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Wargaming.net heading to G-Star 2011
Wargaming.net's assault on the global MMO scene continues this month as the development firm heads to Korea for Asia's largest gaming-related tradeshow. The folks who brought you World of Tanks (and who will shortly be bringing you World of Warplanes, World of Battleships, and World of post-apocalyptic Volkswagen Beetles with chainguns mounted on their hoods) are traveling to G-Star 2011 to promote the recently released World of Tanks Korean language pack. The team has also launched a promotional Korean website, and Wargaming.net seems intent on creating a large presence in the Asian gaming market for its free-to-play action MMO brands. "We've created a truly high-quality AAA title with World of Tanks [which is] already wildly successful in Russia and in the West," said Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi via press release. "Now we are looking forward to promoting our product [in] the mature and competitive Korean market." [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
ArcheAge fills up its 2011 dance card with beta, events
Things over in ArcheAge's neck of the woods may seem quiet these days, but rest assured that the XL Games crew is hard at work on making the game the best it can be while spreading the word about it. Over on the ArcheAge blog, news about the continuing beta process and upcoming conventions has been laid out in one convenient place. First up, XL Games is preparing a fourth closed beta test for sometime before the end of the year. Expectations are that this will happen in November, although no official announcement has been made. ArcheAge will be making an appearance at two upcoming events as well. At G-Star, XL Games is forgoing a public booth for a private one in an effort to court business support for the game. ArcheAge's Chinese publisher will be showing off a demo of the game's character creation, questing system, and PvP at the Tencent Game Carnival in November.
Invictus dominates Flyff World Championship
The dust has settled, the battles won, and United States team Invictus has emerged victorious from the $100,000 Flyff World Championship. Teams from around the world fought to progress through an elimination ladder to become the champions, but in the end it was two teams from North America -- Invictus and SOD -- that faced off for the grand prize. Invictus dominated the fights, winning five out of six on October 15th. As the new champion, Invictus was awarded $50,000, unique in-game armor, and a trip to Korea to meet the makers of Flyff and attend G-Star 2011. The runner-up team, SOD, walked away with a respectable $20,000 and the special armor for its members. All Flyff players can enjoy the residue of the championship by logging in and leveling up for a chance to win prizes. The game is also planning its next content patch, which will go into open beta on October 28th. Stay tuned to Massively as we will be talking to Invictus later this week! [Source: gPotato press release]
TERA G-Star information compiled
Looking for a compilation of last week's TERA news from G-Star? TERAfans has you covered in the form of an updated thread that brings together all of the convention news nuggets. From the new trailer (and a helpful primer on the Korean dialogue and associated plot points), to the myriad screenshots, class-based gameplay footage, and numerous translations of Q&A sessions with Bluehole developers, the thread is a must-read for fans of the upcoming action MMORPG. You'll also find helpful links to various discussion threads chewing the fat with regard to the new info (as well as a bit of head-scratching on features that still haven't seen the light of the day). Sound good? What are you waiting for then, head to TERAfans and get your fix.
G-Star 2010: Hands-on with Blade & Soul
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/11/19/g-star-2010-hands-on-with-blade-and-soul/"; reddit_target="gaming"; Tweet Although the game itself was announced a few years ago, last year's Blade & Soul trailer reveal was a big deal for NCsoft fans at G-Star 2009. So you can bet that a year of build-up has caused some anticipation at this year's G-Star event. I had a chance to sit down and play a Korean demo of the game on the show floor this week, which was quite an experience in itself. Although I couldn't read a word on the screen (it was generally translated for me), and the game isn't even in closed beta yet, I thought I should relay my impressions of the public's first playable demo. Not only that, but I also got a chance to sit down with Producer/Director James Bae to answer the questions I had about the game as it stands. Follow along after the jump for more on Blade & Soul at G-Star 2010.
