Blog Archives
Hello, hello, hello!
Hi fellow MNNians!
Well, the hacker seems to have struck again (this is turning out worse than the new star wars prequels) and effectively incapacitated the site for a good few weeks (oops). But we’re back and ready to go!
You’ll notice a few changes to the website. First of all, Read the rest of this entry
RaGEZONE Announce New Russian Off-Shore Sponsor and Host
At approximately 7 AM EST, RaGEZONE administrator MentaL announced a new sponsorship between RaGEZONE and an off-shore hosting company based in Russia called HostKey. According to MentaL’s announcement, ” Hostkey is offshore so anybody whom wishes to run a MMORPG development server without any real copyright or DMCA thread then will have a safe home. HostKey have pre-arranged an announcement of deals ready for you all, so if you want to be safe, secure and possibly run a very naughty website (piracy) then checkout Hostkey.”
It was also revealed that a new lawyer, Bradley J Freedman, was hired by Nexon to further prosecute RaGEZONE and FranTech. MentaL announced that RaGEZONE is now “officially located in Russia, land of Warez, sexy ladies and the OFFICIAL RaGEZONE servers,” and thus free of Nexon’s reach.
Read the complete announcement below:
Hellooooo!!!
Right then, where do I begin? Numerous years ago Nexon (MapleStory publishers) hired Mr Lloyd Korn to rid the world of MapleStory developments. Mr Korn took it upon himself to contact a previous host and had us remove the section to which I had no choice to comply (Despite the details being incorrect). A friend of mine who had been with RaGEZONE for some time called Francisco who headed FranTech offered us sponsorship (hardware) in exchange for advertising and would permit the use of MapleStory given he was fully aware of the legal situation surrounding it.
Since then, Nexon have issued several court cases against developers who are minors (Underage). During our transfer all attempts from Mr Lloyd Korn where ignored until Nexon then decided to throw down a huge lump sum of money and hired a Bradley J Freedman and unlike Lloyd this man had legitimate credentials and was also very respectful during his communication. Mr Freedman came forth with the same argument as Lloyd but had issued paperwork to sue FranTech for liability.
Nexon took it upon themselves to then conclude that FranTech should dismiss all associations with MapleStory and most notably several other development community’s that are not physically located on FranTech one single bit and hand over a sum of money to Nexon for its trouble. I was then told that I would be sued if I was not willing to co-operate and shut down MapleStory / RaGEZONE and hand over a sum of money for the inconvenience also. Nexon also stated to sue all parties involved within RaGEZONE / MapleStory and more (So making it appear that members and staff would be liable for actions). So basically, any written code you have hand written yourself Nexon believe its their property and you have no rights.
Upon hearing of the situation in its entirety I figured the course of resolution to protect FranTech from the lawsuit and myself and members was to seek refuge in another country, and that is what we have done. RaGEZONE is now officially located in Russia, land of Warez, sexy ladies and the OFFICIAL RaGEZONE servers.
We would like to thank HOSTKEY for their willingness to assist us in such desperate times. Our partnership with Hostkey is the same as FranTech. We will offer advertising to our users but this time Hostkey is offshore so anybody whom wishes to run a MMORPG development server without any real copyright or DMCA thread then will have a safe home. HostKey have pre-arranged an announcement of deals ready for you all, so if you want to be safe, secure and possibly run a very naughty website (piracy) then checkout Hostkey.
###############################################Offshore dedicated servers in Russia – HOSTKEY
Are you looking for a offshore hosting service? Have your web hosting requirements grown to the extent you now need a dedicated server? HostKey can help…
HostKey is world-class hosting provider based in Moscow, Russia. Company provides equipment colocation services and dedicated server leasing in the modern Russian and European data centers – StoreData (Russia, Moscow) and Serverius (The Netherlands).
Company offers a wide variety of modern server configurations for lease for any tasks of clients. We have a wide choice of servers for customers engaged in small web projects, numerous variations of universal servers for medium and large businesses and a whole segment of servers for major Internet projects.
Alongside the highest quality network connectivity, HostKey’s center offers the tightest possible security, a fully N+1 power supply, and, most importantly, a team of qualified English-speaking engineers working 24/7 to monitor and maintain client equipment and cater for client requests such as reboots.
