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

That sure sucks I am Chinese, but lucky play on US server, i dont know what to say really.... carry on brother and sisters, wait for GW2 is our last hope i guess:S 大家不要伤心了，事情会好起来的

嗯，大家都到美服来吧　:d

If this is what people really think, and not just speculation, China is a scary place indeed.

From that translation above, it appears that the Asian servers are being seperated from the main servers and no new accounts are being sold. However, it appears that the servers will continue to run. I could have this wrong, considering the garbled translation (wtf is fierce combat anyway?).

Fierce Combat is the literal translation of Guild Wars' chinese name: 激战

Well, I was going to buy a US GW copy after hearing the news(I live in US right now). Just remembered that new account can't trade within 24 hours, so even I got a US copy, I wouldn't be able to transfer my stuff there. This makes me think that the 24 hours update is kinda prepare for this 24-hours notice shut down.

My thoughts as well. China is a huge untapped market and it would be stupid to give up on it without a very good reason. Government steam rolling all over you would be a good one.

Who says the closings aren't tied together. HK and Macao are part of China and Taiwan is contested. Seems like an afterthought, with Anet in the last legs of closing down the China servers, some government official walks by and says the other servers have to go as well.

you know, you do have a very good point there
mayby it's...
Conspiracy!

It's a huge, untapped market where piracy rates approach 100%. That's sort of a problem if you want to make money.

It has been reported that the Government of China has been cutting several internet links to stop students, and others, from getting information out of the country.

I could very well see them putting pressure upon companies to sever game servers for this reason as well.

Conspiracy much? Anyway I would have to agree with you.

Ugh, dont use online translators...


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Dear Guild Wars players,

Thank you for the two years support of Guild Wars in Hong Kong and Taiwan. We went through many changes and events. Remember the time when Taiwan had the earthquake. Our international community had a "send the love out" event which made Taiwan and Hong Kong feel the warmth of companionship.

Guild Wars unique gameplay is being supported by many players but due to the contract end in 2008 we regret to tell the players we are stopping service as of May 1 2008. We are in the process of talking to the original company Arena Net about continuing service rights. Both parties do not want to disrupt the players game and are working on the best solution.

Because in Taiwan and Hong Kong they are on a membership/monthly fee as of April 1 they will stop the charging function (can not charge the account). They will stop the support with the original company. They are working on the details. More information will be released on the webpage.

To avoid players rights being violated, after talking with Arena Net they will stop the billing and other details below:

April 1 noon: Stop creating new accounts function.
April 1 noon: Stopping the N-coin (how they buy GW and other merchandise ie. char slots). NCT will not sell any GW merchandise.
April 1: Convenience stores will not sell any GW recharge cards.
April 1: Change the function of the game including can not drop stuff on ground, can not whisper to anyone outside Taiwan/HK server, can not enter Int. district, can not trade with anyone outside Taiwan/HK server, disable merchant and international travel.
May 1 noon: Stop NCT billing function.
June 3 noon: Close GW Taiwan webpage.
Other items will be listed on the webpage later.

Thank you again for the support. Just to reiterate that April 1 the changes will go in. Most changes will not affect PvE and PvP function. We did this to try not to interfere with players but we are in talks with Arena Net about the rights to continue the service so players please do not worry or panic. If you still have any GW credit please contact NCT member about refund.

If our service hasnt been perfect and has caused inconvenience, from all the people that have worked on Guild Wars we are sorry. Thank you for supporting Guild Wars.

This doesn't make any sense, unless they plan on allowing others to enter Taiwan districts. You'd think sealing them off from international would be enough.

What is "international travel" as opposed to "international district"? Is this another word for "map travel" or "travel between campaigns"? Or is there some district-changing options for Taiwan customers right now?

Seems like an awful lot of program changes to be implemented within 24 hours so it must have been in the pipeline.

[edit: removed reference to some deleted posts]

FoxBat, I think its just multiple measure to make sure everything is cut off in any way possible.

Hey Guys
There is quite a few people in Temple ID1 fighting for their cause of keeping up the connection. Although its probably in vain, it would be nice for more people to support this. I know i will be there

Doesn't matter in an mmo where access is granted by unique access keys rather then just having a copy of the game. The points made in your recent thread don't apply here.

I just updated and went back to GTB ID1

Nobody there
Guess this is real and just bad timing (April 1st wise) or someone at Anet is taking a April Foll way over sick and into RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOed up

Dev Update] Changes to Taiwanese Accounts – 31 March 2008
New government regulations in Taiwan, which take effect April 1, restrict game companies in that region from effectively suspending or banning accounts for participating in professional farming or real-money trading. Guild Wars is highly impacted by local regulations such as this, because Guild Wars operates in a seamless, connected manner between all territories. We cannot sustain a seamless connection when we are unable to effectively police the game in one territory, because professional farmers in that territory could severely damage the game’s economy throughout the world. Therefore, we are forced to disconnect Taiwanese service from the rest of the game world as of April 1.

Users in Taiwan will still be able to participate in their international guilds and compete in international PvP, but as of April 1, they will no longer be able to enter international districts, trade with players outside Taiwan, or play in PvE environments with players outside Taiwan.

That explains a lot.

Atleast theres an explanation now, not just a Bye Bye