Dragonica, the possible solution to be chosen by FPT Online is that Kiem Rong would exist together with Dragonica, because this belongs to IAH Games. In the long term, FPT Online would have to negotiate with IAH Games to buy back the database of Kiem Rong. After that, Kiem Rong would be added into the Dragonica’s server in Vietnam.

Commented about this, analysts say that this is a feasible solution while it can satisfy gamers. It is clear that Vietnamese gamers want to play illegal games and want to be protected by the laws.

Other games bear the same fate

However, analysts have warned that the same stories would occur in the near future. In the last two years, though no game had been licensed in Vietnam, the games with Vietnamese version still have been distributed with the servers in foreign countries, from webgames to MMORPG. These include “Kiem Tien”, “Loong Online” or “Hiep Khach Giang Ho.”

Once the games are licensed and distributed in Vietnam in a legal way, the same scenario would occur.

Vietnamese gamers have been advised to use legal games, because they will get the support from the distributors. Their benefits, efforts and money will be reserved, while in case of incident, they will get compensation and ask for the intervention of management agencies.

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