Setting everything up
To play, you need an account on this website and the game installed on a Windows PC. The launcher keeps the game up to date, and from there you pick a world and log in.
Checklist
- You'll need an email address.
- A Windows PC with 3 GB of free space.
- About 800 MB to download.
Create your account
Your account on this website is also what you use to log in to the game, and registering takes three steps:
Enter your email address and click Send code.
Type in the 6-digit code from the email and click Continue. The code works for 10 minutes, and if the email doesn't arrive, it may be in your spam or junk folder, or you can ask for a new one with Resend code after a minute.
Choose a username and a password and click Create account.
Your username can be 4 to 20 letters or numbers, without spaces or symbols, and your password has to be at least 8 characters long, although it can contain any characters you like.
Registering also creates your first game account, which has the same username and password, and that username is the ID you type in when you log in to the game. You can have up to 3 game accounts, and you add the other two under Game accounts on your dashboard, which is also where you change a game account's password.
Your website password and your game passwords are kept apart after registration, so changing one of them leaves the others as they were. Resetting a forgotten password from the sign-in page only changes the website password, and a game account's password is reset from the dashboard instead.
Download and install the game
The Download page has the game as an installer of 525 MB and as a ZIP archive of 777 MB, and both contain the same game.
The installer puts the game in your own user folder, so it doesn't ask for administrator rights, and it always adds Mo Siang Online Classic to the Start menu. If you'd like a desktop shortcut as well, tick Create a desktop shortcut during setup, since that box starts out unticked.
The ZIP is a portable copy that you can extract to any folder you like, for example on another drive. It's best kept out of Program Files and other protected folders, because the launcher has to write to the game folder whenever it installs an update, and Windows doesn't allow that there.
Starting the game
Open Mo Siang Online Classic from the Start menu or your desktop shortcut, or run mso-classic.exe in the game folder if you're using the ZIP. This starts the launcher, which checks your game files and downloads any update before you can play. The first time can take a while, because the launcher brings the files from the download up to the current release.
When the launcher says the files are verified or up to date, click PLAY. The launcher closes and the game opens, and on the very first start an intro movie plays, which you can skip with any key or a click.
Next comes the Server List with the two worlds, Suzaku for South East Asia and Seiryu for East Asia. They run the same game with their servers in different places, so the one nearer to you usually has less delay. Your account works on both, but each world has its own characters, so a character you make on Suzaku can only be played on Suzaku. Select a world and click Connect.
In the Connect window, type your game account's ID and password and click Log-in. For your first game account, the ID is the username you registered with.
Troubleshooting
These are the messages you might see in the launcher or the game, with what each one means and what to do about it.
"Patch download failed; check your connection and retry." The launcher couldn't download the update. Check that you're online and click Retry update.
"Cannot replace file; close the game and retry: permission denied." Either the game is still open, or it's in a protected folder such as Program Files, where the launcher isn't allowed to change files. Close every game window and click Retry update, and if the message comes back, reinstall the game to the folder the installer suggests or move your ZIP copy somewhere else.
"The launcher is already running." Another launcher window is already open, so switch to that one.
"Start the game from its patcher." You opened the game program itself rather than the launcher. Use the Start menu entry or your shortcut instead, so the launcher can check the files first.
"Incorrect ID/Password" The game asks for your game account's ID, which is a username rather than your email address. If you've forgotten the password, you can set a new one under Game accounts on your dashboard.
"Client isn't up to date, please update and restart..." Close the game and start it again from the launcher so it can download the latest update.
"This account is already logged in. Disconnect the existing session?" Your account is still connected somewhere, which often happens for a short while after the game closed unexpectedly. Click Yes to end that session and log in.
"Failed to connect to the server, please visit the official website…" The servers may be down for maintenance, which is announced in the news on this website.
If none of this helps, or you've run into something else, open a support ticket and we'll take a look.