G-Star 2010: Vindictus wins big for Nexon
Vindictus has hacked its way into the hearts of many players, with its can-do attitude and liberal stance on how many decapitations make your actions morally justified. Apparently, the players aren't the only ones in love with the game, as it has managed to walk away from the G-Star 2010 convention with so many awards that the development team can build a house. The 2010 Korean Game Awards taking place on the show floor awarded Nexon's game the grand prize as well as six other awards for excellence. The win was a first for Nexon, and it was followed by a half-dozen other awards including the Popular Game Award (in the Online Game category) and all four technical creation categories (Game Planning/Scenario, Game Graphics, Game Character, and Game Sound). CEO Seo Min thanked the organizers for the honors as well as Vindictus players for making the game such a success. Free-to-play games have come a long way as a whole, but if the bevy of awards is any indication, Vindictus is a cut above the rest.
G-Star 2010: PS3 version confirmed for Kingdom Under Fire II
Rumors of a Playstation 3 version of Blueside's upcoming Kingdom Under Fire II MMORTS were confirmed at G-Star 2010 today. The game is a sequel to the Xbox-exclusive Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, and gameplay for the new title will be similar to Blueside's previous RTS efforts (albeit with a fleshed-out MMO component that includes online castle sieges and huge battles). Players will control characters and combat from a third-person perspective and can also draw on many different unit types in order to adapt to various situations and multiplayer tactics. Blueside says that Kingdom Under Fire II "will not only inherit all the merits of the previous action RTS [games]... but will also feature an enhanced game system that will allow players to experience immense tactical game play and intense action on an unprecedented [battlefield scale]."
G-Star 2010: From the show floor
With the booming popularity of Korean games in western culture, the G-Star convention in Busan, South Korea is quickly turning into an international event. We had an opportunity to attend the four-day convention to see the latest and greatest from Korean online gaming. Follow along after the jump as I describe my experiences on the first day of the convention, as well as take a look at what else you can expect as we go into days two, three and four.
G-Star 2010: TERA G-Star reveals outlined
Curious about the TERA-centric G-Star revelations the week has in store? We are too, and even though we've got Editor-in-Chief Shawn Schuster as our man in Korea, we're still combing the intarwebs for the very latest about the fantasy title from Bluehole Studio and En Masse Entertainment. En Masse has provided a helpful scorecard for the G-Star event in the form of a forum post that outlines what fans can expect to learn over the course of the convention. Bluehole representatives will be revealing information about the game's skill system, equipment system, PvP mechanics, guild systems, and the mysterious political system. Check out all the details at the official TERA website, and also have a look at the various translations available via TERAfans.
G-Star 2010: Bluehole shows off new TERA trailer
Lock up your kids, kids, as it's time for a new TERA trailer! Actually, you can let them out for this one, as it's less likely to offend the skimpy armor police than most of TERA's previously released footage. That's right, nearly everyone is fully clothed for the duration of the clip's two minutes and 37 seconds, though if you look hard enough there are a couple of cleavage shots, so don't say we didn't warn you. In other news, the trailer itself looks to be a mixture of gameplay and CGI, and it shows one heart-pounding action scene after another, along with some idyllic shots of gorgeous scenery, players and NPCs milling about, and even a touchscreen device (nope, we're not kidding). Check out the goods after the break, and stay tuned to Massively all week for the latest TERA and G-Star 2010 coverage.
G-Star 2010: Bluehole devs talk TERA payment model, launch date
If you're a TERA fan, chances are you're anxiously awaiting the smorgasbord of news sure to come out of this week's G-Star convention in Korea. Bluehole Studio has a large presence there of course, and thanks to the TERAfans website, we have an interesting translation of an interview with Bluehole CEO Kang-Suk Kim and developer Hyung-Kyu Park. The duo discusses everything from TERA's pending stress test (happening soon after G-Star) and upcoming open beta, to the decision to steer clear of the free-to-play payment model. "We can't say that TERA was made specifically for a subscription-based model, but we thought a lot about what the game was worth to players. We came to the conclusion that a monthly subscription would allow players to enjoy the game most easily. We are not interested in cash shops or partially making the game a pay model like some MMORPGs out there," Kim said. The interview also sheds a tiny bit of light on the game's political system, a feature that has been hinted at over the past several months but has, so far, lacked any definitive explanation. "The political system will be added in the [open beta test]. The political system is actually end game content so it won't really be active until the game's launch," Park said. Check out the full interview at TERAfans, and also bear in mind that this is a fan-made translation.
