February 2005…Dan was at the brink of blocking Turkey as a whole from USKO.
His main reason was that the country caused way too many problems for KO (hacking, cheating, whatever)…it just wasn’t worth keeping Turks around.
He privately asked me whether or not it was worth keeping Turkey included.
Back then, revenues weren’t so heavily dependent on Turkish players.
I defended Turkey…saying that blocking them wouldn’t be right. It wouldn’t be ‘right’ to blame the entire country for those cheaters spreading a bad name for the rest.
The real reason why I tried to persuade Dan not to ban Turkey is that I feared USKO would lose a large number of players…back then, the population was small and K2 was struggling to succeed. I didn’t want another MYKO…a virtual ghost town.
Hindsight is 20/20, but think of what USKO would’ve been if Turkey was actually blocked off right then and there.
I think 2 distinct possibilities would’ve existed. I’m not saying these are the only ones.
#1. USKO would’ve grown at a slower pace without the presence of Turks and the huge amount of money they’ve put into K2 over the last year or so. (less servers, more lag/dc, etc). Most likely less cheaters and a stronger/weaker community. (Consider how the English speakers banded together in the face of a “Turkish invasion”)
#2. USKO would’ve followed the path of MYKO.
I wonder what would’ve happened.
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