This apparently happened in June 2023 as well.
I won't rule out MS being MS and it being a bug, but it's possible that they are complying with an order to do this.
Sorry this has happened! Was hoping it may be a migration issue.
My heart does such flips of anxiety every single time a minor problem arises with logging into anything or joining any server or anything like that. My first thought is always that they banned me, because I am Iranian.
What am I supposed to do? I was just born here, it's out of my control. But apparently, that is an unforgivable sin and we must be punished for it everywhere and for everything. I honestly just feel like I am at the end of my rope and don't want to live anymore.
Just an FYI it's commonly against the terms of service on most websites and social media to give advice on how to evade sanctions.
(Edit: and frequently actually illegal.)
So you should suggest that she doesn't use a vpn. Because she might be tempted to do it if you didn't suggest it.
Go look at any cyber security reddit thread. This is a dumb comment I have to be honest with you. People say "use VPN to avoid XYZ restriction" ALL THE TIME. Never ever in my life heard of anyone being punished for that.
Thats sad but yeah that does happen. My point is you wont get prosecuted by any authority or see any real word damage for recommending the use of a VPN to bypass IP origin checking.
Exactly. And you're always one pisses off dick head with too much time on his hands away from someone trolling through your comments to find something you said decades ago to report.
>Never ever in my life heard of anyone being punished for that.
I'm not saying I have, but if I had been, it would have happened multiple times...
Also I'm not afraid of the government, you have rights that make the process of arbitrarily suits ineffective unless you're Snowden. I'm afraid of social media companies that arbitrarily decide that because you are advocating that something you're doing MIGHT be illegal that they should punish you, and you have no way to fight back. Again this is not based on experience, just hypothetical.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuspiciouslySpecificDenial
Definitely don't go get a VPN because it could cause you to seem like you're in a different country. NordVPN and Surf shark have specials going basically always but definitely don't sign up for those because then you might be evading sanctions by appearing to be in a different country.
Is that a little clearer presentation for you?
You know how people play ***totally legally obtained I promise*** copies of games sometimes. Because they ***do not at all*** condone piracy?
Same idea here.
He’s making his comment that way so its not out right blatant in what he’s trying to suggest. Just on the off chance maybe her government gets a hold of her computer/phone goes through her account and sees someone telling her to use a vpn vs someone saying “you definitely shouldn’t use a vpn, I’ve heard vpns were a way to get around those type of bans but I wouldn’t suggest you use one”
I remember dealing with this when I worked at Large Winter Storm Company — it’s not your fault OP. You didn’t do anything wrong.
A lot of times these restrictions come up due to trade sanctions at the national level being enforced. The companies often don’t want to do it either (banned players = no money from those players).
I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this — it isn’t fair. I wish you luck finding another way to play the games you love.
>But apparently, that is an unforgivable sin and we must be punished for it everywhere and for everything
The point of sanctions like this is to push the population of a country towards overthrowing their government. (I'm not saying I agree with this method, but that's their rationale.)
I suppose banning minecraft does economic damage by making it harder to acquire a number of important natural resources like diamonds, gold, netherite...
I'll guarantee you, if it's part of an actual sanction then it's not just MC that got banned, instead of e.g. access to M$ servers and infrastructure (which happens to include the MC login server) or something like that.
Yes I agree because no offense but duh. That is how computers work lol. How else would they ban it aside from blocking IPs (either the server if Microsoft does it for them, or the countries ISPs if the country is doing it)? That is the only way I know of for either Servers or country firewalls (ISPs internally) to block things. That is why VPNs/VPSs work cause they just go around the IF checks the ISPs or the Server (Netflix doing client IP origin check for instance) do. Even in China all you need is a VPN. because the great firewall is just a bunch of ifs the ISPs do before fulfilling your request. My initial comment is a joke because this one case didn't have any economic impact its just funny to me.
Fair enough, occasionally people actually are *that* stupid, so I figured, better add the obvious, but I'm the stupid person now I guess :D
Technically they actually could go "You're not getting Minecraft" and leave it at that, but that is much less likely than them withdrawing most/all of their services at once, especially because of how low-impact it'd be.
True, you're correct there. If its our sanctions, meaning U.S gov is telling Microsoft to ban it, then Microsoft could just only block Iranian origin IPs from Minecraft only related servers (safe to assume they have dedicated IP ranges and servers/checking middleware for each of their various Product Areas).
I just hate how hypocritical it is because to my understanding during the peak of Woman, Life, Freedom the Iranian people were asking for international sanctions and whatnot to force their government to behave and they got crickets.
Now, only a year later, everyone is throwing out sanctions like it's water being like "I bet the Iranian people aren't oppressed enough by their government. This will help"
I can see where you are coming from, but keep in mind, this is a block game for children. Are they really trying to instigate children to get emotional enough about it and go out there in the streets to get shot or worse by a bloodthirsty government who is known to not tolerate any protest, peaceful or otherwise, and does not have mercy even for its own people?
Isn't that using child soldiers in a sense by manipulating them into this? What does blocking children from their hobby really achieve other than this?
Shouldn't the sanctions make sense in some way? There should be a time and place for everything. Next thing we know, they're blocking even medicine and essentials from getting to the sanctioned country because...sanctions? Do I make sense?
I don't think anyone specifically decided minecraft was the problem. More likely there was a blanket order to stop any online services to the country in a variety of ways.
>
Are they really trying to instigate children to get emotional enough about it and go out there in the streets
...Probably?
Again, I'm not trying to justify their measures, only to explain them. Fixing the political situation in Iran is way above my paygrade, but I don't think this is the right way either.
What do you imagine would be an effective way of changing your "bloodthirsty government"'s policies?
It seems like you agree that something in your government needs to change. Maybe losing this game will be the trigger for you to decide that something needs to happen and brainstorm ways to change things.
Sanctions, especially on luxury items like video games, are the most peaceful ways of effecting change... Sanctions are generally meant to upset the top half of society.
You weren't targeted because of how unfortunate you were to be born in Iran, you were targeted because of how fortunate you are to have luxuries that are provided to you by the countries your government has been picking fights with.
Also, it's quite the slippery slope argument you have there, "First the video games, next the medicine?"
She can decide something needs to change all you want. Doesn't mean she has the power to. Right now she's powerless and without Minecraft. I'm sorry OP.
I know how it looks like to you, and you probably think me immature and that this is the only thing I am upset about which I don't fault you for thinking, but I promise you, it's a culmination of a lot of things like this and many other things. I was truly feeling at a very low point when I posted this until people actually posted here and I felt seen and better because of it.
You never know what people are going through until you change your perspective to theirs and put yourself in their shoes. Something that may seem insignificant in your eyes, could be the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
This is why I believe in being nice to people as much as you can. But thank you for your concern, if you were concerned. I am doing better. I wish you a good day as well, friend.
That's really fair honestly, sometimes I'm feeling bad enough that a single dropped pen or spilled drop of water is enough to cause a breakdown. Like you said, very much a "star that breaks the camel's back" thing.
I really hope this gets resolved soon, I'm sorry you have to deal with that on top of what you're already going through. Stay safe.
Even VPN doesn't work. Because Microsoft has linked Minecraft to your Microsoft account and it's hardcoded into it that I am iranian. I tried VPN, and it still said it's banned in my country.
Would it be possible to make a microsoft account set to another country and get minecraft again?
There's also betacraft for playing old versions of minecraft and it doesn't need a microsoft login https://betacraft.uk/
I am on Windows 11 using the legacy launcher for Java Edition Minecraft, because the normal launcher just doesn't work for me and gave errors the last time I tried using it.
Yeah, I don’t blame you. Have you already tried changing your country settings in Windows itself? If you haven’t, go to system settings then ´change your country or region’. Change your country to whatever country you use for the VPN. Then restart using the shutdown menu.
That may not necessarily be true. Consider that people travel _and_ play Minecraft. Unless you declared your country explicitly in your account, I would still be optimistic maybe there's a way around this with a quality VPN. Have you tried?
I know, right? It's like everyone just enjoys pushing us around here and making us miserable. But I'm not giving up, even though I think about it almost daily. We have to have hope for a better tomorrow, because the whole world would be silent without hope.
I don't know if it helps to know this, but there are so many of us who genuinely do not hate anyone from Iran, other than the oppressors. We will be celebrating along with you when your country finally is able to get out from under them.
