Audition posts

Massively.com giveaways: Nexon Currency Cards

by Michael Zenke Nov 4th 2008 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, MapleStory, Contests, Free-to-play, Mabinogi

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!

Tags: audition, combat-arms, featured, kart-rider, mabinogi, maplestory, massively-giveaways, nexon

Mythos lives!

by James Egan Aug 3rd 2008 at 12:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, MMO industry, News items, Mythos, Rumors

These have been some turbulent times for both Mythos and Hellgate: London. Following the closing of Flagship Studios, recent news revealed Namco-Bandai Games as Hellgate: London's saviors, while the fate of Mythos remained uncertain, but grim. However just over a week later, the Hellgate: London page at Namco-Bandai has already disappeared.

In another turn of events, Gamasutra reports that Korea's T3 Entertainment, perhaps best-known for their online music game Audition, is seeking programmers for its new development studio in San Francisco: "T3 Entertainment is searching for creative minds to passionately continue development of Hellgate: London and Mythos, along with other new games, which are being published by HanbitSoft Inc." This may put to rest the dispute over IP which HanbitSoft was engaged in with Flagship Studios, as T3 Entertainment is HanbitSoft's largest stockholder. With any luck, the opening of a North American studio signifies a healthier future for both Mythos and Hellgate: London. We'll keep you posted, once more details become available.

Tags: audition, beta, fantasy, flagship-studios, gamasutra, hanbitsoft, hellgate-london, horror, ip, ip-dispute, korea, mythos, namco-bandai, rumor, rumors, t3, t3-entertainment

Why you should care about Korea

by Michael Zenke Jul 12th 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Culture, Economy, Free-to-play

As closely as we watch the MMO scene here at Massively, all too often we neglect to look at the bigger picture. In the shadow of AAA titles developed in the US, there is an entire nation of MMO-players that all to often get ignored by the gaming press of the west. South Korea probably has the most enthusiastic population of online gamers in the world. The way they do MMOs is, most likely, going to dictate the future of the genre on a worldwide basis. Concepts like RMT, microtransactions, and the tenacious need to pay only when the mood takes the player are already being reflected in popular games here in the states. Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield tackles this nation of gamers head-on, in an impassioned editorial meant to explain why we should all be paying closer attention to this fascinating country.

Sheffield notes that Korea is actually a country where non-MMO developers have to compete for staffing resources, so prevalent is the desire to work on Massive games in the country. This is a also a nation almost purely of PC players - many Koreans like to mix their work and play by earning some extra cash from RMT. As long as Koreans see gameplaying as something that can be a lucrative passtime, "for fun" console gaming will never take the place of more serious MMO titles. Check out the piece, to gain the perspective the veteran journalist displays here: "Aside from World of Warcraft, they've taken a genre we invented, and perfected it to the point where an online dance game like T3 Entertainment's Audition has tens of millions of subscribers worldwide."

Tags: audition, business-models, free-to-play, korea, microtransactions, nexon, rmt

The Social Gaming Summit: Casual MMOs and Immersive Worlds

by Akela Talamasca Jun 18th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: MapleStory, Business models, MMO industry, Club Penguin, Casual, Academic, Virtual worlds, Massively Event Coverage, Kids

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.

Tags: audition, casual-games, club-penguin, event, featured, free-to-play, gaia-online, joystiqfeatures, k2-network, kart-rider, lost, maple-story, massively-event-coverage, microtransactions, neopets, nexon, panel, playerbase, scion, social-gaming-summit, texas-hold-em

An ION 08 interview with Nexon America's Min Kim [Updated]

by Shawn Schuster May 28th 2008 at 8:30AM

Filed under: Betas, MapleStory, Business models, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Casual

In a recent interview at Ten Ton Hammer, Nexon America's Min Kim spoke out about some of the company's plans for upcoming games, including their online FPS entitled Combat Arms which will be entering closed beta next week. He also talks a bit about another upcoming MMO title being produced by their Vancouver studio, but details are still not available.

In addition, Min Kim speaks at great length about some of the existing titles they have have available in Korea, that they're hoping to port to the North American audience, including the wildly-popular Korean title KartRider. To garner interest with North American players, Min Kim realizes that the audiences are different, and social competition is where it's at. No other information was said about KartRider's introduction to North America, but he says more details will be available soon.

Update: Though we initially listed both Audition and KartRider as games Nexon was looking to bring to North America, Audition has been available to North American audiences for some time now, complete with a catalog of familiar songs!

Tags: audition, combat-arms, interview, ion08, kartrider, min-kim, nexon, nexon-america, ten-ton-hammer, tth

Nexon's Min Kim on the importance of Target to free to play gaming

by Michael Zenke Apr 11th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: MapleStory, Business models, Culture, Interviews, MMO industry, Free-to-play

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.

Tags: audition, free-to-play, gamasutra, kart-rider, mabinogi, maplestory, microtransactions, min-kim, nexon, rmt

Mabinogi in open beta in March; Euros and Ozzies left out

by Akela Talamasca Feb 29th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Trailers, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, Mabinogi

Nexon, maker of Maple Story and other, weirder MMOs, has announced that their intriguing title Mabinogi will hit North America with an open beta on March 5th. However, this is for residents of North America only; gamers in Europe and Australia will be s.o.l. [note: adult language] until such time as Nexon feels they're ready to hit the rest of the world.

There's apparently more to Mabinogi than previously suspected -- more than just aging the character over weeks, time is a much more involved element to the game. The storyline itself will evolve over generations, and a character's diet also affects its appearance. I'm all crazygonuts excited to play this, so expect a First Impressions from me shortly after launch!

And make sure you check out the videos on their website -- they're short tutorials on how to get around and do things in the world, presented by a girl and her sheep. While a little broad in its humor, it's still cute and has some good tips in between the silliness.

Tags: audition, australia, crazygonuts, diet, europe, mabinogi, maple-story, nexon, north-america, open-beta, s.o.l., time

Nexon counting down to Mabinogi English beta

by Tateru Nino Dec 26th 2007 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Video, New titles, News items, Mabinogi

Nexon, the operators behind online games MapleStory, Audition, and KartRider, are counting down to the English closed beta of their new 3D Online MMO adventure game, Mabinogi (named after the Welsh pre-Christian prose), developed by Nexon's devCat studio.

Featuring Cel-shaded, 3D, anime-styled graphics, the game service is currently available in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China.

Tags: audition, devcat-studio, kartrider, mabinogi, maplestory, nexon, video

7-Eleven sells Nexon Game Cards

by Samuel Axon Nov 30th 2007 at 11:30AM

Filed under: MapleStory, Culture, MMO industry, News items, Casual

Worlds in Motion reports that you can now buy game cards for MapleStory and other Nexon games at your local 7-Eleven convenience store. The game cards -- which cost $10 or $25 -- can be used to purchase in-game items.

At first, this struck us as bizarre, but it actually makes some sense. A 7-Eleven representative is quoted in the Worlds in Motion article saying that the cards are perfect for the "tweens and teens" who enjoy MapleStory -- a demographic that also happens to frequent 7-Eleven. The representative calls it "the Slurpee-beverage crowd."

It's a strange world. Next thing you know we'll be buying EQ2 game-time cards at the gasoline pump!

Tags: 7-11, 7-eleven, audition, cash-shop, convenience-store, game-cards, kartrider, maplestory, nexon, retail, store, teens, tweens, worlds-in-motion