HostKey offers attractive rates:
Russian Dedicated Server
- Core i3-540 3.06GHz / 4GB DDR3 (max 16GB) / 2x250GB SATA2, RAID 0/1 – $175
- Xeon QC X3440 2.53GHz / 4GB RAM (max 24GB) / 2x250GB SATA2, RAID 0/1 – $190
- Core i7-860 2.8GHz / 4GB DDR3 (max 16GB) / 2x250GB SATA2, RAID 0/1 – $195
See more (Dedicated servers in Russia, Moscow HOSTKEY)
Build your own server (HOSTKEY server configurator (Moscow) HOSTKEY)Netherlands Dedicated Servers
- Core i3-2100 3.1GHz (2xCores, HT) / 4GB DDR3 (max 16GB) / 2x500GB SATA2, RAID 0/1 – ˆ90
- Xeon E3-1220 3.1GHz (4xCores, HT) / 8GB DDR2 / 2x500GB SATA2 ILO ADV – ˆ99
- Xeon E5645 2.4GHz (6xCores, HT) / 8GB DDR2 / 2x500GB SATA2 ILO ADV – ˆ149
- 2õ Intel Xeon E5645 2.40GHz (2×6 Cores, HT) / 16GB DDR2 / 4x500GB SATA2 ILO ADV – ˆ200
See more (Dedicated servers in the Netherlands HOSTKEY)
With free bandwidth and limited content restrictions, HostKey’s services will keep your company ahead of the curve. To find out more about HostKey and its services visit our website, email us at sales@hostkey.ru, or call/fax us here: +7 499 246-3587
link www.hostkey.com
Thanks all!
What do you think? Is RaGEZONE out of the woods? Do private servers now have a safe-haven in Russia?
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Let us know in the comments below!
DestinyMS: The Latest Server To Pocket Donations?
We received an anonymous tip from a former DestinyMS developer urging us to post an article warning users of the alleged malicious activities of DestinyMS owner and administrator, Duncan (known to players as Shadow). Although we usually like to have more solid information before going on the words of a single person, given the growing trend of pocketing donations we feel obligated as informers of the MapleStory community to warn the community of the possible malicious intent of the DestinyMS administration.
According to our source three of DestinyMS’ PayPal accounts were locked by Nexon. Each account allegedly contained $300.00 USDs and were released after 90 days and our anonymous tipster told us the money in those accounts was not used to pay off server fees.
Duncan is now asking for donations to upgrade the server. A total of $3,850.00
Hello all you (loyal) players!
We want to upgrade our current server into a whole lot better, and we can get a good price for a good server.
But we need your help!Current idea of Specs:
2 x Quad core E5504 2.0Ghz
32GB ram
2x300gb SAS 15kHowever, we want even more if possible! have a better connection.
The current idea is that we use this as our main server, and maybe expand it. The more players we get, the ‘cheaper’ the server becomes per player. The more we can expand.For the current plan we need about 3.000 euro (around 3850USD) to get started. There is no big rush and we can save up with money we have left over from our normal payments.
The amount might seem high, but this is for a whole year.There are allot more options available if we manage to save up more money. So we might even open up more worlds (at possibly different rates, or not GMS alike… these options are open for discussion later). But this is just an idea.There are allot more things we could try.
But to achieve this, we need YOUR help. Considering we have over a 1000 active players (400-500 online), this would basically be an average of 4USD per player. And is entirely doable in our opinion.
To donate, contact a staff member either on forums, irc or ingame for more information.
Remember, we need your help to improve DMS. This idea is not for anytime to soon, does not have to be instant, but this is what we want to work towards.
The new site will also have improved donating implemented. Eliminating any waiting times
Regards.
DMS Administration.
Allegedly Duncan is pocketing donations made by players believing their money was going to server fees (similar to a recent situation with the private Server AbideStory). It is believed this latest request for donations to upgrade the server is another ploy by Duncan to trick players into donating for the server in order to fill his bank account. We have yet to receive a comment from DestinyMS and will update this post with more information as we receive it. If you have any information regarding this article please contact us at maplenewsnetwork@gmail.com or use the contact form on our website.