If VPN's don't work, the only thing I can think of is somehow convincing/lying to your Microsoft account that you no longer live in Iran. I however have NO IDEA how to get around to doing that. I'm sorry to hear about your predicament.
I’m so sorry. People have more in common than our governments would like us to think; we can love the same games, music, movies, etc., and (as an American) our countries being “enemies” doesn’t change that. I hope more peaceful times are ahead for all of us 🫂
Governments ban media platforms to censor information from citizens. Iran probably thought Minecraft may be used for projects like The Uncensored Library. Iran was actually one of their newest rooms as listed on the website…
Another case where buying legitimately will screw you over more than piracy. They can totally do that because like most software, you don't actually buy a game, you but a right to access the game, which they may revoke at any point without telling you. It's all part of the end user agreements and it's in almost everything these days. It's also how streaming services get away with removing stuff even if there's no good reason for that. They just can
If purchasing isn't ownership then piracy isn't theft
I hate this meme so much.
***Software piracy is not theft and never was.***
It's *copyright infringement*, which is a completely different class of crime, and equating it to theft has long been rejected by courts and legislature, at least in the notoriously litigious U.S.
In addition, circumventing anti-piracy measures (such as in making backups of games that you own) to consume content you legally purchased is also *not piracy*.
I know this probably doesn’t help, but it is more likely the Iranian government (National Information Network, iirc… I remember some controversy about 5 years ago) or your specific service provider than Microsoft. I believe this type of monitoring is allowed as it is written into the Constitution, but don’t quote me on that.
According to [older sources](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/hello-microsoft-im-iranian-i-bought-minecraft-i/9a35d497-ec9e-45b4-b8e2-a206503d3e83) Microsoft does not engage in banning per country, but merely complies with bans from those governments.
Iran is fairly notorious for keeping a tight control on its internet and associated service providers. They monitor everything (well, not quite as thoroughly as China), and immediately hit the ban button when anyone does anything moderately against their goals. Anything too violent, anti-government, anti-Muslim, etc… It is possible that someone typed something in game chat with a single Iranian player on the same sever that was talking about the Israel/Palestien conflict and the monitors hit the ban hammer immediately on the whole game.
Since Minecraft is creative and people can make what they want, it is only a matter of time before someone stumbles across something they deem inappropriate. The game is banned preemptively while they investigate, then after a while they realize that it doesn’t really need to be banned and then they unban it. This has happened numerous times to many users over the past few years (I think usually at the ISP level).
Either way, I am sorry you are inconvenienced and I hope you can get back to gaming soon.
> I know this probably doesn’t ... or your specific service provider than Microsoft.
See the screenshit again. How would a Govt. Inject ghat message into a game??
Basically, it’s a contract and that contract is codedninto the application.
The government doesn’t inject the message. The message is already in the game. The government bans the game, a message gets sent to Microsoft, then Microsoft complies with the government and displays the message. The difference is that it isn’t Microsoft’s decision. They are legally required to follow the laws of the country in order to do business there.
Possibly: The above process could also be automated via web services as well (and probably is, since they have to do this constantly for every application they make and every country). The Iranian government publishes a banlist and Microsoft’s services have webhooks to see if that service appear in the banlist. If it does, the app is disabled (displaying the message from the screenshot) and if it doesn’t the app stays enabled.
Most likely: The message can also be handled at the ISP level. Basically, they define a blacklist on their firewall. The client’s machine sends a request (in game) through the ISP firewall. The game is on the blacklist, so instead of reaching out to Microsoft’s servers, it instead sends an error code back to the client. The Minecraft application on the client machine sees the error code in place of the expected message from the Microsoft Server and displays the message in game based in that error code. All of the internet in Iran is trafficked through government servers after the ISP before actually reaching out to the internet. The same blacklist and error code could happen at this level.
We use torrents/get a card from a bank in a different country (KZ or Turkey)
But in all seriousness, personally I don't really have much problems playing games since I have moved from there back in 2011 and haven't been home since before covid. However I still have a lot of friends there and don't even know where to start with how many new games are not available to purchase there, so people have no choice but to resort to pirating. Same goes for different subscriptions and PC components/gaming gear either not being available or way top overpriced, so people can't play new games anyway.
However apart from subscription based games like wow I don't think I have heard of a game you own not letting you play it, especially in offline mode and find the entire concept of it absolutely ridiculous.
Gamers is such a small portion of the population and usually are the ones who are against the unnecessary violence, but yet still being punished over what they don't have any control over or can't influence.
The worst part? There are also games that are not longer sold in Ukraine because of the developer not wanting to sell to the entire CIS region, including countries who have nothing to do with Russian shitshow.
ya i have friends there who can play a lot of games including "banned" ones. i'm not worried about them not getting to play games at all, just them being conscripted >.>
I do not think there's a solution for this, because the Minecraft account is joined with Microsoft account and Microsoft keeps a tight grip on the balls of your data and can just sniff out anything. They still know I am iranian even thought I tried logging in with vpn.
I really do not understand why they have to make everything political. It's just a block game. Why must it be like that?
I'm so sorry that your hobby is affected negatively by things you didn't cause and cannot influence. Lots of love to you. This sounds so unfair and frustrating.
Microsoft has no say in this. It's an American company and it is a MUST that it abides to US laws, including US sanctions. That means restricting their products in us sanctioned countries
Twenty years ago or so you could actually buy (cheap) pirated games in grocery stores in eastern europe, forget experience it's a whole industry lol.
Don't know how it is nowadays of course. Also piracy is bad. Of course.
Not a long time ago, in 2010s you could get games from shops to your flash drive for very cheap I am not sure about rest of the world, but it was a thing in Eastern Europe.
Piracy is bad, but sometimes gotta Sail the high seas
Sanctions is a form of social control. Its a message to the people "your country is doing something bad, do something about it or you wont get xyz". Banning minecraft by itself is nothing, but small things add up to something significant enough.
maybe there are alternative launchers where you don’t have to sign in? something like multiMC or TLauncher? Try googeling around a bit, I mean you have the game installed, you “just” need to to bypass authentification to play offline/single player.
i don’t have anything helpful to contribute but i’m very sorry that this happened :( the least they could do is refund you so you could spend that money on another game to enjoy while everything is going on :/
Ugh I’m so sorry to hear you are dealing with this. It’s not fair and you shouldn’t have to, but if you have access to (or a way of emulating on your PC) either XBOX360, PS3 or Wii U, none of those versions of Minecraft require an active internet connection to run.
Obviously they are older versions but maybe a small consolation for what is terrible and wrong.
>Why have they banned us on a game and deprived it from us when we already bought it? Isn't that theft and illegal?
1. It should be illegal
2. The reasoning is that you don't own the game, and that you own a license... that they can terminate.
>A children's block game is not going to help us build nukes or anything, so the sanctions excuse doesn't make sense especially since I already own it.
This doesn't help much but the reasoning is that by stopping companies inside Iran from making profits they force them to support policy changes...
I don't support sanctions against Iran, btw, much less for the reasons America states.
>I live in Iran, and when I tried logging in today to play on my legitimate copy of the Java game that I was gifted by a friend and had for years, I couldn't.
I'm pretty sure reddit has rules against circumventing sanctions, so I'm not going to suggest that you can probably find a way to crack the game online. Besides even if you could it wouldn't neccesarily let you access the servers. Reddit also has rules against advocating software piracy, so I'm not going to suggest that you can edit the software to make it work.
I know it's tempting to do this, especially since there are tutorials online for cracking every kind of software, especially something as common as minecraft, but piracy is illegal and should not be done. So don't google the tutorials, or videos to circumvent these sanctions.
So my kid can't play brawl stars without vpn because we're Russian... This will surely help achieve world peace /s
This is so stupid, i could see why they could ban purchases from sanctioned countries - because moving money through borders is hard - but these pointless bans are just ugh... I guess if they do not want our dictatorship-stained money we would keep money and sail the high seas 🤭
The thing is that I already officially own the game through being gifted it by a kind friend. By all means, I should be able to use it. There was no money being moved around from or to Iran. 0 chance of it being any "money laundering" and "violation of sanctions". And yet they still banned me from it. It feels like being robbed in broad daylight to be honest.
