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Massively.com giveaways: Nexon Currency Cards
We hope you enjoyed yesterday's NCsoft giveaways. Today we're doing a potpourri of giveaways from some Titans of the MMO game industry. Titan Tuesday kicks off with an import from the nation of South Korea that's become a huge winner in the North American market: Nexon. This innovative company has been kind enough to send us 10 currency cards to customize your MapleStory avatar, tweak your Audition singing experience, or up your Combat Arms ante. Nexon currency cards are good with any of the company's games. The games themselves are free to play, you see, something you might already know from our lengthy look at MapleStory earlier this year. We've been sent 5 $10 cards and 5 $25 cards, for a total retail value of $175. If you win, you'll randomly be assigned one of the cards. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post. MapleStory is very well known for its holiday events, so we want to know what your favorite holiday is! Let us know and you might just win a currency card. You'll need to comment before 7:00 AM EST Thursday, November 6th. You can only enter once per person, and after the contest closes we'll ship out these fantastic prizes to 10 randomly-selected winners. Give us at least a week to ship out this massive pile of swag, though. To win you must be age 18 or up and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). For full eligibility details, we suggest you read our official rules. Good luck!
American McGee seeks to bring kart-racing MMO to the west
Lots of people predict a new game being the next WoW-killer, or at least irritate others with those predictions, but in China some people are talking about a KartRider-killer. One of the most popular games in China -- indeed, throughout Asia -- is an MMO based off of GoKart racing and it looks like other competitors are about to take on Nexon's KartRider dominance. What's interesting is that the main person behind this is none other than American McGee, who's now turning his attention to the MMO space with a new game called BaiJiu Racer, which our sister site Big Download reports.If you've ever played the trippy game American McGee's Alice, a twisted continuation of Alice in Wonderland released in 2000, you'll probably remember his name. American McGee currently heads up the Shanghai-based Spicy Horse game studio which most recently developed the episodic PC game Grimm. BaiJiu Racer (context: BaiJiu is a 120 proof liquor) already has a Chinese publisher, but McGee is seeking to bring the title to western markets as well, and is putting out a call to interested parties. While a kart-racing game might not seem like the most viable MMO game to release outside of Asia, you might want to have a look at the trailer found below the cut, it looks like fun.
AGDC 08: The Secret to Storytelling in MMOs
At the Austin Game Developers Conference, we sat down to a one-man panel held by James Portnow, of Divide by Zero Games. His topic was "The Secret to Storytelling in a Massively Multiplayer Environment", and it was well worth our time.James' main point was to collect the various servers, or shards, into one continuous world, and how that would affect the idea of composing an overarching storyline. We've compiled a breakdown of James' panel here, condensing his hour-long talk into what we think are his most salient points. Remember, most of these statements are not actual quotes unless specifically pulled out as such. Read on to learn more about "The Secret to Storytelling in a Massively Multiplayer Environment".
The Social Gaming Summit: Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds
Friday the 13th: An inauspicious day for the superstitious crowd, but a great day for attendees of the Social Gaming Summit, held in San Francisco. The day saw a schedule full of great panels, populated by some of the industry's finest movers and shakers, among them representatives from Gaia Online, Nexon, Three Rings, and Gamasutra, among others too numerous to list here.A particular highlight of the conference for this blogger was the panel entitled "Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds", which provided a lively discussion on what it means to create a virtual social space, how to monetize free-to-play content, and what exactly is a casual MMO? Trying to divide attention between listening raptly and taking notes is difficult; here is the result, along with the panelists, after the jump.
The Rise of the Casual MMO
It's always a little odd to hear someone talk about gaming as 'hardcore' or 'casual' because it is, after all, still just game. When we log out of the game and turn off our computers, we've come to the same place no matter if we spent our time clearing Karazhan at record speed, or spent it in a tavern discussing the finer points of blood elf hair-styling over tankards of ale. When someone announces they are making a casual MMO, what do they mean by that? World of Warcraft was at one point described as a casual MMO, and perhaps compared to EverQuest or Dark Age of Camelot, it was. It set up a milestone for casual gaming, but gaming has moved on and now even WoW is considered too hardcore for many. How is it possible to define what a casual MMO is, when the definition keeps changing?
Nexon's Min Kim on the importance of Target to free to play gaming
Today Gamasutra has up a massive interview with Min Kim, public face for the Korean gaming powerhouse Nexon. Kim has spoken on numerous occasions at various industry events on overcoming challenges for free to play gaming. Those challenges have translated into huge opportunities, with games like MapleStory, Kart Rider, Mabinogi, and Audition earning Nexon big money. According to Kim, the microtransaction business model the company uses across its titles is responsible for that success. Many other MMO developers have attempted to emulate that success, but their entrenched position 'since the late 90s', has made that difficult.Some of Kim's most interesting statements surround their interactions with brick-and-mortar retail outlets. "We didn't really take off until we got the cards into Target and Best Buy and 7-Eleven. Over 50 percent of our player base doesn't have access to plastic, between 13 and 17. They just couldn't pay, so we'd effectively lose more than half our business. So that payment side is, I think, one of the biggest battles that people will fight." He goes on to discuss the possibility of Nexon games on the Xbox 360, the role of games in South Korea, and the misconceptions Western developers have when entering the free-to-play marketplace.
Exalight brings a new term: MMORG
In the world of MMO development, the pursuit of The New is a hard road to travel. French broadband provider Neuf Cegetel, however, is not only driving down that road, but racing along it. Jointly developed with virtual world development company F4, Exalight is a massively multiplayer online racing game -- an MMORG -- with an aesthetic and game mechanics that differentiates it from, say, Nexon's Kart Rider.From the referring site: 'Each player takes on the identity of a racing driver chosen to personal taste from the members of the three clans that populate the Exalight universe. A highly sophisticated customization system means that each player's avatar gets a unique appearance. Players' experience, talent and skills increase as familiarity with the Exalight universe builds up, and as more races are run. The very challenging racetracks require drivers to show tactical intelligence, making perceptive use of special powers and, above all, outsmarting the traps laid for them and the manoeuvres of rival runners.'More information is available at exalight.fr, but keep in mind that the site is in French only.[Via easybourse.com]
GDC08: MapleStory's road to the US marketplace
Microtransactions aren't very well understood in the US, and so that was a big part of the massive subject that Nexon America's Min Kim delved into this morning at the Worlds in Motion conference. Beginning with a rundown on Nexon's ramp up to the RMT-based juggernaut it is today, he went into a great deal of detail about the tiny transactions that have built an industry (almost) overnight.The rest of his talk centered on Nexon'f foray into the United States. If you've been wondering about those MapleStory commercials, the cards at Target and 7-11, or all that adorable art - Nexon is the source. Read on for a discussion of how a foreign title built in South Korea can become so integrated with our own culture that they can offer up a Vegas-style wedding ceremony. Hail to the king.%Gallery-16441%
Kart Rider open beta (finally) begins in North America
South Korean racing phenomenon Kart Rider has finally entered its public beta phase in North America, with its colorful official website allowing players to sign up and download the game client (Windows only).For those not in the know, Kart Rider is a cel-shaded racing game heavily (and we mean heavily) inspired by Nintendo's Mario Kart series. Players purchase upgrades and cosmetic features for their characters, and go online to race and compete. The Kart Rider client is completely free, and the developers, Nexon, earn all their revenue through virtual item purchases on the official site. The revenue model must be working for them, as Kart Rider is one of the most profitable games in South Korea, directly competing with Blizzard's mega-hit Starcraft. We'll have to wait and see if the game can make the same kind of impact in the States.
