Are you sure you need to? This is the first time I have ever seen this.
Edit: Nevermind. I do believe you can offer a product like this on the internet, worldwide, without having to obey laws by all the countries in which your product can be bought. When markus started selling minecraft, there was no such thing. Only paypal and you were set, no matter of nationality.
I dont believe you need to limit yourself like this.
I didn’t tried it but I want to say that I think that that “US only” thing is stupid Sisyphus work. Because if players would want to play they will lie. And also remember Golden rule: That in internet you could never trust anyone without checking first. And even if you implement IP check to see from where user is connecting you can’t be complete sure because internet is so huge ant there are “tools” to lie to your systems. And remember that internet is global “thing” there is no countrys and that securing it is mostly waste of time and possible market space.
To clarify, I agree that there is not a reliable way to know where visitors/customers come from over the Internet. IP is a distributed protocol and there are a myriad of routing and proxying technologies that make geolocation unreliable. The issue at hand is Terms of Service compliance.
I worked closely with a lawyer to make these ToS as open as possible. I personally told him that I’d like every computer in the world to have a copy of Island Forge. Unfortunately, that is simply not advisable. I will explain some of what I have learned, regarding the business/legal side of starting an independent game company.
I am not a lawyer, but this is how I understand the US residency stipulation (which was created by a lawyer): By agreeing to our Terms of Service, we protect ourselves from being pulling us into international legal cases. I have learned that these types of agreements are largely about risk management. We’re a small operation, and we cannot risk putting a product onto the global market that might not be acceptable in all locations. Large corporations spend lots of money to make their products acceptable in various countries. We must focus on getting Island Forge off the ground as best we can.
While I personally, technically, and philosophically believe in the Internet as a global resource, market and legal jurisdictions are not (yet) global. These are some of the hardest parts about trying to become a legitimate independent game development business. I hope the gaming community can appreciate that we are trying to be as open as possible with our ToS.
(By the way, thank you for expressing how you feel about these issues. In the future, we hope to be able to improve our international accessibility.)
So who do you think might sue you? And why? Is there some naughty stuff in the game?
BTW I do like your lawyer’s thinking: “If 99% of the world can’t play your game, your chances of being sued reduce to almost nothing!”. You can’t argue with logic like that! ;D
Quite! Still, you’ve hit the nail on the head. If you can provide me with a universally accepted (legally perfect) definition of naughty, then I could write the ToS such that all naughtiness is strictly forbidden. As it stands, any country (or local legal jurisdiction) could have its own definition of naughtiness. We are attempting to be as careful as possible, so we can actually bring this game to market.
I think these discussions are very important to the independent gaming community. Beyond the technical aspects of writing game code, there are some even taller hurdles to overcome when actually trying to market a game. Unfortunately, these are big hurdles to overcome for micro developers like myself. I hope this discussion clarifies some of the business realities for those interested in independent game development.
There are hundreds or even thousands of indie developers producing games at regular intervals. You’re the first that I know of that seems to be burdened by all the legal risks you would take by distributing globally. Are these pesky Europeans really going to sue you over their unexpectedly increased electricity bill? If I were you, I’d publish everywhere but the USA, as those americans are the most likely to sue you over, well, anything…
In the USA you get sued over patents. The UK is the favorite jurisdiction for libel suits. In Germany, random third party legal mills sue you over copyrights whose holders they don’t even retain as a client.
Still, I think you could do with the opinion of a slightly less paranoid legal counsel. Usually it’s just payment that’s difficult to do globally.
[quote=“Nyhm,post:25,topic:37487”]
In this case the two seem to be mutually exclusive!
If you clearly state that the game may contain content inappropriate for kids then your chances of prosecution for adult content are very, very low - especially as Riven says from outside the US. If you’re worried about being done for copyright then no amount of TOS will save you if you’ve just cloned an existing game.
Thinking about it, I can get my lawyer to issue an anti-discrimination suit and force you to let me play. See you in court! 