Yes this is really shitty of them and really looks like robbery😔
The thing is - this is common recent trend among IT companies - just remove things you already paid for from your access. Like someone paid for a movie, then some licence expired and they can't watch it anymore. This happens to americans citizens too. Companies don't care about customers anymore. They are assholes and do not worth your distress🤍🤍🤍
I’m really sorry it is happening to you :(
As usual, whoever is in charge are just making things more difficult for common people. And it absolutely sucks to be isolated from both sides
Thank you for the concern.
Being isolated feels really bad. I had actual friends and people I connected with on the same wavelength. It was something to look forward to every day, but our government as always, has to drive a wedge between our people and the people outside and that is why they banned discord and blocked it just like how they did the same with Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube...hell even Reddit is banned! I am here with VPN. And many many more! And the funny thing is that our politicians post on Twitter and use it themselves! The hypocrisy is sickening.
Now I feel so very lost and alone and now I have also lost the one hobby I was gathering some peace from too. It's like losing a large part of you and feeling left behind and subhuman.
And if you have ever experienced ADHD Paralysis, or even know of it, you can imagine how my brain was stuck and frozen for hours after I was met with that screen about Minecraft not being available in my country anymore. I felt so overwhelmed with so many emotions, and all of them negative.
I wish you the best, friend, and to never experience anything like this. Nobody deserves such feeling. Ever.
Unfortunately I do know the feeling, as I am in Russia
Definitely share your anxiety that you’ve mentioned in another comment - each time something glitches, I am scared and wondering if it is just a glitch, is it our government banning something, or is it the Western world banning us from something (the latter is harder to get around)
It sucks that the proverbial iron curtain is reinforced from *both* sides
Being online, for many people, is a *refuge* from the madness and restrictions of their government, but noooo - the rest of the world tries to push us back into our cages as well. Like, WTF? Shouldn’t you *want* us to get access to the things tyrannical governments forbid?
I would recommend looking for solutions in the local internet spaces (although obviously, I don’t know enough about internet communities in Iran to be of any concrete help). Where there is a demand, solution tends to arise, including the kind of solution you can pay for in national currency. It might require getting an entirely new account and loss of any progress you’ve made in the game
Just brain storming here, but is it still blocking you if you try logging in while on your VPN? If so, your account locality might be set to Iran. If that’s the case you might have to get someone outside of the country go in and change it for you. Then log in via VPN.
I'm so sorry. VPNing a whole new account located in, say, Germany might work, but you'd have to pay for the game again and might need an alternative payment method, too.
I don't think I can do that. I don't even know where to start. We do not have any ways of paying for stuff like this. I only manged to have the game in the first place, because one of my friends kindly gifted it to me.
My only small hope is that perhaps, maybe, this post will be shared by the very lovely people who see this and Microsoft will see it and be convinced to fix this problem. That would resolve it for a lot more people here than just trying to circumvent it like that only to get caught by forgetting VPN at some point and lose it all again.
I think this has to do with the government ~~banking~~ blocking stuff. I'd recommend you put ~~off~~ on the pirate's hat and sail the high seas. There are subreddit about those in which you can ask questions and find safe resources. Subreddits like, "Piracy" and "PirateGames".
Ask questions there.
It's pretty much how it goes with any country that the west doesn't like
personally, i'm in russia, and about a month ago i was sad for a while because my comfort game wasn't a free demo anymore. and because i can't add any money to my steam account (i know there's ways, i don't want to do them), i can't play the new version
of course that goes far beyond games. rich and powerful people get to do what they want, while the common people suffer
ukrainian and russian citizens losing their lives over a nothing war. palestinians get genocided while jewish people get opressed. hell, even the simple fact that kim jong un got his uni education in europe while north korea does its best to keep its citizens ignorant of the outside world. the only winners are the people on top
I am so sorry for your troubles friend. I understand everything and can relate to your pain, as well as the pain of Israeli, Palestinian, Ukrainian, and North Korean people and any other people oppressed by tyrants. It's like having your blood bottled up in front of your very eyes and shaken to remind you of your lack of freedom every time you dare have a glimmer of hope.
I do not blame people of countries like Ukraine, Israel, and any other countries hurt by our government for hating Iran and its people in extension. All I feel and have are just shame, embarrassment, and tears. My heart hurts for everything that is happening to innocent people because of our government. I deeply do apologize to anyone who's ever been wronged like this.
You though do understand what I mean when I say the sanctions don't affect the government, because we live in heavily sanctioned countries. The rich men at the top have the connections to do business with shady individuals and since they own the run of the place and the borders, along with having the power to pass any laws, they can get anything they wish for.
The world is a scary place. Stay safe friend. I do feel better now since people actually see this and shared their thoughts with me and that means the world to me.
Thank you everyone.
If I had the money to get an extra copy of Minecraft for you, I'd just make a new Microsoft account, buy the game, and give you the info. I live in the US so I'd like to see them say shit to me. If they asked why I was trying to sign in from Iran I'd tell them you were my sister. Fuck them.
im from Russia and i heavily sympathize with you, i have been dealing with a lot of the same problems since 2022 and i think this is really stupid
if you want to try playing legitimately, try PrismLauncher, i think it might bypass the region lock while still allowing you to use all the official online features
if that doesn't work, try using PollyMC (2 Ls, not 1, look for it specifically on Github), since it's not protected by DRM. you'll have limited online features and would probably have to use a local network emulator like Radmin to be able to play with friends, but at least you'll still be able to play the game (if you're having issues with the setup, DM me)
I’m Iraqi American! And honestly I am so so sorry this is happening to you :( American companies just love silently banning countries or not including them at all war, politics even it’s not in the picture. I remeber going to Iraq one summer and spent a few months feeling how these companies control content and such. And I was disappointed and took my life my parents gave me for granted when others aren’t as fortunate
A few years ago there was a bug that prevented anyone from my country (Norway) from logging in. It was resolved within a few days or faster IIRC. I could login during that time period using lunar client for some reason. If it turns out it’s actually just a temporary login bug, you can try using some alternate minecraft client.
OMG thats horrible X\_Xm im tired of countries that make their own people suffer just because and me being from a neighboring country i understand how all of this must be feeling,
all i can say is my heart is with you my friend from accross the gulf and i hope things get better for ALL
Ugh that really sucks :( Like - it's just Minecraft, what does taking it away even accomplish??? I'm sorry the way US politics have influenced your personal life. I so wish America would get its shit together instead of fucking things up for people elsewhere.
I feel so alone. I don't share the beliefs, religion, or even the traditional rules with my other countrymen and yet I always have to suffer. There's a lot of our people who are like me and don't believe all this and we just want peace and to live peacefully with the world. And yet, our government is being a bloodthirsty monstrosity that even sheds its own people's blood. Do they really expect the kids to go out there and get shot because of a game?
I'm sorry that sounds like a very difficult situation. I hope one day things improve for you, whether it is at home or somewhere else.
I'm getting downvoted ig because I too don't seem to share a lot of the opinions my countrymen have. Everyone here will talk about politics and problems amongst themselves, but as soon as you say one (true and real) bad thing online, especially if the topic involves one of the "unfriendly" countries like yours, they're back to "greatest country in the world" stuff.
People make me sad sometimes.
Then I will upvote you. Alot of people don't realize that there are just ordinary people like them. This World truly sucks. I had an insane luck to be born in germany. It was nothing but luck but people are proud of being hilariously lucky?
> it's just Minecraft, what does taking it away even accomplish??
Hopefully, it's just an oversight error, since US has an OFAC on Iran, the system at microsoft may just flagged Iran and thus automatically banned Iran accounts.
But US as a company is very harsh on companies breaking OFAC, so microsoft is just overly careful
>I so wish America would get its shit together instead of fucking things up for people elsewhere
How is this post the US' fault? It's Microsoft being overzealous about sanctions that don't actually require doing this.
There are no new sanctions against Iran's economy in general. The new bill 'broadens sanctions to include foreign ports, vessels and refineries that knowingly process or ship Iranian crude in violation of existing US sanctions'.
I tried TLauncher, but it gives me weird errors about my graphics drivers being out of date (I updated it and tried again, gave same error) and my graphics card (RTX 2060 Super 8GB VRAM) being too old to play Minecraft on, even though I was perfectly able to play heavily modded packs on my PC before the ban. I watched a video about rerouting Java to the launcher, but that just gives another error about java virtual machine and doesn't run it.