TERA Korean beta news rolls in, Knox talks translation and marketing
Yes, TERA news is coming in from overseas, lots of it in fact. That said, En Masse Entertainment's Brian Knox cautions us to take the translations and suppositions with a grain of salt. First up is TERAfans checking in with another translation of an article by Bluehole Studio's community manager Mr. Blue. This time around, Blue details TERA's advanced skill system and discusses item stats, the newly added glyph system, racial abilities, and PvP skills. There's a ton of info to sort through, including nifty screenshots direct from the Korean client. The only problem is that some of this stuff might not make it into the western client (or might look very different) according to Knox. In a blog post on the official TERA website, he warns against taking all of the translation news from the recent G-Star gaming convention at face value. "Our fans do a great job of translating articles very quickly but the fact is there will be differences -- in terminology, game play mechanics, and services provided by the publisher -- between the western release and NHN's release of TERA. With these translations there will certainly be some misinterpretation, and we will do our best to react and clarify to the community," he writes. Why all the secrecy? Knox chalks it up to the challenges of releasing a global product, and the need for local distributors to get their share of timed exclusive marketing information.
NCsoft reconsiders console MMOs
The concept of console MMOs is not a new one, particularly to NCsoft. They've gone down this road before, and now it looks like they're giving it another shot. NCsoft PR team leader Jin-Won Yun spoke to Gamasutra at G*, and talked a bit about their plans. "After we finished Aion, we started thinking about what it would take to make an MMO come to consoles. We're testing that possibility. We're not in the development process yet, but we're in the thinking and planning stages." Yun also stated that they are considering a multi-platform MMO, following in the steadily successful footsteps of Final Fantasy XI, but that it's only one path they are considering -- they're keeping their options open at this point. NCsoft doesn't have a strong console userbase in Korea, which can make it hard to study and analyze user patterns there during development, but also has the potential to be a wide open market for them.
Ragnarok Online creator to make new MMO in the vein of Ragnarok
At this year's G* Game Expo, in addition to the earlier sexy Blade & Soul gameplay video, it seems that the original creator of Ragnarok Online is working on a new MMO project that he describes as "in the same vein" as Ragnarok. Gamasutra is reporting that Hakkyu Kim, RO's creator, is working on two new MMOs. One a more basic MMO that features the control of a single character, and another MMO that is done in the 2D sprites/3D backgrounds style of RO, except with a focus on action. While neither of these games will be a new Ragnarok, as Gravity Interactive holds the license to the Ragnarok series, it's good to see Kim returning to his roots after his work on Granado Espada, more commonly known as Sword of the New World in the US.
Korean game companies losing dominance over Chinese market
PlayNoEvil posted an article in response to a story from Korean newspaper The Digital Chosunilbo, that states that Korea no longer has a stranglehold on China's online gaming market. In fact, Korea now only holds 10 percent of that market. The newspaper story is based on a report from the Korean Embassy, which found that the Chinese online game industry is now worth 10 billion yuan (greater than US$1.3 billion) and Korea's share in this delicious pie has greatly diminished. But why is this the case? The embassy thinks it is due to three things: a failure to deal with Chinese piracy, mistakenly thinking of Chinese collaborators as subcontractors rather than business partners, and the strongest reason, a lack of good new games.PlayNoEvil adds their own fourth reason -- terrible product support -- saying that the recent coverage of game launches has been disappointing and even the Korean online gaming trade show, G-star, was passed over by some of the bigger publishers this year, and simply did not make as big a splash as it used to. So are we witnessing the demise of Korea as king of online gaming, or can they turn it all around with some excellent new titles?