Back from a 3 month internet blackout

[Golden Daemon]

Hey everyone.

Ive been gone from the forums (and the internet) for a while, and after getting back online, i really wanted to share this post, which is my first post ever even though ive been on the forums for a long time.

For roughly three months I was basically cut off from the international internet because of the iran war situation here and the internet blackout that came with it.
Not “my Wi‑Fi was bad” cut off. More like you cant open Steam, you cant check international news, google doesnt load, sites with servers outside iran are inaccesssible, links time out, and you slowly stop expecting anything to be reachable anymore (ever).

Coming back online has been… honestly overwhelming.

At some point I found out in the middle of the blackout, through one of those sketchy, constantly breaking workarounds that are… lets just say not exactly appreciated by the authorities here, that wx had gotten a rework (about a month after the actual update was dropped in the testing branch).
It was the kind of thing where you get a tiny window of access, you see a post or a couple screenshots,read a few messages on the telegram (but videos had been very hard to access) and then the workaround gets "fixed" by the government and it no longer works anymore.

And the worst part was sitting there staring at scraps of info thinking, wait… people have already tested the skill tree (which i really loved reading about, awesome skill tree klei!), argued about it, figured things out… and Im over here catching leaked glimpses like its contraband.

At the same time I finally saw the announcement for Dont Starve Elsewhere...
That shouldve been a pure hype moment, and part of me was really excited… but I also got this heavy feeling in my stomach like, what if I dont even get to play it? hell i dont even know how many login rewards i might have missed (which is not really that important in comparison to other things, but it still hurts thinking about it).
After being locked out for months you start worrying about stuff most people never have to think about. Just try to think of how many things you use in your daily life stops working just because you dont have access to internet and maybe then you get the picture.

Iwas actually following along the expectamus ARG while it was happening. I got cut off in the middle of the puzzle,now that Im back, Im seeing all these extra parts that got added while I was gone… and its fully solved by the community now with guides on every step on the steam.
Im happy for everyone who worked on it (seriously, respect), but I cant lie, it sucks to miss the live part of it.
That feeling of everyone chasing the same clues at the same time.

I really dont want this thread to be political. Im not trying to argue about anything related to the war or the choices our governments make for us.

I just wanted to say even with how ridiculous the money situation is here, Dont Starve is one of the few games Ive actually spent money on and kept spending money on, because I genuinely love it and I want to support Klei.
Ive bought DST, Ive bought lots of skins sets, and I even bought Dont Starve single player later on even though I had already played a pirated copy many years ago.

Not saying that like its some proud confession just being honest about how things are here.
For a lot of Iranians, piracy has been everywhere as our only viable choice for years because between sanctions, payment issues, and the exchange rate, buying games “normally” often isnt even a real option most of the time.

To give a simple example of what I mean, a normal $10 purchase (which is basically nothing for a lot of people abroad) can easily turn into something like 1,800,000 to 2,000,000+ tomans (our currency) here depending on the rate you can actually get.

To put that into perspective using gas (petrol) prices In the US, $10 gets you maybe 2 to 3 gallons of gas. In Iran, that same 2,000,000 toman can buy you 1,333 liters of subsidized gas (at 1,500 toman/liter) or about 666 liters of free-market gas (at 3,000 toman/liter).
That’s roughly 175 to 350 gallons of gas. Imagine if a skin set cost you 15 full tanks of gas thats the reality of the conversion.

Or look at something even more basic, like bread In the US, $10 might buy you 2 or 3 loaves of bread. In Iran, 2,000,000 toman can buy you literally 2,000 loaves of Taftoon bread (at the 1,000 toman rate).

And thats before you add the extra headache of not having easy payment methods, needing VPNs, companies not accepting toman,being blocked upon revealing your iranian identity, etc.
Its not just that games are ridiculously expensive.
Its that interacting with anything outside becomes a whole obstacle course.

Even now that the big block has been lifted, the internet still isnt normal.The speed is painfully bad, and some sites still need a VPN just to open at all (youtube, one of the most used sites worldwide being one of them).

