Recently, Vietnamese gamers in several Call of Duty Mobile groups have been complaining about being unable to log into Garena’s servers. Previously, Garena had officially announced in these countries that it would block Vietnamese players from accessing Call of Duty Mobile in certain markets where the company operates. The international Call of Duty Mobile fan page also informed users who cannot access the game with the following message: “We sincerely apologize, this game is only available in Singapore, Myanmar, and the Philippines, as well as other areas under Garena’s jurisdiction.”
Of course, Vietnamese gamers are not giving up; many players have still found ways to “bypass rules” and “get around” to continue staying on this server. All kinds of methods have been employed by Vietnamese gamers, from changing internet connections to using various ways to change their IPs to get past Garena’s “firewall”.
After many efforts to explore, it seems that many Vietnamese players have somewhat succeeded in staying on Garena’s server cluster. However, not all players are granted their wishes. There are still some Vietnamese gamers who cannot access the Garena version of Call of Duty Mobile.
In some Call of Duty Mobile groups that are not managed by VNG, players occasionally post that suddenly, “on a beautiful day,” they can no longer log into Garena’s Call of Duty Mobile, or if they are luckier, they can access it but experience delays and lag. Some players complain that they have tried everything but to no avail.
Previously, Vietnamese gamers had a period of “living harmoniously” with the Garena version of Call of Duty Mobile in several countries. However, those honeymoon days ended quickly when Garena announced a kind of invitation for everyone to return home. It is unclear whether any “hands” are influencing this decision, but if so, it is completely understandable. PUBG Mobile and Crossfire Legends, both renowned titles of Tencent, have also blocked IPs from Vietnam to ensure that “everyone goes back home”.
It seems that the prospect of the international version of Call of Duty Mobile completely unblocking Vietnamese players is very unlikely to happen in the future. Therefore, players only have two choices: one is to quit the game, or two is to play the VNG version of Call of Duty in the near future, whether they want to or not, if they still have affection for this game.
What Vietnamese players still worry about when switching to the VNG version is the potential for hacking. However, Call of Duty Mobile or any online mobile game, whether operated by Garena or VNG, cannot be 100% safe, especially on the Android platform, which allows users to “tinker” deeply within their operating system. Broadly speaking, other mobile game products, especially in the eSports genre, frequently experience hacking, which exists and develops parallel to online games.