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Should Admin be blamed for not allowing Iranians to by Gold?
Buying gold for real money has been stopped for Iranian citizens, lots of players are now blaming eRepublik Admin in harsh words in various comments to other articles.
(Link removed since the most commented article has been deleted.)
The general view seem to be that this is unfair and that Iranian players shouldn't be punished in game for real life reasons.
Others are asking if eRepublik is an American owned game.
The later question is as far as I'm concerned answered with a no - eRepublik is not owned by an American company. Last time I checked it was owned by a company located in Europe.
Although we live in a international environment, especially when it comes to on line payments and so called card not present transactions. Lots of governments put pressure on banks and demand the possibility to be able follow every transaction down to the single pence with no hesitation.
These demands are not unique for the US governments, the demands from the European Union, Japan and governments in other big economies are very similar.
Global Payment Service Providers, Banks and major payment card companies like VISA and Master card are prohibited to accept some transactions and can be shut down for repeated violations.
Without speaking specifically about the case here in eRepublik, companies who go against these regulations in order to sell services in ONE market will soon find them without chance to sell services in ANY market.
Basically the choice for such a company is either to accept that they can't sell ring tones for mobile phones / handle poker transactions / or what not for real money to some customers or face the fact that they wont be able to accept payments for any of their services on any site owned by their company and / or themselves.
To add to it they will also most likely be forced to pay a fee of a minimum of 2x25000 USD and have their bank accounts locked during the investigation - which in most cases are 6 months. (Locked = even if you have 300 000 USD on the bank account you can't even pay a 1000 USD rent for your office, the money stays and you move out..)
All in all if the company runs an internet game for example they won't be able to make money on it, and will no longer be able to pay server costs, salaries to programmers and so on. The site will be shut down and the game with it.
Is it worth that? Some people would even argue that the regulations against Iran are put up for a reason. Perhaps should the anger and the loud words be addressed to others then the eRepublik Admin, sure they can change quite lot of things in The New World but in the Real World? Not so much..
Additional reading to the specific act in this case:
http://www.iraniantrade.org/_NewsUpdates/ofac.htm
Signed
Misho
Who is quite strong in the New World. But in the real world.., not so much..
(Link removed since the most commented article has been deleted.)
The general view seem to be that this is unfair and that Iranian players shouldn't be punished in game for real life reasons.
Others are asking if eRepublik is an American owned game.
The later question is as far as I'm concerned answered with a no - eRepublik is not owned by an American company. Last time I checked it was owned by a company located in Europe.
Although we live in a international environment, especially when it comes to on line payments and so called card not present transactions. Lots of governments put pressure on banks and demand the possibility to be able follow every transaction down to the single pence with no hesitation.
These demands are not unique for the US governments, the demands from the European Union, Japan and governments in other big economies are very similar.
Global Payment Service Providers, Banks and major payment card companies like VISA and Master card are prohibited to accept some transactions and can be shut down for repeated violations.
Without speaking specifically about the case here in eRepublik, companies who go against these regulations in order to sell services in ONE market will soon find them without chance to sell services in ANY market.
Basically the choice for such a company is either to accept that they can't sell ring tones for mobile phones / handle poker transactions / or what not for real money to some customers or face the fact that they wont be able to accept payments for any of their services on any site owned by their company and / or themselves.
To add to it they will also most likely be forced to pay a fee of a minimum of 2x25000 USD and have their bank accounts locked during the investigation - which in most cases are 6 months. (Locked = even if you have 300 000 USD on the bank account you can't even pay a 1000 USD rent for your office, the money stays and you move out..)
All in all if the company runs an internet game for example they won't be able to make money on it, and will no longer be able to pay server costs, salaries to programmers and so on. The site will be shut down and the game with it.
Is it worth that? Some people would even argue that the regulations against Iran are put up for a reason. Perhaps should the anger and the loud words be addressed to others then the eRepublik Admin, sure they can change quite lot of things in The New World but in the Real World? Not so much..
Additional reading to the specific act in this case:
http://www.iraniantrade.org/_NewsUpdates/ofac.htm
Signed
Misho
Who is quite strong in the New World. But in the real world.., not so much..
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Voted.
Well maybe irl Iranians should take care of their Theocracy problem then maybe they wouldnt be sanctioned.
Wow that sucks, voted
I agree that it is a raw deal that Iranian players cannotfully participate.
But I ask Iranian players to not blame American players for decisons that are made by erep management. This seems to be an unfortunate situation whereby RL macro events trump the game world.
Sanctions in RL do suck, and while I understand that they shouldn't carry over to a game, it's inevitable that RL politics comes first. The only way I can see eIranians being able to buy gold with money would be for someone in a third party country, one without sanctions, to buy it on their behalf, then resell it to eIranians. Of course, this brings up problems of their own.