Anyway… Im back...for now....
Im trying to catch up. Im really glad I can at least read posts again, even if its slow and half the links dont work without extra effort.

I genuinely wish everyone lasting peace, and I hope nobody has to experience being this cut off from the world for any reason.
And I hope someday we (the iranian people) can participate normally too same as everyone else without everything feeling fragile or temporary.
Enjoy what you have and dont take them for granted.

If you read all of this, thank you and i love you all! i really do!

Edited Wednesday at 12:51 AM by Golden Daemon

[gaymime]

hi, so i am immuno-comprimised. i died from respiratory arrest as a child and as such i am particularity susceptible to any illness that targets the pulmonary system now. my contact with my friends, boyfriend, extended family, game buddies(and when i worked customers) is almost entirely through the internet. i struggle when the weather gets poor and the internet goes out for a few hours or half a day. you have all of my understanding and sympathy that this horrible feeling is one you had to bear for three months while everything has been an absolute terror. do also know that i am glad that you've been able to come back and i hope, in my heart of hearts, that things only improve. you are loved in return and we are glad you are here now.

[mima_]

glad to have you back now ~ 
wish everyone in your country safe and i hope for future affordable gaming in everywhere in the world that have weak currency against dollar 

[loopuleasa]

Stay safe out there, I hope this quaint little universe gives you a place of solace to enjoy as a cozy summer home with your internet buds

[Golden Daemon]

16 hours ago, gaymime said:

hi, so i am immuno-comprimised. i died from respiratory arrest as a child and as such i am particularity susceptible to any illness that targets the pulmonary system now. my contact with my friends, boyfriend, extended family, game buddies(and when i worked customers) is almost entirely through the internet. i struggle when the weather gets poor and the internet goes out for a few hours or half a day. you have all of my understanding and sympathy that this horrible feeling is one you had to bear for three months while everything has been an absolute terror. do also know that i am glad that you've been able to come back and i hope, in my heart of hearts, that things only improve. you are loved in return and we are glad you are here now.

I cant pretend that i fully understand what youve been through with your health, but I do certainly sympathize with your situation fully.
The part about the internet being your primary connection to people makes complete sense, and that kind of isolation even for short stretches is something that i wish on no one.
And im glad youre still here with us despite your situation. I can only imagine the weight of navigating daily life with that kind of constant difficuly hanging over you, and I deeply respect the resilience that it takes to overcome that.
 

14 hours ago, mima_ said:

glad to have you back now ~ 
wish everyone in your country safe and i hope for future affordable gaming in everywhere in the world that have weak currency against dollar 

Thank you for the welcome back.
I echo that wish genuinely and I hope for a world where everyone, in every state and in every circumstance anywhere on this earth, can just enjoy games free of geopolitical constraints and the quiet absurdity of a simple hobby being something you have to fight to access to.
War is cruel and its just not right.

11 hours ago, loopuleasa said:

Stay safe out there, I hope this quaint little universe gives you a place of solace to enjoy as a cozy summer home with your internet buds

It's strange how a game and its community can turn into a kind of second place you live in, but that's exactly what Don't Starve has been to me. I'll do my best to stay safe, and I hope that little home sticks around for all of us all around the world.



One small thing I want to add after I reread my original post, I realized how it might have just sounded like a long list of complaints about my personal situation.
That wasnt my intention at all if it felt that way. If anything, all that stuff about blocks and ridiculous prices was just me trying to paint the contrast so I could convey how much this game and this community mean to me despite all those difficulties. Youre the reason missing out stung so badly and i just wanted you guys to know that.
So thank you for being here and for reminding me that the love goes both ways 

[HopelessBot]

On 5/26/2026 at 5:49 PM, Golden Daemon said:

Hey everyone.

Ive been gone from the forums (and the internet) for a while, and after getting back online, i really wanted to share this post, which is my first post ever even though ive been on the forums for a long time.

For roughly three months I was basically cut off from the international internet because of the iran war situation here and the internet blackout that came with it.
Not “my Wi‑Fi was bad” cut off. More like you cant open Steam, you cant check international news, google doesnt load, sites with servers outside iran are inaccesssible, links time out, and you slowly stop expecting anything to be reachable anymore (ever).

