Homesteading the Noosphere

Homesteading the Noosphere (ノウアスフィアの開墾) (incorrectly translated as Novasphere Pioneers by Crunchyroll) is the name of the twelfth expansion pack (追加パック) of the extremely popular MMORPG Elder Tale, which was released at midnight on May 3, 2018. Soon after its release, it caused an event that trapped 700,000 players worldwide—including 30,000 from Japan—inside of the game.

The Homesteading the Noosphere expansion pack was a large update that added new items, quests, zones, monsters, and battles to Elder Tale. It also increased the level cap from 90 to 100.

It seems that, by the time of volume 10's end (around May of the year after the Catastrophe), none of the servers outside of Japan received the updates, keeping them locked to level 90.

Trivia

 * The Noosphere is a concept about the sum human consciousness, mental activity, and their effects on the biosphere and evolution. Since ノウアスフィア is the official Japanese translation of the word, it makes the term "Novasphere" an incorrect translation.
 * An open-source software development activist named Eric S. Raymond wrote an essay titled "Homesteading the Noosphere", in reference to the above concept. Its official Japanese translation shares a name with the expansion pack as well. Mamare Touno stated that the expansion pack is named after this essay.
 * The Catastrophe happens after the release went live; Shiroe mentions that after he updated the game, he was with Minori and Tohya when the Catastrophe struck.