The only legitimate way eIranians are ever going to be able to buy gold again is if the sanctions are removed, and the only way that will happen would be to have a more U.S. friendly government. And that probably means overthrowing the existing one. Not likely to happen.
Hasn't the servers recently been moved to the USA? And isn't that what's causing the problem now? Just asking.
If yes, then they should have chosen the country more carefully probably. It's unfair for the Iranians that they are prohibited from buying gold for money. I understand why the eRepublik team can't do much about it but still.
And those who commented under the deleted article (and Emperor Rick here) saying that it's their fault and they should reform their government IRL are distastefully cynical.
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It is not the admins fault.
Nagyzee,
I doubt the server location is a matter that makes or break a decision such as this. It can be a factor making it breaking the OFAC but having head office in Europe and the servers on an island somewhere wouldn't be a difference in practical as far as I am concerned. The only difference would be perhaps be that the site on eRepublik telling that transactions for Iranians are stopped would be referring to another act then OFAC.
Voted.
Murlockij,
If you have read my article you would have found quite a lot arguments that this is not a question specifically regarding USA. Its rather a question specifically regarding Iran, or if you so chose, the global transaction system.
lol, Gaius Julius can be proud of his comment.
@Nagyzee: Are you proud of your attempt to blame any problem thta pops up on the USA?
I'm not blaming it on the USA. Can't you read?
I'm not blaming anybody. All I've said is if the eRepublik team could have avoided this by having servers in another country then maybe they should have done so. And even that was only a question/suggestion. I didn't blame the USA at any point.
I feel for the RL Iranian players and hope they can get past this some how. However, I will continue to troll anyone who brings RL into this, both Americans who say it is the fault of Iran's government and the Iranian's who are going batshit crazy and calling us terrorists (or some other nonsense). I can't stand either of those kinds of people and they are perfect trollbait, kekeke.
As a player I sympathize. But stop bringing RL hatred into this, even if it is an RL matter causing it.
> And a rednecks from Texas can laught it and this is a disgusting.
Don't use words you don't even understand. "Rednecks" exist in every nation. I don't go and insult the idiots in Hungary, don't insult my idiots, please. Thank you.
\o\
This is true. Admins CAN NOT avoid RL things when it comes to eRepublik. Iran is Iran. It's a little bit like if a country banned eRepublik and then the gamers from that country came and blamed eRepublik's administrators. This isn't 100% fair, but nothing is.
I'm sure admins will try to fix this in the future, if it's possible in any way.
Didn't understand a thing but it didn't stop me from voting.
Bummer, Iranians. It's a real life issue though and there's not much you can do about it.
thats total BS. It puts Iran at a complete disadvantage
Obama did it for the lulz
Wow... that sucks.
You are retarded. You can still buy gold, you just can't participate in those shitty offers that give "free" gold (which aren't worth doing anyways, you have to give CC number for most, get a crapload of spam e-mail for the rest).
"I feel for the RL Iranian players and hope they can get past this some how. However, I will continue to troll anyone who brings RL into this, both Americans who say it is the fault of Iran's government and the Iranian's who are going batshit crazy and calling us terrorists (or some other nonsense). I can't stand either of those kinds of people and they are perfect trollbait, kekeke.
As a player I sympathize. But stop bringing RL hatred into this, even if it is an RL matter causing it."
I agree with Zammuel.
Voted! Agreed!
Honestly, I don't really give a f...
It's not just the US that is imposing the economic sanctions, last time I read the EU is on board too. The truth of the matter is that the US, the EU, and other nations see Iran as continuing to develop weapons grade nuclear materials. It was only about a month ago that the IAEA found another secret nuclear facility for enriching Uranium. Those are the facts of the matter.
Personally, the way I see it as a layman is this. Iran doesn't want to place nice with the rest of the RL world. Many governments have tried to talk with Iran but with little success, this includes the Obama administration in the US. Let's not forget that he tried his best to stay out of the Iranian elections affair.
Lastly, the internet is not exempt from international as well as local/national laws. I bet the Chinese players have a heck of a time trying to play this game let alone buy gold.
@Nagyzee: You wrote the following:
"Hasn't the servers recently been moved to the USA? And isn't that what's causing the problem now? Just asking"
Looks like you're trying to find a way to blame the problem on the USA. If that is not your intent perhaps you should be more careful in regard to what you write.
Allan Dobrowolski: Are we talking about the malwa... advertising links?
I can't understand why they even chosed to add that kind of adverts to eRepublik. The first golden rule people learn when they are browsing the Internet is to stay away from that kind of offers, and here we have eRepublik ENDORSING them!
Today I felt how the spirit of eRepublik fell like a rock down the valley.
@Murlockij - First, eRepublik and it's players are not above the law. Second, if the average Iranian doesn't support the acquiring of nuclear weapons by their government, then they should be doing something about it. And finally, why should the other players help fuel the economy of a nation that intends to make these weapons that quite possibly could be used against them?