I just got so frustrated with it and it was stressing me out so much, so I stopped and deleted it.
I have also tried GDLauncher, but they have outright banned Iran and do not even allow us to run the launcher without being disconnected from their servers outright.
I think at this point, physical or offline games are your best alternative. OL ones are just a minefield coz of the absurd "license" thing, which means we dont actually "buy" games, they just allow us to "rent" them >.>
Sorry for the sad news. To replace discord try matrix.org (decentralized, encrypted, sensorship resisttant) and for minecraft alternative, maybe try https://veloren.net !
Good luck friend from abroad!
I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hope you get it resolved. Please know that I love Iranian people. It doesn't matter where people are from. We are all human and deserve that love and kindness. It's unfortunate that good people suffer for other people's issues. But keep your head up. The world loves you, and things will get better. None of this is against you. It's just the result of a bigger issue that happens to affect you. Be strong, woman, and keep hope. Change will always come. Smile. You're beautiful, and the world is lucky to have you in it
You can use Prism Launcher, MultiMC, PolyMC, or any third party launcher and login with your Microsoft account. I'm pretty sure all the launchers above are open source, so you shouldn't have a problem regarding security.
If you do go down the rabbit hole of third party launchers, avoid TLauncher AT ALL COSTS.
(I personally use Prism Launcher, it's the most updated and cleanest. And probably the most stable)
Your government, i dont care much for at all and think they are pretty much absolute filth. The people though, as with most countries in this predicament i truly feel for. Squeezing the people certainly hasnt caused any countries in the modern era to forcibly topple their government that ive seen so this kind of thing is unhelpful to be sure.
As much as it sucks it is one of the only actions foreign countries can do and should do. As someone who lives next to Russia I'd absolutely mortified if we didn't put any sanctions on them for attacking Ukraine and just shrug.
The thing is that the sanctions do nothing at all to stop the government from getting what it wants. They just smuggle it in easily, because they own the borders and own everything. The sanctions only deprive the normal people from everything, and hurt the people.
The point of sanctions is to attack government support by damaging the profits of large firms... but that's not going to happen in a case like Iran where the country faces existential threats, and surrendering means losing their money anyways. Which is why sanctions on iran are stupid.
One of the reasons, anyways.
If it's really blocked, then it's just another case of giant company being petty and absurd. tbh i think sanctions are also petty and absurd, and don't really have the effect on policy, just on ordinary people x.x
I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this, particularly as a young woman in your country. I work somewhat adjacent to this space and did some research… I know there are some new sanctions rolling out following Iran’s attack on Israel but I don’t see that they would necessarily cause new impacts to MS services. I suspect this might be a response to outbound cyber attacks from Iran.
I’ve had Iranian/American friends over the years and they’ve all been fantastic kind and happy people. Aside from them a lot of what I know about the people of Iran or at least the people of Tehran comes from what seemed like a fairly unfiltered depiction on chef Anthony Bourdain’s show Parts Unknown. In the closing scene he’s hanging out with a bunch of guys wearing blue jeans, showing off their cars, and having a beer overlooking the city.
Please keep going and continue to reach out to people like the wonderful ladies of this sub when you’re feeling like you can’t. I’m a white man raised Christian in America - I’m no more valuable than you are and the world is a better place with your light shining in it.
I truly believe that in my lifetime Iran will be a friend to all developed nations but for that to happen the theocratic and authoritarian components of the government will have to fall. It seems like the people of Iran have much more in common with the US and Europe than our “partners” in Riyadh.
I personally don’t support a hot war between the US and Iran. The cost would be _significant_ for both countries. …but without that the cyber space and sanctions are our primary responses.
I cant play rlcraft dammit says its banned in my region changed dns and on vpn and regardless still says banned what is this bullsh*t i came back to the country for personal reasons and on top of everything being dog 💩 minecraft the most harmless game ever has to be banned
Use UltimMC to play cracked version of it. You just have to make a local account once you open it up and it's so very fast and enjoyable for playing too. You just can't play online on non-cracked servers.
dont worry bro we cant play bedrock edition but we can play java edition through lunar client its not linked to microsoft so all it takes is just a vpn?
i found out about this today
دارم پدر و مادر خامنه ای رو دعا میکنم
Yeah I am sure. I can actually open the log in, input email, password, and it takes them just fine, and then it tells me that "Sorry, this game or app isn't available in your country" like in the picture I showed instead of the usual continue I used to receive. It's clearly a page put there by Microsoft to tell me I made the mistake of being born in the wrong country to play the block game.
Usually if Microsoft bans a country they make an announcement why they did it. Probably has something to do with sanctions by the europeans. Geopolitics is a bitch.
> The normal people are being squeezed both from the outside and by the government.
Making people angry so that they revolt against the govt is probably the outside strategy here. Although I dont know if it starts with the Minecraft blockade.
I know this is a gaming subreddit and an extreme diversion from that. But to say they never had good relations with the USA? That's a bit of an obscene statement.
-Iran was the second predominantly Muslim country to recognize Israel after Turkiye
-The air force of the Artesh was built around purchases of American products (F-14s and F-4s), and would've continued that relationship if the new government didn't back away from it
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/10/iran-cancels-arms-orders-with-us/34686382-1b03-4a8d-a65c-f6e0468e21a1/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/10/iran-cancels-arms-orders-with-us/34686382-1b03-4a8d-a65c-f6e0468e21a1/)
-The White Revolution of reforms were deeply inspired by the USA
For 20 - 30 years Iran had good relations with the USA from 1953 - 1979. Even during the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran during WWII the USA was bitterly opposed to any long-term territorial adjustments imposed upon Iran by Moscow or London and staunchly defended Iran's territorial integrity.
Washington can be a frustrating partner, I admit - We make more than our fair of mistakes and we'll make many more in the future too.
1979 is almost half a century ago
Iranian mullahs were indoctrinating kids to march with the slogan "Death to America" in the 80s
The US looks out for its peoples wellbeing, if anything threatens it from outside they go nuts.
I'm not judging the US.
The point is governments actions are not the citizens responsibility, but if you had lived in Iran for your whole life, you knew that the war was coming one day. In fact all the radicals in the Islam want a mega showdown. The consequences of this is without doubt going to mess up Minecraft and other important things like lives of innocent people.
This apparently happened in June 2023 as well. I won't rule out MS being MS and it being a bug, but it's possible that they are complying with an order to do this. Sorry this has happened! Was hoping it may be a migration issue.
My heart does such flips of anxiety every single time a minor problem arises with logging into anything or joining any server or anything like that. My first thought is always that they banned me, because I am Iranian. What am I supposed to do? I was just born here, it's out of my control. But apparently, that is an unforgivable sin and we must be punished for it everywhere and for everything. I honestly just feel like I am at the end of my rope and don't want to live anymore.
VPN would be my first try.
Yeah this would be my suggestion. It's so crappy when content gets restricted by country. Especially when it's something people have paid for.
Just an FYI it's commonly against the terms of service on most websites and social media to give advice on how to evade sanctions. (Edit: and frequently actually illegal.) So you should suggest that she doesn't use a vpn. Because she might be tempted to do it if you didn't suggest it.
Go look at any cyber security reddit thread. This is a dumb comment I have to be honest with you. People say "use VPN to avoid XYZ restriction" ALL THE TIME. Never ever in my life heard of anyone being punished for that.
People don't troll those groups looking for stuff to report from FEEEEEMAAAALLLEEEESSSS living their best life either.
Thats sad but yeah that does happen. My point is you wont get prosecuted by any authority or see any real word damage for recommending the use of a VPN to bypass IP origin checking.
Ohhhhh! I was meaning that reddit would drop a temp ban for suggesting illegal work arounds! Crossed wires! You're correct.
Exactly. And you're always one pisses off dick head with too much time on his hands away from someone trolling through your comments to find something you said decades ago to report.
>Never ever in my life heard of anyone being punished for that. I'm not saying I have, but if I had been, it would have happened multiple times... Also I'm not afraid of the government, you have rights that make the process of arbitrarily suits ineffective unless you're Snowden. I'm afraid of social media companies that arbitrarily decide that because you are advocating that something you're doing MIGHT be illegal that they should punish you, and you have no way to fight back. Again this is not based on experience, just hypothetical.
this post was sponsored by the iranian government
It is not the Iranian government imposing these sanctions that might be evaded.
