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Path of Exile now accepting Karma Koins
Do you need an alternate way to make purchases in Path of Exile? Yesterday, Grinding Gear Games declared to the world at large that it would also be accepting Karma Koins as payment. These are basically point cards that you can pick up from a variety of retailers for $10 to $50 each. As an incentive for players to try out the Karma Koin system, Path of Exile will give out a Voidgate Portal effect for everyone who uses a card. Karma Koin claims to donate 1% of sales to charities, including one that brings drinking water to families in Cambodia. [Thanks to Ville Uusitalo for the tip!]
Play three Nexon MMOs, get this car
Did that grab your attention? Nexon is sure hoping it did, as the company is in the throes of its "Get a Hat Trick!" promotion. For the next month and a half, players who dive into Vindictus, Dragon Nest, and Dungeon Fighter Online and get to level 20 in all three games will have a shot at several nice prizes -- including the above 2012 BMW M3. So, in effect, just by playing MMOs, you could be netting yourself one of the sweetest rides in town. While Nexon has already handed out awards for the third and fourth place winners, there are still prizes left for aspiring gamers. First of all, everyone who gets a hat trick (as defined by achieving level 20 in the above three titles) will be treated to $20 worth of in-game items. Additionally, three players will get an Alienware Aurora desktop computer, and 30 people will win $50 "Karma Koins." As for the Beemer, the prize will only be unlocked if 30,000 players achieve hat tricks by March 15th -- and even then, only one car will be given away after that. So good luck and may the game be with you!
Nexon's Min Kim on the 'Free2pocalypse'
Nexon bigwig Min Kim recently checked in with Gamasutra for a brief interview regarding the state of the company's global free-to-play initiative. In short, business is booming, and while MapleStory was viewed as an oddity when it launched with a F2P model eight years ago, it's now much closer to the norm. "A lot of people laughed at the business model, and now a lot of companies are starting to try to understand it or experiment with it. We've been calling it 'the free2pocalypse.' Every company is looking at it; the market is just way larger," Kim explains. He also talks a bit about Nexon's new Live Games division, which consolidates the company's operations, marketing, and communications groups into a single entity under his direction. Finally, Kim explains the logic behind the decision to remove Nexon's name from its uber-successful retail store game cards. In a nutshell, the benefits of unifying the virtual item currencies across a diverse selection of games outweighed the name recognition afforded by the Nexon banner.