Before you comment, please be aware that this post is currently based on one witness’s account and that none of this is proven. Let us know what you think.
The End Of Private Servers?
Summer 2010 is upon us and Maple-News is about to embark on its 3rd year online. In this post we will take a look at MapleStory private servers in the past two years.
OdinMS – The Beginning
OdinMS started it all and in a way successfully sealed the fate of private servers. On June 16, 2008 NEXON filed a lawsuit against OdinMS for 350,000 euros (over $500,000). Over 2 years later a once thriving private server community has been decimated by relentless attacks by NEXON Korea and NEXON America closing dozens of servers, development forums, and ranking websites. Without a constantly updated source coders and sites took up the cause but never to the extent of OdinMS. It was the beginning of the end for private servers.
FlowsionMS, TitanMS, FinalStory
These servers held up the crux of OdinMS by offering reasonable rates, good development teams, and regular updates. They too did not last long but understood and respected the creation of the game and selectively respected the copyrights.
A Mass of Servers and DestinyMS’ Last Stand
With a growing private server community and development websites like RaGEZONE and KryptoDEV 2009 proved promising for private server loyalists. Even if you weren’t a coder or very experienced with a little money and a few friends you could make your own server…running it off your own computer using a CMS and pre-made scripts. Online communities like RaGEZONE and KryptoDEV fueled the fire giving large resources to people interested in creating their own server.
This didn’t last long as NEXON America’s Lloyd Korn along with NEXON Korea’s law firms began sending Cease and Desists and DMCA notices by the masses shutting server after server down and finally playing hardball, threatening lawsuits if owners did not shut down their server. DestinyMS, a server based in the Netherlands, was the first to stand up to NEXON. Refusing to shut down arguing they had lawyers swearing their server was legal and that NEXON could not touch them for months DestinyMS fought NEXON. It became harder and harder as fewer people were willing to take the risk and with the combination of increased updates in MapleGlobal and MapleSEA the need for private servers decreased. DestinyMS remained online sporadically but quickly faded away.
The End
With NEXON America and NEXON Korea coordinating their efforts more closely private servers began to take a beating. Ranking websites cringed at the hands of NEXON and slowly server after server faded away. Increased updates in MapleGlobal and MapleSEA made it difficult for private servers to continue updating and interest quickly faded. The “top 10″ servers either closed down or became only a shadow of what they once were. Development sites like KryptoDEV, who despite their efforts to resist NEXON, closed. Although there are still servers online, most are shoddily designed and fail to reach above 100 users online consecutively and are nothing compared to the original top servers. Private server users will argue it is not over while Nexon will argue that it is. What can be plainly seen is that the official versions of MapleStory are doing better than ever while private servers have become flies obsessed with the light only to get zapped the closer they go. Private servers are known to come back when everything thinks they’re out but can they do it again? NEXON has won the battle, but have they won the war?
What do YOU think? Tell us in the comments!
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MorphineStory Closes
MorphineStory, the latest private server to attract Nexon’s attention, closed yesterday after an ongoing battle with a Vermont law firm hired by Nexon Korea. MorphineStory was the first private server to run on a version 0.75 source. I spoke with Darion (RaptorJesus) and he confirmed MorphineStory has closed down permanently.
Darion: Yes
Go report that the biggest and best private servers is now closedand that no server will fill our amazing footsteps
Another administrator of MorphineStory, Vodka, announced yesterday that they were forced to shut down their website and forum.
Due to Lloyd Korn, we had to shut down our website. That unfortunately includes the forum. So the MorphineStory forum is no longer available.
Thanks, sorry.
Despite this it is rumored that the game itself will remain open until October 8th. It also seems quite strange that Vodka talks about Lloyd Korn when Nexon Korea was the branch that contacted MorphineStory.
When asked what happened to the site and forums Vodka reassured players that they’re on to, “Bigger and better things.”
Vodka:
Blame Nexon. We’re moving on to better things now.
MorphineStory was the largest MapleStory private server to run on version 0.75. This is a major win for Nexon and a major upset for private servers.