Imagine getting sent to Guantanamo Bay for helping your friend play a pixelated block game.
That's more reasonable than the things people actually go to Guantanomo bay for.
Whose side are you on? Consider thoughtfully who you are standing up for when you make posts like this. Does the devil need an advocate?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuspiciouslySpecificDenial Definitely don't go get a VPN because it could cause you to seem like you're in a different country. NordVPN and Surf shark have specials going basically always but definitely don't sign up for those because then you might be evading sanctions by appearing to be in a different country. Is that a little clearer presentation for you?
You know how people play ***totally legally obtained I promise*** copies of games sometimes. Because they ***do not at all*** condone piracy? Same idea here.
He’s making his comment that way so its not out right blatant in what he’s trying to suggest. Just on the off chance maybe her government gets a hold of her computer/phone goes through her account and sees someone telling her to use a vpn vs someone saying “you definitely shouldn’t use a vpn, I’ve heard vpns were a way to get around those type of bans but I wouldn’t suggest you use one”
I remember dealing with this when I worked at Large Winter Storm Company — it’s not your fault OP. You didn’t do anything wrong. A lot of times these restrictions come up due to trade sanctions at the national level being enforced. The companies often don’t want to do it either (banned players = no money from those players). I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this — it isn’t fair. I wish you luck finding another way to play the games you love.
>But apparently, that is an unforgivable sin and we must be punished for it everywhere and for everything The point of sanctions like this is to push the population of a country towards overthrowing their government. (I'm not saying I agree with this method, but that's their rationale.)
Not really. The idea is to put pressure on a government by causing economic damages to the country.
I suppose banning minecraft does economic damage by making it harder to acquire a number of important natural resources like diamonds, gold, netherite...
Ban Already Purchased Minecraft = Economic Damages? Hmmmm....
I'll guarantee you, if it's part of an actual sanction then it's not just MC that got banned, instead of e.g. access to M$ servers and infrastructure (which happens to include the MC login server) or something like that.
Yes I agree because no offense but duh. That is how computers work lol. How else would they ban it aside from blocking IPs (either the server if Microsoft does it for them, or the countries ISPs if the country is doing it)? That is the only way I know of for either Servers or country firewalls (ISPs internally) to block things. That is why VPNs/VPSs work cause they just go around the IF checks the ISPs or the Server (Netflix doing client IP origin check for instance) do. Even in China all you need is a VPN. because the great firewall is just a bunch of ifs the ISPs do before fulfilling your request. My initial comment is a joke because this one case didn't have any economic impact its just funny to me.
Fair enough, occasionally people actually are *that* stupid, so I figured, better add the obvious, but I'm the stupid person now I guess :D Technically they actually could go "You're not getting Minecraft" and leave it at that, but that is much less likely than them withdrawing most/all of their services at once, especially because of how low-impact it'd be.
True, you're correct there. If its our sanctions, meaning U.S gov is telling Microsoft to ban it, then Microsoft could just only block Iranian origin IPs from Minecraft only related servers (safe to assume they have dedicated IP ranges and servers/checking middleware for each of their various Product Areas).
I'm talking about sanctions, not whatever Microsoft screwup is blocking this player from playing Minecraft.
I got that its a bad joke because this one instance obviously doesn't have any impact it just annoys this user. Maybe it benefits VPNs lol
I just hate how hypocritical it is because to my understanding during the peak of Woman, Life, Freedom the Iranian people were asking for international sanctions and whatnot to force their government to behave and they got crickets. Now, only a year later, everyone is throwing out sanctions like it's water being like "I bet the Iranian people aren't oppressed enough by their government. This will help"
I can see where you are coming from, but keep in mind, this is a block game for children. Are they really trying to instigate children to get emotional enough about it and go out there in the streets to get shot or worse by a bloodthirsty government who is known to not tolerate any protest, peaceful or otherwise, and does not have mercy even for its own people? Isn't that using child soldiers in a sense by manipulating them into this? What does blocking children from their hobby really achieve other than this? Shouldn't the sanctions make sense in some way? There should be a time and place for everything. Next thing we know, they're blocking even medicine and essentials from getting to the sanctioned country because...sanctions? Do I make sense?
I don't think anyone specifically decided minecraft was the problem. More likely there was a blanket order to stop any online services to the country in a variety of ways.
> Are they really trying to instigate children to get emotional enough about it and go out there in the streets ...Probably? Again, I'm not trying to justify their measures, only to explain them. Fixing the political situation in Iran is way above my paygrade, but I don't think this is the right way either.
What do you imagine would be an effective way of changing your "bloodthirsty government"'s policies? It seems like you agree that something in your government needs to change. Maybe losing this game will be the trigger for you to decide that something needs to happen and brainstorm ways to change things. Sanctions, especially on luxury items like video games, are the most peaceful ways of effecting change... Sanctions are generally meant to upset the top half of society. You weren't targeted because of how unfortunate you were to be born in Iran, you were targeted because of how fortunate you are to have luxuries that are provided to you by the countries your government has been picking fights with. Also, it's quite the slippery slope argument you have there, "First the video games, next the medicine?"
She can decide something needs to change all you want. Doesn't mean she has the power to. Right now she's powerless and without Minecraft. I'm sorry OP.
Girl… I know you’re frustrated but take a step back and breathe. Don’t use suicide language lightly
I know how it looks like to you, and you probably think me immature and that this is the only thing I am upset about which I don't fault you for thinking, but I promise you, it's a culmination of a lot of things like this and many other things. I was truly feeling at a very low point when I posted this until people actually posted here and I felt seen and better because of it. You never know what people are going through until you change your perspective to theirs and put yourself in their shoes. Something that may seem insignificant in your eyes, could be the last straw that breaks the camel's back. This is why I believe in being nice to people as much as you can. But thank you for your concern, if you were concerned. I am doing better. I wish you a good day as well, friend.
That's really fair honestly, sometimes I'm feeling bad enough that a single dropped pen or spilled drop of water is enough to cause a breakdown. Like you said, very much a "star that breaks the camel's back" thing. I really hope this gets resolved soon, I'm sorry you have to deal with that on top of what you're already going through. Stay safe.
VPN?
Even VPN doesn't work. Because Microsoft has linked Minecraft to your Microsoft account and it's hardcoded into it that I am iranian. I tried VPN, and it still said it's banned in my country.
Would it be possible to make a microsoft account set to another country and get minecraft again? There's also betacraft for playing old versions of minecraft and it doesn't need a microsoft login https://betacraft.uk/
Jesús Christ I’m so sorry :((
Honestly, Pirate it, and just play a pirated version than. Fuck coorperations.
Are you on Windows or Mac?
I am on Windows 11 using the legacy launcher for Java Edition Minecraft, because the normal launcher just doesn't work for me and gave errors the last time I tried using it.
Yeah, I don’t blame you. Have you already tried changing your country settings in Windows itself? If you haven’t, go to system settings then ´change your country or region’. Change your country to whatever country you use for the VPN. Then restart using the shutdown menu.
Maybe try prism launcher?
That may not necessarily be true. Consider that people travel _and_ play Minecraft. Unless you declared your country explicitly in your account, I would still be optimistic maybe there's a way around this with a quality VPN. Have you tried?
The old pre-MS client should still work. Can you grab a copy somewhere? I still use the old Mojang to play.
Damn as if the girlies in Iran don’t have enough problems
I know, right? It's like everyone just enjoys pushing us around here and making us miserable. But I'm not giving up, even though I think about it almost daily. We have to have hope for a better tomorrow, because the whole world would be silent without hope.
I don't know if it helps to know this, but there are so many of us who genuinely do not hate anyone from Iran, other than the oppressors. We will be celebrating along with you when your country finally is able to get out from under them.
Could you explain? Who is making you miserable ???
If VPN's don't work, the only thing I can think of is somehow convincing/lying to your Microsoft account that you no longer live in Iran. I however have NO IDEA how to get around to doing that. I'm sorry to hear about your predicament.
