En Masse Feuding With TERA Third-Party Developers Again, Issuing DMCA Takedowns Against Communities

En Masse Entertainment is once again finding itself in a battle with makers of third-party software for TERA. The company issued DMCA takedown notices against various GitHub and Discord communities that promoted such software, which has led to an outcry from the makers of such programs and some members of the greater TERA community.

To its credit, EME seems to be doing a somewhat better job of communicating this time around, with an open thread on the forums where players can (respectfully) discuss the topic. The post currently has 47 pages of replies, filled with some players saying TERA was unplayable for them without some way to boost its speed, due to excessively high ping, and others saying the action from EME was justified because rules and all. This time around, at least, there's no way anyone can plead ignorance regarding EME's policies regarding third-party programs.

At least one maker of the third-party programs wishes the discussion would have come earlier, however. As was the case the last time this topic came up, we received a long email from one of the third-party developers pleading their case and wishing En Masse would have come to them earlier if they wanted things to be shut down. "Should any other region's publisher wish to shut down my proxy's compatibility with their services, feel free to contact me," they said. "There's no need to take legal action. My intentions are not malicious or evil in any way, in case the publishers and the fanatic anti-proxy people still haven't realized that." Our contact claims to have tried contacting EME multiple times to offer help dealing with exploits and also to have never made any money with their programs.

Several players are wondering why a few independent programmers can implement fixes that En Masse and Bluehole can't. While the official statement says that "We will investigate solutions that provide some of the benefits that these 3rd Party Services offered," it seems that few players are likely to believe them, not after years of waiting for a publisher and developer that seem incapable or unwilling to implement the requested changes.