Coming back online has been… honestly overwhelming.

At some point I found out in the middle of the blackout, through one of those sketchy, constantly breaking workarounds that are… lets just say not exactly appreciated by the authorities here, that wx had gotten a rework (about a month after the actual update was dropped in the testing branch).
It was the kind of thing where you get a tiny window of access, you see a post or a couple screenshots,read a few messages on the telegram (but videos had been very hard to access) and then the workaround gets "fixed" by the government and it no longer works anymore.

And the worst part was sitting there staring at scraps of info thinking, wait… people have already tested the skill tree (which i really loved reading about, awesome skill tree klei!), argued about it, figured things out… and Im over here catching leaked glimpses like its contraband.

At the same time I finally saw the announcement for Dont Starve Elsewhere...
That shouldve been a pure hype moment, and part of me was really excited… but I also got this heavy feeling in my stomach like, what if I dont even get to play it? hell i dont even know how many login rewards i might have missed (which is not really that important in comparison to other things, but it still hurts thinking about it).
After being locked out for months you start worrying about stuff most people never have to think about. Just try to think of how many things you use in your daily life stops working just because you dont have access to internet and maybe then you get the picture.

Iwas actually following along the expectamus ARG while it was happening. I got cut off in the middle of the puzzle,now that Im back, Im seeing all these extra parts that got added while I was gone… and its fully solved by the community now with guides on every step on the steam.
Im happy for everyone who worked on it (seriously, respect), but I cant lie, it sucks to miss the live part of it.
That feeling of everyone chasing the same clues at the same time.

I really dont want this thread to be political. Im not trying to argue about anything related to the war or the choices our governments make for us.

I just wanted to say even with how ridiculous the money situation is here, Dont Starve is one of the few games Ive actually spent money on and kept spending money on, because I genuinely love it and I want to support Klei.
Ive bought DST, Ive bought lots of skins sets, and I even bought Dont Starve single player later on even though I had already played a pirated copy many years ago.

Not saying that like its some proud confession just being honest about how things are here.
For a lot of Iranians, piracy has been everywhere as our only viable choice for years because between sanctions, payment issues, and the exchange rate, buying games “normally” often isnt even a real option most of the time.

To give a simple example of what I mean, a normal $10 purchase (which is basically nothing for a lot of people abroad) can easily turn into something like 1,800,000 to 2,000,000+ tomans (our currency) here depending on the rate you can actually get.

To put that into perspective using gas (petrol) prices In the US, $10 gets you maybe 2 to 3 gallons of gas. In Iran, that same 2,000,000 toman can buy you 1,333 liters of subsidized gas (at 1,500 toman/liter) or about 666 liters of free-market gas (at 3,000 toman/liter).
That’s roughly 175 to 350 gallons of gas. Imagine if a skin set cost you 15 full tanks of gas thats the reality of the conversion.

Or look at something even more basic, like bread In the US, $10 might buy you 2 or 3 loaves of bread. In Iran, 2,000,000 toman can buy you literally 2,000 loaves of Taftoon bread (at the 1,000 toman rate).

And thats before you add the extra headache of not having easy payment methods, needing VPNs, companies not accepting toman,being blocked upon revealing your iranian identity, etc.
Its not just that games are ridiculously expensive.
Its that interacting with anything outside becomes a whole obstacle course.

Even now that the big block has been lifted, the internet still isnt normal.The speed is painfully bad, and some sites still need a VPN just to open at all (youtube, one of the most used sites worldwide being one of them).

Anyway… Im back...for now....
Im trying to catch up. Im really glad I can at least read posts again, even if its slow and half the links dont work without extra effort.

I genuinely wish everyone lasting peace, and I hope nobody has to experience being this cut off from the world for any reason.
And I hope someday we (the iranian people) can participate normally too same as everyone else without everything feeling fragile or temporary.
Enjoy what you have and dont take them for granted.

If you read all of this, thank you and i love you all! i really do!

I get you...

I myself was just able to login here.

were living in the same dump.

Edited Thursday at 07:37 PM by HopelessBot