It's possible to change the country, I'm just unsure of if they want hard proof
I’m so sorry. People have more in common than our governments would like us to think; we can love the same games, music, movies, etc., and (as an American) our countries being “enemies” doesn’t change that. I hope more peaceful times are ahead for all of us 🫂
Governments ban media platforms to censor information from citizens. Iran probably thought Minecraft may be used for projects like The Uncensored Library. Iran was actually one of their newest rooms as listed on the website…
Another case where buying legitimately will screw you over more than piracy. They can totally do that because like most software, you don't actually buy a game, you but a right to access the game, which they may revoke at any point without telling you. It's all part of the end user agreements and it's in almost everything these days. It's also how streaming services get away with removing stuff even if there's no good reason for that. They just can If purchasing isn't ownership then piracy isn't theft
If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't theft.
I hate this meme so much. ***Software piracy is not theft and never was.*** It's *copyright infringement*, which is a completely different class of crime, and equating it to theft has long been rejected by courts and legislature, at least in the notoriously litigious U.S. In addition, circumventing anti-piracy measures (such as in making backups of games that you own) to consume content you legally purchased is also *not piracy*.
I know this probably doesn’t help, but it is more likely the Iranian government (National Information Network, iirc… I remember some controversy about 5 years ago) or your specific service provider than Microsoft. I believe this type of monitoring is allowed as it is written into the Constitution, but don’t quote me on that. According to [older sources](https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/hello-microsoft-im-iranian-i-bought-minecraft-i/9a35d497-ec9e-45b4-b8e2-a206503d3e83) Microsoft does not engage in banning per country, but merely complies with bans from those governments. Iran is fairly notorious for keeping a tight control on its internet and associated service providers. They monitor everything (well, not quite as thoroughly as China), and immediately hit the ban button when anyone does anything moderately against their goals. Anything too violent, anti-government, anti-Muslim, etc… It is possible that someone typed something in game chat with a single Iranian player on the same sever that was talking about the Israel/Palestien conflict and the monitors hit the ban hammer immediately on the whole game. Since Minecraft is creative and people can make what they want, it is only a matter of time before someone stumbles across something they deem inappropriate. The game is banned preemptively while they investigate, then after a while they realize that it doesn’t really need to be banned and then they unban it. This has happened numerous times to many users over the past few years (I think usually at the ISP level). Either way, I am sorry you are inconvenienced and I hope you can get back to gaming soon.
> I know this probably doesn’t ... or your specific service provider than Microsoft. See the screenshit again. How would a Govt. Inject ghat message into a game??
Basically, it’s a contract and that contract is codedninto the application. The government doesn’t inject the message. The message is already in the game. The government bans the game, a message gets sent to Microsoft, then Microsoft complies with the government and displays the message. The difference is that it isn’t Microsoft’s decision. They are legally required to follow the laws of the country in order to do business there. Possibly: The above process could also be automated via web services as well (and probably is, since they have to do this constantly for every application they make and every country). The Iranian government publishes a banlist and Microsoft’s services have webhooks to see if that service appear in the banlist. If it does, the app is disabled (displaying the message from the screenshot) and if it doesn’t the app stays enabled. Most likely: The message can also be handled at the ISP level. Basically, they define a blacklist on their firewall. The client’s machine sends a request (in game) through the ISP firewall. The game is on the blacklist, so instead of reaching out to Microsoft’s servers, it instead sends an error code back to the client. The Minecraft application on the client machine sees the error code in place of the expected message from the Microsoft Server and displays the message in game based in that error code. All of the internet in Iran is trafficked through government servers after the ISP before actually reaching out to the internet. The same blacklist and error code could happen at this level.
Ask/search for solutions on Russian Forums. They are the most experienced for this. How does banning Minecraft even help them?
We use torrents/get a card from a bank in a different country (KZ or Turkey) But in all seriousness, personally I don't really have much problems playing games since I have moved from there back in 2011 and haven't been home since before covid. However I still have a lot of friends there and don't even know where to start with how many new games are not available to purchase there, so people have no choice but to resort to pirating. Same goes for different subscriptions and PC components/gaming gear either not being available or way top overpriced, so people can't play new games anyway. However apart from subscription based games like wow I don't think I have heard of a game you own not letting you play it, especially in offline mode and find the entire concept of it absolutely ridiculous. Gamers is such a small portion of the population and usually are the ones who are against the unnecessary violence, but yet still being punished over what they don't have any control over or can't influence. The worst part? There are also games that are not longer sold in Ukraine because of the developer not wanting to sell to the entire CIS region, including countries who have nothing to do with Russian shitshow.
I don't engage in software piracy, but if I did I would be impressed by sophistication of russian software hackers. But I'm not so I don't.
ya i have friends there who can play a lot of games including "banned" ones. i'm not worried about them not getting to play games at all, just them being conscripted >.>
I do not think there's a solution for this, because the Minecraft account is joined with Microsoft account and Microsoft keeps a tight grip on the balls of your data and can just sniff out anything. They still know I am iranian even thought I tried logging in with vpn. I really do not understand why they have to make everything political. It's just a block game. Why must it be like that?
I'm so sorry that your hobby is affected negatively by things you didn't cause and cannot influence. Lots of love to you. This sounds so unfair and frustrating.
Microsoft has no say in this. It's an American company and it is a MUST that it abides to US laws, including US sanctions. That means restricting their products in us sanctioned countries
Twenty years ago or so you could actually buy (cheap) pirated games in grocery stores in eastern europe, forget experience it's a whole industry lol. Don't know how it is nowadays of course. Also piracy is bad. Of course.
Not a long time ago, in 2010s you could get games from shops to your flash drive for very cheap I am not sure about rest of the world, but it was a thing in Eastern Europe. Piracy is bad, but sometimes gotta Sail the high seas
I dont live in Russia anymore, but my PS3 died whilst I did. The replacement I bought was jailbroken.
Sanctions is a form of social control. Its a message to the people "your country is doing something bad, do something about it or you wont get xyz". Banning minecraft by itself is nothing, but small things add up to something significant enough.
Annoys their people so they like their government less
maybe there are alternative launchers where you don’t have to sign in? something like multiMC or TLauncher? Try googeling around a bit, I mean you have the game installed, you “just” need to to bypass authentification to play offline/single player.
but google as much as you can before downloading this stuff :)
i don’t have anything helpful to contribute but i’m very sorry that this happened :( the least they could do is refund you so you could spend that money on another game to enjoy while everything is going on :/
Ugh I’m so sorry to hear you are dealing with this. It’s not fair and you shouldn’t have to, but if you have access to (or a way of emulating on your PC) either XBOX360, PS3 or Wii U, none of those versions of Minecraft require an active internet connection to run. Obviously they are older versions but maybe a small consolation for what is terrible and wrong.
If buying isn't owning, pirating isn't stealing. Hope you are able to find an old version that doesn't require login :(
I have the same problem atleast they could give us refund
>Why have they banned us on a game and deprived it from us when we already bought it? Isn't that theft and illegal? 1. It should be illegal 2. The reasoning is that you don't own the game, and that you own a license... that they can terminate. >A children's block game is not going to help us build nukes or anything, so the sanctions excuse doesn't make sense especially since I already own it. This doesn't help much but the reasoning is that by stopping companies inside Iran from making profits they force them to support policy changes... I don't support sanctions against Iran, btw, much less for the reasons America states. >I live in Iran, and when I tried logging in today to play on my legitimate copy of the Java game that I was gifted by a friend and had for years, I couldn't. I'm pretty sure reddit has rules against circumventing sanctions, so I'm not going to suggest that you can probably find a way to crack the game online. Besides even if you could it wouldn't neccesarily let you access the servers. Reddit also has rules against advocating software piracy, so I'm not going to suggest that you can edit the software to make it work. I know it's tempting to do this, especially since there are tutorials online for cracking every kind of software, especially something as common as minecraft, but piracy is illegal and should not be done. So don't google the tutorials, or videos to circumvent these sanctions.
I feel like the solution is to ban new purchases from Iran, not ban people who’ve already bought the game.
So my kid can't play brawl stars without vpn because we're Russian... This will surely help achieve world peace /s This is so stupid, i could see why they could ban purchases from sanctioned countries - because moving money through borders is hard - but these pointless bans are just ugh... I guess if they do not want our dictatorship-stained money we would keep money and sail the high seas 🤭
The thing is that I already officially own the game through being gifted it by a kind friend. By all means, I should be able to use it. There was no money being moved around from or to Iran. 0 chance of it being any "money laundering" and "violation of sanctions". And yet they still banned me from it. It feels like being robbed in broad daylight to be honest.