I’d say good luck suing on discrimination grounds. He could legally limit the game to people with prime-numbered IP addresses if he wanted. It just wouldn’t be very good marketing.
Thanks for the discussion. We appreciate constructive input, such as the useful information regarding the legal situation in other countries (thanks sproingie).
Finding information about the legal aspects of releasing an online game took us (me) a great deal of time and effort. May I suggest to the community at large, that someone should start a resource for discussing the legal aspects of gaming.
Developing a game is time consuming enough, I’m not even going to bother whether I’m going to be sued, as chances are I’m only going to be sued if the game is a huge success, which is pretty unlikely. Let’s say you beat those odds, then you probably cannot afford a lengthy legal process anyway, so you’ll be forced to take your game offline no matter what.
I just know about this legal issue on publishing game o___O
my last time experience (IP-based) citizen restriction is on NDS game, some JP site and youtube.
so, is this something to protect under-age, copyright or what??
Thanks for your feedback so far. We’re taking steps to improve the player experience based on your input.
Help us out by playing Nov 15, 2011
Island Forge has many new players, and we’d like to see how many we can get into the world at once. Help us out tomorrow (Nov 15, 2011) by logging in and playing whenever you can. Ask friends to join, as well, and log in together when possible.
Also create some new islands! We need to see how well the world operates with many more places to explore.
If you haven’t yet signed up, you can still play FREE during beta. Thank you for helping us out.
Nov 15 starts with a bang! (Actually, more of a crash.) My personal apologies to anyone who experienced the crash on startup this morning. A new version has been released, which fixes the problem.
My thanks for helping beta test! http://islandforge.com/
Chrome tells me your site insecure, and can be altared before it reaches me. This doesn’t seem too appealing to users :point:
Tried your game… Sue me! 
I like the effort, but the looks of this game is not directly appealing. Consider a change of graphics, and UI.
It is also hard to play, just jumping into it. I had no idea what I was doing, or what I was trying to do.
Thanks so much for checking it out! I think I noticed you in the world, but you darted away before I could even say Hi. The game is a classic fantasy RPG. Walk around, explore islands, follow stories, fight monsters, etc. Underlying all this, you can create your own islands and stories for others to explore!
I will try to make the goals of the game more apparent to new players.
I’m kind-of a security fanatic, so thank you for relaying Chrome’s warning. Unfortunately, it is misleading. Every site on the Web that uses only HTTP (not HTTPS) can be altered in transit. Islandforge.com is an HTTPS secure site, but some (non-security sensitive) components are not HTTPS, which Chrome is complaining about. If I just used plain old unsecure HTTP, Chrome wouldn’t complain (and you’d be less secure)… that’s about the state of security on the Web.
That said, I will take steps to make the site not complain about such things.
Thank you for describing your experiences. That’s what beta is all about.
Thanks to those who stopped by yesterday - site traffic at islandforge.com was our second-highest ever, and several new players registered!
Beta is still ongoing. Next, try out the built-in editor, allowing you to create and publish your own islands and stories to the world. As always, community feedback is welcome.
I’ve released a major gameplay update ( Island Forge Beta 2 ) incorporating many improvements, largely based on community input - thanks for all who have provided feedback - it is much appreciated.
Early game buildup is now quicker (streamlined crafting and leveling), interfaces are more intuitive, weaponry, creatures, and combat have been rebalanced. The island builder tool has several improvements, as well.
I’m still flying solo here, so community support is greatly appreciated.
Great work! like the art ;D
I suggest you also create client jar on side time, cause some people like me prefer to play it on desktop rather browser.
Thanks for checking it out. There is a JAR file for download, as well as Windows exe and Java Web Start. There is no browser/applet version at this time. I’m also building a MacOS app bundle, but haven’t yet tested it. Soon I’ll also be making the game client fully self-updating (so I can dispose of Java Web Start).