Creator of RAN Online, Kim Byung-Min, CEO of Min Communications, has recently made an urgent statement over the misuse of the RAN Online (GS) official Facebook page.
RAN Online was shut down by Kim Byung-Min three years ago over what he claimed was internal conflict.
Recently, Kim Byung-Min discovered the promotion of a new private server of RAN Online. The problem that concerned him though, is that the Facebook page used to promote the new private server is the official Facebook page of the RAN Online (GS), making it appear the RAN Online is making a big comeback, when it isn’t.
The group using the Facebook page said they have the permission of the Min Communications vice president to launch this private server. Kim Byung-Min, asserted that he owns 100% of Min Communications, and that he owns all the copyrights, and no such permission was made.
The Manila Bulletin TechNews managed to speak with Kim Byung-Min over the issue through Google Meets.
“I know that RAN Online has been a huge success, especially in the Philippines and that many users are playing on private servers or waiting for the official servers to return,” Kim Byung-Min said. “What I want to talk about is that the situation in the Korean gaming industry is different from that in the Philippines. Former employees are having a lot of financial difficulties because they cannot find good jobs, and for this reason, they are trying to commit fraudulent crimes against users in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia. I am very concerned about this and have set out to stop it.”
Upon checking the Facebook page ourselves, which has over 86K likes and followers, there are already posts claiming that the page never said they were official.
Eliezer Rabadon, a private server operator and CEO of IT solutions company DvCode Technologies Inc., and one of the people Kim Byung-Min reached out to, said the changes to the Facebook page to “unofficial” were only done recently.
The Facebook page has posts all the way back to 2009. Kim Byung-Min said the people operating this page could tarnish the name of RAN Online. He said, there are monetary interests, and that people are working on scamming dedicated players out of their money.
Kim Byung-Min said these people are former employees of Min Communications. At least two of them are Filipinos and are here in the country.
Kim Byung-Min said he will be working with the proper authorities to handle the situation.
He further claimed that these were people he did not work directly with in the past. These were employees who handled social media accounts or were game masters, who never overturned the accounts when RAN Online was shut down three years ago.
It’s important to stress here that the issue is not about the launch of the private server itself. Kim Byung-Min is quite pleased to know there are dedicated fans after all these years. What worries him, is that people may become victims of fraud through the Facebook page and by extension, damage the reputation of RAN Online.
Kim Byung-Min just wants to make it abundantly clear, is that the private server being promoted by this page, is not connected to Min Communications and the official RAN Online.
Kim Byung-Min has also reached out to streamer, KARAMA, to help him spread the message.
You can check their full video discussion here.
You can read Kim Byung-Min's official statement here.