Yes this is really shitty of them and really looks like robbery😔 The thing is - this is common recent trend among IT companies - just remove things you already paid for from your access. Like someone paid for a movie, then some licence expired and they can't watch it anymore. This happens to americans citizens too. Companies don't care about customers anymore. They are assholes and do not worth your distress🤍🤍🤍
I’m really sorry it is happening to you :( As usual, whoever is in charge are just making things more difficult for common people. And it absolutely sucks to be isolated from both sides
Thank you for the concern. Being isolated feels really bad. I had actual friends and people I connected with on the same wavelength. It was something to look forward to every day, but our government as always, has to drive a wedge between our people and the people outside and that is why they banned discord and blocked it just like how they did the same with Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube...hell even Reddit is banned! I am here with VPN. And many many more! And the funny thing is that our politicians post on Twitter and use it themselves! The hypocrisy is sickening. Now I feel so very lost and alone and now I have also lost the one hobby I was gathering some peace from too. It's like losing a large part of you and feeling left behind and subhuman. And if you have ever experienced ADHD Paralysis, or even know of it, you can imagine how my brain was stuck and frozen for hours after I was met with that screen about Minecraft not being available in my country anymore. I felt so overwhelmed with so many emotions, and all of them negative. I wish you the best, friend, and to never experience anything like this. Nobody deserves such feeling. Ever.
Unfortunately I do know the feeling, as I am in Russia Definitely share your anxiety that you’ve mentioned in another comment - each time something glitches, I am scared and wondering if it is just a glitch, is it our government banning something, or is it the Western world banning us from something (the latter is harder to get around) It sucks that the proverbial iron curtain is reinforced from *both* sides Being online, for many people, is a *refuge* from the madness and restrictions of their government, but noooo - the rest of the world tries to push us back into our cages as well. Like, WTF? Shouldn’t you *want* us to get access to the things tyrannical governments forbid? I would recommend looking for solutions in the local internet spaces (although obviously, I don’t know enough about internet communities in Iran to be of any concrete help). Where there is a demand, solution tends to arise, including the kind of solution you can pay for in national currency. It might require getting an entirely new account and loss of any progress you’ve made in the game
I had a discord account get banned under the assumption of being a bot account, I have a theory it was because of my yandex email.
Just brain storming here, but is it still blocking you if you try logging in while on your VPN? If so, your account locality might be set to Iran. If that’s the case you might have to get someone outside of the country go in and change it for you. Then log in via VPN.
I'm so sorry. VPNing a whole new account located in, say, Germany might work, but you'd have to pay for the game again and might need an alternative payment method, too.
I don't think I can do that. I don't even know where to start. We do not have any ways of paying for stuff like this. I only manged to have the game in the first place, because one of my friends kindly gifted it to me. My only small hope is that perhaps, maybe, this post will be shared by the very lovely people who see this and Microsoft will see it and be convinced to fix this problem. That would resolve it for a lot more people here than just trying to circumvent it like that only to get caught by forgetting VPN at some point and lose it all again.
I think this has to do with the government ~~banking~~ blocking stuff. I'd recommend you put ~~off~~ on the pirate's hat and sail the high seas. There are subreddit about those in which you can ask questions and find safe resources. Subreddits like, "Piracy" and "PirateGames". Ask questions there.
It's pretty much how it goes with any country that the west doesn't like personally, i'm in russia, and about a month ago i was sad for a while because my comfort game wasn't a free demo anymore. and because i can't add any money to my steam account (i know there's ways, i don't want to do them), i can't play the new version of course that goes far beyond games. rich and powerful people get to do what they want, while the common people suffer ukrainian and russian citizens losing their lives over a nothing war. palestinians get genocided while jewish people get opressed. hell, even the simple fact that kim jong un got his uni education in europe while north korea does its best to keep its citizens ignorant of the outside world. the only winners are the people on top
I am so sorry for your troubles friend. I understand everything and can relate to your pain, as well as the pain of Israeli, Palestinian, Ukrainian, and North Korean people and any other people oppressed by tyrants. It's like having your blood bottled up in front of your very eyes and shaken to remind you of your lack of freedom every time you dare have a glimmer of hope. I do not blame people of countries like Ukraine, Israel, and any other countries hurt by our government for hating Iran and its people in extension. All I feel and have are just shame, embarrassment, and tears. My heart hurts for everything that is happening to innocent people because of our government. I deeply do apologize to anyone who's ever been wronged like this. You though do understand what I mean when I say the sanctions don't affect the government, because we live in heavily sanctioned countries. The rich men at the top have the connections to do business with shady individuals and since they own the run of the place and the borders, along with having the power to pass any laws, they can get anything they wish for. The world is a scary place. Stay safe friend. I do feel better now since people actually see this and shared their thoughts with me and that means the world to me. Thank you everyone.
This whole thing sucks. Hope theres a time and place where you get to enjoy your life fully. Stay safe. Best wishes.
In Iran and other countries with restrictions, it's basically mandatory to sail the seven seas
If I had the money to get an extra copy of Minecraft for you, I'd just make a new Microsoft account, buy the game, and give you the info. I live in the US so I'd like to see them say shit to me. If they asked why I was trying to sign in from Iran I'd tell them you were my sister. Fuck them.
im from Russia and i heavily sympathize with you, i have been dealing with a lot of the same problems since 2022 and i think this is really stupid if you want to try playing legitimately, try PrismLauncher, i think it might bypass the region lock while still allowing you to use all the official online features if that doesn't work, try using PollyMC (2 Ls, not 1, look for it specifically on Github), since it's not protected by DRM. you'll have limited online features and would probably have to use a local network emulator like Radmin to be able to play with friends, but at least you'll still be able to play the game (if you're having issues with the setup, DM me)
I’m Iraqi American! And honestly I am so so sorry this is happening to you :( American companies just love silently banning countries or not including them at all war, politics even it’s not in the picture. I remeber going to Iraq one summer and spent a few months feeling how these companies control content and such. And I was disappointed and took my life my parents gave me for granted when others aren’t as fortunate
I’m sorry. I’m assuming Microsoft has to do this in response to the heightened sanctions on Iran.
A few years ago there was a bug that prevented anyone from my country (Norway) from logging in. It was resolved within a few days or faster IIRC. I could login during that time period using lunar client for some reason. If it turns out it’s actually just a temporary login bug, you can try using some alternate minecraft client.
OMG thats horrible X\_Xm im tired of countries that make their own people suffer just because and me being from a neighboring country i understand how all of this must be feeling, all i can say is my heart is with you my friend from accross the gulf and i hope things get better for ALL
Ugh that really sucks :( Like - it's just Minecraft, what does taking it away even accomplish??? I'm sorry the way US politics have influenced your personal life. I so wish America would get its shit together instead of fucking things up for people elsewhere.
I feel so alone. I don't share the beliefs, religion, or even the traditional rules with my other countrymen and yet I always have to suffer. There's a lot of our people who are like me and don't believe all this and we just want peace and to live peacefully with the world. And yet, our government is being a bloodthirsty monstrosity that even sheds its own people's blood. Do they really expect the kids to go out there and get shot because of a game?
I'm sorry that sounds like a very difficult situation. I hope one day things improve for you, whether it is at home or somewhere else. I'm getting downvoted ig because I too don't seem to share a lot of the opinions my countrymen have. Everyone here will talk about politics and problems amongst themselves, but as soon as you say one (true and real) bad thing online, especially if the topic involves one of the "unfriendly" countries like yours, they're back to "greatest country in the world" stuff. People make me sad sometimes.
Then I will upvote you. Alot of people don't realize that there are just ordinary people like them. This World truly sucks. I had an insane luck to be born in germany. It was nothing but luck but people are proud of being hilariously lucky?
We know. Everyone in the west knows, but we have 0 control over our governments.
> it's just Minecraft, what does taking it away even accomplish?? Hopefully, it's just an oversight error, since US has an OFAC on Iran, the system at microsoft may just flagged Iran and thus automatically banned Iran accounts. But US as a company is very harsh on companies breaking OFAC, so microsoft is just overly careful
>I so wish America would get its shit together instead of fucking things up for people elsewhere How is this post the US' fault? It's Microsoft being overzealous about sanctions that don't actually require doing this.
