Kim Byung-min warns players vs RAN Online private servers

MIN Communications CEO Kim Byung-min issued a severe warning to RAN Online players against illegal private servers.

For the uninitiated, RAN Online was a 3D "campus-based" massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for the PC platform developed by MIN Communications, Inc. The game is set in a modern-day world where players take on the role of students at one of four different schools. Among the character classes are Brawler, Archer, Swordsman, and Shaman.

RAN Online launched its first official server in South Korea in 2004 and later expanded globally. In 2005, servers were opened in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Thailand, followed by the Philippines (via IP E-Games) in 2006 and North America in 2013. However, in 2019, RAN World (Global Service) made an announcement regarding its closure. In 2018, Wavegame published "New RAN Online" in the Southeast Asian region, but it was later shut down in 2021.

In a Facebook post by Eliezer Rabadon, he said that they were able to communicate with Kim Byung-min.

In their conversation, Kim expressed his gratefulness to the RAN Online players in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as well as warned players against RAN Online private servers operating illegally.

Here are the highlights of their conversation:

RAN Online gamers are being warned by Kim Byung-min about illegal private servers being promoted on the game's official Facebook fan page, compromising its integrity.

Kim revealed that former employees and Korean fraudsters are fooling clients by pretending to have acquired RAN ONLINE service rights from MIN COMMUNICATIONS.

Further, Kim Byung-min noted that MIN COMMUNICATIONS still owns RAN ONLINE's trademark and copyright rights and has no plans to sell service rights despite proposals from various Korean game publishers.

Meanwhile, Kim said he has no plans to support RAN ONLINE on mobile or any other device in the future because he doesn't trust the people who are making illegal private servers to be able to handle legitimate gaming services.

Kim asked the RAN ONLINE community to protect the game's history and not support illegal activities. He requested Facebook to delete the fake RAN GS fan page. He has also confirmed that MIN COMMUNICATIONS is still operational.

Here's the full statement of MIN Communications CEO Kim Byung-min:

This is Kim Byung-min, CEO of MINCOMMUNICATION, who previously serviced RAN ONLINE ONLINE GAME.

As you all already know, RAN ONLINE GS service was officially terminated three years ago.

Here's why: Internal employees continued to commit internal fraud.

A warning and resignation were issued.

Another reason is:

As competition to secure high-quality human resources has intensified in the game development industry in Korea, it has been difficult to recruit high-quality talent with MINCOMS RAN ONLINE Southeast Asia imports, and as a result, the quality of content such as updates has continued to decline. This is a good update for Southeast Asian customers who love RAN ONLINE. We were unable to provide you with...

Those who are currently promising next month's service on the Facebook RAN ONLINE GS fan page, who have quit the company and cannot get a job at another company, are collaborating with fraudsters in Korea to lie and pretend that they legally acquired RAN ONLINE service rights from MINCOMS. They are attempting to defraud their customers.

I, Byung-Min Kim and MINCOM currently legally own the trademark and copyright rights. Although we were asked to sell service rights by several publishers in Korea, we did not sell RAN ONLINE service rights because the development capabilities of the companies we wanted to purchase from were clearly limited, and we have no plans to sell service rights in the future.

I, Byung-min Kim, have always been grateful to the customers who have loved RAN ONLINE, and I hope that RAN ONLINE GAME will remain as a good memory in the hearts of customers.

If you sell the service rights to a publisher in Korea, you may personally be able to make some profit.

Currently, MINCOM has only let its employees resign, but the corporation is active, and thankfully, the internal cash reserves are not small, so there is no problem maintaining Kim Byung-min's personal life.

CEO Kim Byung-min has no intention of servicing RAN ONLINE on mobile or again.

The reasons are as follows.

Previous developers and GMs who are currently illegally preparing private services. These are people who cannot transfer to another company due to lack of competency.

The previous private server and the people preparing for next month's service are fraudsters in Korea and several employees who have left the company. If you enjoy this private server, it will be used as criminal funds. I am very concerned about these situations.

We hope to leave good memories in the hearts of customers who have enjoyed and loved RAN ONLINE.

By providing services again, we do not want to create a bad situation where excessive sales are made to pay the salaries of the company's employees.

Thank you for reading my long post.

MINCOMS CEO Kim Byung-min

I wrote this in English using Google Translator.

So I left the original Korean text, and some parts of the Google translation may not sound natural. Please understand this point.

And currently, the RAN GS fan page is being illegally operated by a former employee.

I am sending this message because I feel like if Facebook writes this, they will block me from the fan page account. Please copy my post and post it on RAN GS Facebook and let me know.

We will also request Facebook to delete the RAN GS fan page, but it will take time due to some procedures.

Please spread my writing.. Thank you.

Image via YouTube/Ran Online World