Want to play that great new MMO that just came out in Korea, but won’t be out in North America for at least another year? Don’t like some change that was made to your favorite game for its Western release and want to see if it’s better in the Korean version? In this guide, I am going to teach you how to play Korean games from outside of South Korea. The process may seem daunting at first, but it's actually fairly simple.
As a bit of a foreward, this process will cost money. There is no way to get around the cost. You have to pay someone to set up an account for you, as you cannot do it yourself. I consider it an import fee of sorts.
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Choose a VPN
Before we proceed, you will also need a VPN. To help you decide which VPN you would like to use, here’s a small chart with some basic details about VPNs that I recommend. The average download speed and ping given are the metrics that you can expect when connecting to each VPN’s South Korean server from the east coast of the United States.
| VPN |
Average Download Speed |
Average Ping |
Price |
| ExpressVPN |
Fluctuates between 100 and 600 kbps |
220 ms |
$12.95/month ($8.32/mo with 1 year) |
| SoftEther |
Varies |
Varies |
Free |
| VyprVPN |
Ultra fast, but varies (mostly based on your own ISP speed) |
Varies on location (5000+ servers worldwide) |
$11.95 monthly, $9 per month (6 month plan), $6.58 per month (1 year plan). |
Discord user Milk has informed me that, unless you live in Southeast Asia, a VPN is not necessary for Nexon Korea titles that are only available in Korea.
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Where and how to buy accounts
There are several account-selling services out there, but I recommend just buying them from us here at MMOs.com. MMOs.com sells verified Nexon KR accounts and Tencent QQ game accounts. For this guide, you will need a Verified Nexon KR account. You can buy them from other sites as well, such as NewGameWay.
Getting an account is pretty straightforward but there are a few things that you need to be aware of. In some cases, such as Nexon accounts, certain accounts will only work for certain games. The general Nexon account will not work for Cyphers, Dungeon And Fighter (Dungeon Fighter Online), Mabinogi Heroes (Vindictus), MapleStory, or MapleStory 2. You have to be careful and read the description of each account.
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Furthermore, some accounts are labeled as accounts for a specific game, but will work as an account for any game hosted by the game’s publisher. For example, Blade and Soul KR accounts sold by NewGameWay will work for all of NCSoft’s Korean offerings.
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Should you like a game and want to put money towards it, NewGameWay also offers services to help you buy premium currency in several games. Unfortunately, these services are not available for all games and, the higher the amount of currency you buy, the higher the “import fee” gets, but the option is there. It is important to note that, should you want to pay for a subscription to a game like Blade and Soul or Lineage, it will cost you somewhere around $30-40 per month. The subscription itself costs around $30 per month and the “import fee” will cost you upwards of $9.
However, there are a few risks involved. While I am not sure what causes an account to need to be reverified, other than not using the account for several months, should any of your accounts need reverified, NewGameWay cannot help you reverify them. You will need to be sure to log in to each service regularly and avoid doing anything that might cause your accounts to need reverification if you want to keep them in working order.
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Logging into your account
Once you have purchased an account, MMOs.com or whatever site you bought your account from will send your account and password to you by email. This process doesn’t usually take any longer than four hours. You should download the client for the game in question while you wait, as it will likely take some time. Most games should have downloaders that allow you to download the client without the use of a VPN. Some websites may not allow you to connect from outside of South Korea, but, once downloaded, the downloader should let you. In my experience downloading Korean games from the United States, Kamuse downloaders offer particularly good download speeds, sometimes reaching upwards of 4 MB/s.
Once you have your account information, you will want to turn on your VPN and connect to its South Korean server. Do not log into your account until the VPN is active. It is probably a good idea to restart your browser—or use a different one—before logging in, as well. With the exception of NCSoft’s offerings, every Korean game that I have played requires you to launch it through your browser, including recent games like Bless, so there is no way around needing your VPN to be active before logging in.
As an added note, certain—usually older—games require you to launch the game using an ActiveX plugin. If this is the case for the game you are attempting to play, you must use Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge will not work as a replacement.
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Once you have logged in, starting the game is usually as simple as pressing the biggest button on the website. In the case of MapleStory 2, the button actually says “Game Start” in English.
The rest of the process is business as usual for the MMO world. The patcher will launch and you will be required to sit through the excruciatingly long download process. Unfortunately, you cannot disconnect your VPN during the patching process. You are required to download any patches at the speed that your VPN provides.
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If all went well, you should be in-game and ready to play at this point. If you have any questions or concerns, or feel that I have missed anything, feel free to leave a comment!