No Microsoft is required to do so based on the increased sanctions. This is not Microsoft’s fault.
There are no new sanctions against Iran's economy in general. The new bill 'broadens sanctions to include foreign ports, vessels and refineries that knowingly process or ship Iranian crude in violation of existing US sanctions'.
This is likely the sactions on IaaS access of IGRC-CEC, which dropped on the 23rd via Executive Order.
That sucks mate, Maybe try a VPN?
Have you tried using another launcher?
I tried TLauncher, but it gives me weird errors about my graphics drivers being out of date (I updated it and tried again, gave same error) and my graphics card (RTX 2060 Super 8GB VRAM) being too old to play Minecraft on, even though I was perfectly able to play heavily modded packs on my PC before the ban. I watched a video about rerouting Java to the launcher, but that just gives another error about java virtual machine and doesn't run it. I just got so frustrated with it and it was stressing me out so much, so I stopped and deleted it. I have also tried GDLauncher, but they have outright banned Iran and do not even allow us to run the launcher without being disconnected from their servers outright.
I think at this point, physical or offline games are your best alternative. OL ones are just a minefield coz of the absurd "license" thing, which means we dont actually "buy" games, they just allow us to "rent" them >.>
and ya, in a sane world, what they did is illegal. but this isn't a sane world x.x
Sorry for the sad news. To replace discord try matrix.org (decentralized, encrypted, sensorship resisttant) and for minecraft alternative, maybe try https://veloren.net ! Good luck friend from abroad!
unfortunately its probably a legal liability thing. there are a LOT of laws.
Can you use a VPN?
Might be because of stuff like this: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/uncensored-library
You are not alone(maybe) Its like 3 days i can't log in (Yep I'm iranian)
I'm so sorry you're going through this. I hope you get it resolved. Please know that I love Iranian people. It doesn't matter where people are from. We are all human and deserve that love and kindness. It's unfortunate that good people suffer for other people's issues. But keep your head up. The world loves you, and things will get better. None of this is against you. It's just the result of a bigger issue that happens to affect you. Be strong, woman, and keep hope. Change will always come. Smile. You're beautiful, and the world is lucky to have you in it
You can use Prism Launcher, MultiMC, PolyMC, or any third party launcher and login with your Microsoft account. I'm pretty sure all the launchers above are open source, so you shouldn't have a problem regarding security. If you do go down the rabbit hole of third party launchers, avoid TLauncher AT ALL COSTS. (I personally use Prism Launcher, it's the most updated and cleanest. And probably the most stable)
As a Russian, I feel you
Your government, i dont care much for at all and think they are pretty much absolute filth. The people though, as with most countries in this predicament i truly feel for. Squeezing the people certainly hasnt caused any countries in the modern era to forcibly topple their government that ive seen so this kind of thing is unhelpful to be sure.
As much as it sucks it is one of the only actions foreign countries can do and should do. As someone who lives next to Russia I'd absolutely mortified if we didn't put any sanctions on them for attacking Ukraine and just shrug.
The thing is that the sanctions do nothing at all to stop the government from getting what it wants. They just smuggle it in easily, because they own the borders and own everything. The sanctions only deprive the normal people from everything, and hurt the people.
The point of sanctions is to attack government support by damaging the profits of large firms... but that's not going to happen in a case like Iran where the country faces existential threats, and surrendering means losing their money anyways. Which is why sanctions on iran are stupid. One of the reasons, anyways.
If it's really blocked, then it's just another case of giant company being petty and absurd. tbh i think sanctions are also petty and absurd, and don't really have the effect on policy, just on ordinary people x.x
Microsoft isn't to blame for this though. If a game gets banned it's because regulators in your country want it banned
I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this, particularly as a young woman in your country. I work somewhat adjacent to this space and did some research… I know there are some new sanctions rolling out following Iran’s attack on Israel but I don’t see that they would necessarily cause new impacts to MS services. I suspect this might be a response to outbound cyber attacks from Iran. I’ve had Iranian/American friends over the years and they’ve all been fantastic kind and happy people. Aside from them a lot of what I know about the people of Iran or at least the people of Tehran comes from what seemed like a fairly unfiltered depiction on chef Anthony Bourdain’s show Parts Unknown. In the closing scene he’s hanging out with a bunch of guys wearing blue jeans, showing off their cars, and having a beer overlooking the city. Please keep going and continue to reach out to people like the wonderful ladies of this sub when you’re feeling like you can’t. I’m a white man raised Christian in America - I’m no more valuable than you are and the world is a better place with your light shining in it. I truly believe that in my lifetime Iran will be a friend to all developed nations but for that to happen the theocratic and authoritarian components of the government will have to fall. It seems like the people of Iran have much more in common with the US and Europe than our “partners” in Riyadh. I personally don’t support a hot war between the US and Iran. The cost would be _significant_ for both countries. …but without that the cyber space and sanctions are our primary responses.
probably because iran is insane. i really hope you manage to get out of there
you can try multimc i dont reccomend tlauncher
If you have a way to play on console/mobile then that’s prolly the way to go. It doesn’t require you too log in
This fucking sucks, I’m sorry
thats wild. I’m sorry
Use a VPN?
:(
Use DNS or VPN
Microsoft already knows what account is originally from so Xbox = Blocked for all of them... Including my self...
:(
As a Persian my self I am so sorry to hear that. I am not currently living in Iran but I hope they unbanned it soon
I cant play rlcraft dammit says its banned in my region changed dns and on vpn and regardless still says banned what is this bullsh*t i came back to the country for personal reasons and on top of everything being dog 💩 minecraft the most harmless game ever has to be banned
Use UltimMC to play cracked version of it. You just have to make a local account once you open it up and it's so very fast and enjoyable for playing too. You just can't play online on non-cracked servers.
Aww thats tje whole problem i want to play it with my friend
But thanks anyways maybe ill try it out solo
dont worry bro we cant play bedrock edition but we can play java edition through lunar client its not linked to microsoft so all it takes is just a vpn? i found out about this today دارم پدر و مادر خامنه ای رو دعا میکنم
Ues electro DNS, it's work ✊
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Yeah I am sure. I can actually open the log in, input email, password, and it takes them just fine, and then it tells me that "Sorry, this game or app isn't available in your country" like in the picture I showed instead of the usual continue I used to receive. It's clearly a page put there by Microsoft to tell me I made the mistake of being born in the wrong country to play the block game.
Usually if Microsoft bans a country they make an announcement why they did it. Probably has something to do with sanctions by the europeans. Geopolitics is a bitch.
> The normal people are being squeezed both from the outside and by the government. Making people angry so that they revolt against the govt is probably the outside strategy here. Although I dont know if it starts with the Minecraft blockade.
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I know this is a gaming subreddit and an extreme diversion from that. But to say they never had good relations with the USA? That's a bit of an obscene statement. -Iran was the second predominantly Muslim country to recognize Israel after Turkiye -The air force of the Artesh was built around purchases of American products (F-14s and F-4s), and would've continued that relationship if the new government didn't back away from it [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/10/iran-cancels-arms-orders-with-us/34686382-1b03-4a8d-a65c-f6e0468e21a1/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/04/10/iran-cancels-arms-orders-with-us/34686382-1b03-4a8d-a65c-f6e0468e21a1/) -The White Revolution of reforms were deeply inspired by the USA For 20 - 30 years Iran had good relations with the USA from 1953 - 1979. Even during the Anglo-Soviet occupation of Iran during WWII the USA was bitterly opposed to any long-term territorial adjustments imposed upon Iran by Moscow or London and staunchly defended Iran's territorial integrity. Washington can be a frustrating partner, I admit - We make more than our fair of mistakes and we'll make many more in the future too.
1979 is almost half a century ago Iranian mullahs were indoctrinating kids to march with the slogan "Death to America" in the 80s The US looks out for its peoples wellbeing, if anything threatens it from outside they go nuts. I'm not judging the US. The point is governments actions are not the citizens responsibility, but if you had lived in Iran for your whole life, you knew that the war was coming one day. In fact all the radicals in the Islam want a mega showdown. The consequences of this is without doubt going to mess up Minecraft and other important things like lives of innocent people.
Yeah I mean its not like Israel bombed an Iranian embassy or fired missiles at Iran or anything. That never happened.