Hi, GMs, I am wondering if Royals can change their way of treatment towards VPN usage. I have several experiences that I got banned because of VPN. The situation was that a hacker used the same VPN program. He used his own account. However, I got banned as well because we shared the same VPN source. I totally understand why Royals does not just ban the IP and MAC address, because VPN can just change these things by one click. However, by banning the one hacking account has the same effect as banning all the accounts using that VPN source. I am suggesting that Royals can only ban the hacking account instead of banning other not hacking ones. This will achieve what GMs want. By banning the account, kick out the hacker. The reason why I have to and need to use VPN is that my dorm internet blocks us from gaming, but I really want to play Royals and chat with Maple friends online. Plus I can't afford my own internet for financial reasons and specially strict regulations of personal internet in Japan. Given these reasons, I can only depend on my dorm internet to survive in Royals. Here are three examples for my experiences. https://royals.ms/forum/threads/dont-know-why-i-got-permanent-ban.51919/#post-280493 https://royals.ms/forum/threads/banappeal-for-qaz5556.64953/#post-337420 https://royals.ms/forum/threads/banappealz-for-petyr.64672/ By the above examples, we came to understand that GMs can identify whether the players use VPN, and therefore GMs can ban only the T&C-violating account, and spare other not hacking accounts. I believe this treatment would be better and reasonalbe I truly hope that GMs may understand my reasons and my struggles for the past 7 months. Change the way that Royals treats VPN usage, from banning all accounts to banning only the hacking account. Or perhaps GMs can tell me why Royals does not just ban the one account violating T&C, but banning other innocent players. Thanks for your reading. So far this is the best ever private server I have ever found, and that's why I spent time trying to communicate with GMs.
Can't you use a dedicated IP VPN instead of a shared VPN? The reason that players using a shared VPN can get banned is because they all share the same IP address, and it makes it difficult for us to tell the unique users apart without doing a thorough investigation.
First, for your questions, I can't find a free dedicated IP VPN online, and I am afraid I am financially unable to pay for the monthly fee. For Royals, I am not a serious pursuer for godly items, and I merely want to meet and chat with friends I met in Royals after school and part-time job. Second, I understand your worries, and yes, it might be hard for GMs to identify the hacker since GMs might only look at the IP and MAC address. However, my question is that, based on the first ban appeal for TianTianz, I acknowledge two things: 1. GMs can know if a player is using shared VPN 2. GMs can identify the name of the character who hacked (in TianTianz's case, it's albeee) Therefore, GMs should know the hacker's account when they banned all the accounts, since they banned TianTianz because of albeee. Then my question is, since GMs can know which account hacked Royals, why GMs do not just ban the hacking account? I asked these questions with all of respect, because I know how different it is from a GM's view and a player's view. I wonder, if it's really realistically difficult for GMs to change the current treatment of VPN usage, could the alternative be to unban the innocent accounts after you receive a ban appeal? In this case, you only need to deal with one or two similar cases, as it is a possible solution I can think of from your points of view.
Dedicated IP VPN's cost between $5 and $10 per month. But if your country is so restrictive regarding the websites you are able to go to, I would presume having a dedicated IP VPN would be a very worthwhile thing to have, and it would also likely give you faster download/upload speeds. I'm sure MapleRoyals is not the only service you are restricted from accessing? As far as I'm aware Japan should not restrict access to MapleRoyals, in fact I don't know of any countries which are restricted from accessing MapleRoyals, especially now that we currently don't use Google Captcha. If your dorm is restricting you from accessing the game, maybe there is a good reason for that, and you should not be attempting to bypass it. Otherwise you should contact your dorms internet administrator and see if they can possibly help you.
Based on Tim's replies before, the approach of baning VPN hackers is different. Royals would ban all the accounts which used the same IP and MAC(provided by VPN), both the hacker's and the innocent ones. Tim : "What would banning just your MAC and IP do if we believe you have been using VPNs and MAC spoofing to simply get another set of those? it would take you a minute to play again on your account if it wasn't banned with the MAC and IP as well." (Appeal for TianTianz, 2016/1/30) Therefore, unbanning one innocent account would not at the same time allow the hacker's account to log in again.
Sorry, but I think we have been focusing on the wrong point. The thing is that Royals should not ban all innocent accounts just in case one hacker is not banned. Not to mention that in this case, Royals can identify the hacker's account very well, and can know if one is using VPN or not. Even though, as you said, it could be tiring to check every time before banning people, the ban appeal for innocent VPN users should still be worth well-investigating, given that the system of ban appeals is by its own right set for further investigation for innocent people. Because the usage of VPN is not a violation of T&C, VPN users, who are not hackers, should be unbannd after being banned mistakenly. Therefore, I believe the best way to solve the problem here is to make the ban appeal system more well-rounded, so that TianTianz's case would not ever happen again.
Tim was implying that banning IP and MAC would be ineffectual because VPN users can change their IP and MAC by one click. Therefore, he chose to ban the accounts individually, instead of only IP and MAC address. If my understanding is wrong, and Tim only banned IP and MAC address, then I was supposed to log in my accounts after I change my IP and MAC address, but in fact I cant'. Therefore, I believe he banned IP, MAC address and the accounts. Therefore, by only unbanning the innocent account, it still won't violate fine players' rights. It is also considered reasonable and possible after ban appeal, as ban appeal is where wrong ban can get further investigations.
If you are worried about hacker using the IP and MAC address again, baning the hacker's IP, MAC and account could achieve the what you want. But not those who are not violating the rules, but simply used the same VPN program.
It's not a very good solution to have the admins being responsible for you using a public VPN and getting banned, I can imagine it being quite the workload if they had that on them as well. There are plenty of threads from people that have been auto banned for using a public VPN or caught up in someone else's ban, and they were unbanned, told to not use a public VPN and that it's their responsibility from now on, that sounds like a very reasonable solution. The IP and computer that were hacking would still remain banned, and the innocent accounts would not be able to keep using the same IP, but like mentioned above, not a viable solution to put the responsibility on the admins. If you are having problems you should use the support forum instead.
