The MMORPG Throne and Liberty will be released in Europe by Amazon in 2024. In South Korea, it has already launched on December 7, 2023: Players from the West who want to play it now and are willing to go through some troubles can do so. There is even an English version. NCSoft will not ban “foreigners” – at least for now.
What kind of MMORPG is this?
- Throne and Liberty is a new MMORPG from the Lineage series. In South Korea, “Lineage” is what “WoW” is to us: a huge gaming brand that has dominated the MMORPG market for decades.
- Amazon wants to bring Throne and Liberty to the West in 2024, but there is no exact release date yet.
- In South Korea, the game has already launched on December 7 and is now received much better than one might have assumed. Before its release, there were many negative reports about the MMORPG, but apparently the mood has shifted positively. On reddit , a player describes it as a “modern, Asian WoW”.
MMORPG will not ban foreigners if they behave
This is the latest development: If you want to play a game in Asia from the West, there is often trouble. In the past, it has happened multiple times that while it was possible to get an account with much effort, the publisher suddenly found it not so cool and simply banned all foreign players.
However, as it has now been revealed, NCSoft will not do that with Throne and Liberty. As shown in a YouTube video, the devs explained on December 22 that they would not ban foreign players as long as they behave and follow the rules.
How is this being discussed? On reddit , they are now discussing the possibility of playing the game already, and some MMORPG fans suggest that they are willing to go through the trouble to play the game already in South Korea.
This is not so easy because you need a VPN provider and have to somehow acquire a verifiable account – likely having to buy an account on the gray market, since Westerners lack the social security number required to play in South Korea.
It’s also not really “safe”. It could be that NCSoft might rethink this stance in the future.
Thus, the topic is being controversially discussed:
- Some say they will do it and perceive playing there as an “extended beta test”.
- Others find it too much effort, feel insecure with a “bought account” that can disappear at any time, and want to wait until the game is officially released in the West.
One user says, for instance, that there is a clear difference between a legitimate account and a bought, verified account using a stolen ID: “Re-verification waves” will surely wash away many foreign players – technically speaking, this is not a ban.
Some also fear that NCSoft’s permission for Westerners to play the game in South Korea already indicates that the Western release will take a long time.
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