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Obama's administration thinks that there's other nuclear facility hidden inside eRepublik.
True story.
Unjust
This sucks, but it's for RL, and we can't change that.
Voted.
Even though buying gold is lame, this is pretty unfair to eIranians.
RL sanctions shouldn't have anything to do with online games.
NXNW, the problem is on your end. I simply asked whether the servers being in the USA cause this problem or it would be present also if they were elsewhere. How is it blaming the USA for anything? If anything it could be interpreted as blaming the eRepublik team for moving the servers there. But it's not even that as it's a question.
Looks like you are trying hard to misinterpret me...
>I'm not blaming anybody. All I've said is if the eRepublik team could have avoided this by having servers in another country then maybe they should have done so.
Welcome to reality. This is a game, and is not immune from real life considerations. The owners are bound by all sorts of laws, international covenants, etc. Does it suck for Iranians? Sure. But to blame the people who own and operate this *game* is asinine.
On another note, I wonder how many restrictions the owners of the game would have faced had they located their business and hardware infrastructure in, say, Iran.
>And why the common eIranian players must suffer this?
eRepublic mean Almost eRepublic?
This is a joke, right? Sorry, just because you play in a virtual place does not mean that, through some magical process, you are not still subject to events and considerations in the real world.
Voted. RL issues should not involved elife issues.
AFAIK RL Iranians can still buy Gold, but they cannot do the incentivised offers - and that has nothing to do with eRepublik server location, as eRepublik lets another company handle the offers (which reports back and pays eRepublik for every offer completed). The OFAC sanctions affect the company that handles the offers (I would suspect it is a USA based company).
I don't think it has anything to do with server location. As I understand it sanctions are applied to banks and companies that to business in Iran, to their counterparts in the US, or they are prohibited from engaging in transactions with companies in the US.
I can't say that I support it, but there are only two real options for us. Iranians need to find a way around this, (much like I have to jump through some hoops to gamble online from the US), or the US has to relax the sanctions.
Aside from that the only thing you can do is write your congressmen.
That was funny, Zammuel.
Can those defending Iran say "United Nations"? You know, the ones implementing sanctions because Iran has that secret nuclear program, the one they might one day use against Isreal, the nation Iran's President says shouldn't exist, the same President who denies the holocaust took place at all.
Anyway, this redneck has no sympathy for countries run by nut jobs. But I do have sympathy for those people within those nations who wish they weren't run by nut jobs, and I hope they are willing to fight to overthrow those same nut jobs.
Later.
lol, America is awesome.
The payments are not done to eRepublik servers retards, they are done to banks through various systems, go blame the intemediaries for the payments not the game owners or the banks (who always want your money)
This issue has nothing to do with the admins (which btw are not americans), with the owners of the game (which btw are not americans), it has to do with the payment methods which are not under the control of the owners of this game.
But it seems you (the commentators not the author)wanna take this problem to another level which has nothing to do with game. One thing for you:
TAKE IT OUTSIDE!!!
P.S. Sorry for the eCitizens of Iran, I also wish things were different.
I am really sorry that this virtual world medley with real world.
من واقعا متاسفم که اين جهان مجازي با دنيای واقعی آمیخته شد
I am really sorry that this virtual world medley with real world.
من واقعا متاسفم که اين جهان مجازي با دنيای واقعی آمیخته شد
<strong style>
I am really sorry that this virtual world medley with real world.
من واقعا متاسفم که اين جهان مجازي با دنيای واقعی آمیخته شد</strong>
I deleted my all comments but I didn't forget how laughed the president eUSA Gaius Julius the eIranian players in the deleted article.
I'm so sorry I said "rednecks".
I think I feel deep envy about I didn't borned in the Land of Freedom, just a second class country.
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Buying gold with real money is where RL and elife meet. Iran is certainly not the only country that has problems buying Gold. After all you can only buy it in euros, which puts anyone not in the eurozone pretty much at a disadvantage.
I hope the a solution is found for the Iranians. RL isn't fair; however, the game should be. Its a shame their participation is going to be hampered by RL politics.
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One thing...everyone is having fun here,but this is clearly an invasion of things from outside on the things in this game. I cant understant anyone saying this is cool or ok. It simply isnt. This was one little part of relaxation away from all that RL bull...and it just got trashed by an idiotic decision. Totally,totally against this segregative decision aimed at eIran community.
Do you know what is going in iran???
The Persians are fighting for FREEDOM
Persians Don't Like Ahmadinejad
Iam a persian and I love iran.
I love FREEDOM
I am really sorry that this virtual world medley with real world.
من واقعا متاسفم که اين جهان مجازي با دنيای واقعی آمیخته شد
best Regard.
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