Though the Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC) has stopped licensing online games in Vietnam since July 2010, unlicensed games have still been rife in the domestic market.

Violating the laws blatantly

xGo is the game issuer that has been most blatantly violating the laws when issuing its games in Vietnam. All the online games of the issuer are unlicensed products. The games company’s headquarters is located in Hue city City and it also has a representative office in HCM City.

According to the inspectors of the HCM City Information and Communication Department, all the games issued by the company do not have licenses. The department has contacted the Hue City’s authorities to clarify xGo’scase. However, according to Buu Dien, until the end of June, all the games had been operating and serving game players in a normal way. Especially, all the updated information about the games have been updated regularly on domestic websites.

Other game issuers are not as blatant as xGo. They have been dodging the laws and keep providing games by setting servers in foreign countries in order to avoid the control of stage management agencies.

Loong Online and Dragonica are the two games which appeared on the market in the first half of 2011. The domestic issuers of the two games have also been dodging the laws by setting the server of the both games in a foreign country, while they only support game players by updating information and giving answers to the questions on forums.

The issuers who own the two above said games and trading the games in Vietnam use different tricks in order to escape from the control from the management agencies. They allow gamers to use different kinds of cards to make payment, from the mobile phone cards, gate, zingxu and Vcoin cards.

Another way game issuers like to use to escape the coverage of the Circular 60 on online game management is that they integrate games into games portals or social networks. Since there is no regulation about the games operating on the models, the issue gamers think that they do not have to ask permission from the management agencies.

FPT Online, the issuer of Tank Online, for example, integrates the games with banbe.net, a social network. Under the mode, game issuers still can serve the gamers’ community while they do not bear the coverage of the Circular 60.

State management agencies admit difficulties

Management agencies have admitted that besides xGo, which obviously violates the laws, it is very difficult to punish other game issuers, who have been applying tricks to dodge the laws

The inter-ministerial circular No 60 on online game management does not have any regulations relating to the management over the online games which have servers located in foreign countries or provided by foreign countries. The legal document only stipulates the punishment on domestic enterprises in case the enterprises trade and popularize foreign online games.

It is really difficult to find out which domestic companies trade and popularize the games, because nearly no information about the domestic issuers is released

Therefore, an official said that state management agencies still need to learn more about the games and about which companies the games belong to before making decisions. Previously, it was an easy task, because information could be obtained from the card issuers. However, it is not easy at all, because gamers can make payment with the cards of different issuers, or even via mobile phone messages.

In the latest news, on July 7, the HCM City Information and Communication Department asked the Ministry of Information and Communication’s inspectors to punish eight enterprises which provide unlicensed online games. The enterprises have headquarters in Hanoi.

These include Minh Chau, EPI Technology, VTC Mobile, VC Corporation, Tinh Van Media, VinaPhone, FGame and XGo.

Also, the department has imposed a fine of 15 million dong on Toc Do E-Commerce Company and Phan Van Son, the owner of www.gamevang.com for the behavior of introducing the online games which are not allowed to be circulated in Vietnam

Buu Dien