The Korean MMO Black Desert is still in open beta and constantly evolving. Now, a new area called Media has been released.
5 out of 8 classes are already available in Black Desert, the sixth is expected to follow this month, and they are gradually completing the regions as well. An open beta for Asian MMOs is almost equivalent to a release, though it is still being developed. Now, with “Media,” a new zone has been added.
It offers 4 hunting grounds and 3 “regions”. 100 new monsters are expected to roam the area and will join the existing hordes of enemies already present in Black Desert. The 100 new monsters are in levels 51 to 55. They are also expected to require new combat dynamics.
The SF-MMO WildStar appears in the financial report of NCSoft, and the numbers look bad. The fantasy MMORPG Guild Wars 2, on the other hand, remains relatively stable.
Quarterly, the Korean software giant NCSoft publishes numbers that reveal how the publisher’s games are performing. Now the figures for the fourth quarter of 2014 are available.
The company itself is doing great. It’s been a record quarter, except for the fourth quarter of 2012 when Guild Wars 2 was released, as reported. Guild Wars 2 remains stable in sales compared to the third quarter. There has been little change. However, compared to 2013, they continue to struggle.
The big problem child is WildStar. In the fourth quarter, revenues have further declined. They now stand at one-third compared to the previous quarter. And that did not look good either.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, WildStar only generated about 29% of what Guild Wars 2 brought in. And this, despite still being in the first year, which is usually the strongest for an MMO.
Due to the weaker quarter for WildStar, the West represents even less of NCSoft’s revenue than in the last quarter. It now accounts for just over 10%. With a new president at the helm, that could change soon. She focuses on North America and Europe and studied in the USA.
NCSoft continues to generate significant revenue with so-called “legacy games,” meaning relatively old titles. In Korea, Lineage 1 continues to achieve record numbers. Aion is also performing well. Blade & Soul showed improvement compared to the previous quarter, attributed to its launch in Taiwan, as NCSoft reports.
This is the current state of Guild Wars 2, WildStar, and Blade & Soul
WildStar has already been affected by austerity measures in the past. However, Carbine states that NCSoft still believes in the game’s success and is allowing the studio time to further develop and restructure the game. For 2015, the SF-MMO plans a restructuring: WildStar aims to be more accessible and open.
At Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet, the future looks somewhat rosier. In 2014, they remained stable throughout the year. In 2015, with Heart of Thorns, a new expansion is expected to give the game a boost.
Another MMO from NCSoft could soon be relevant for us in the West: In 2015, a Western release of Blade & Soul is expected. However, fans have been waiting for details on this for a long time. Apparently, NCSoft still lacks key employees for localization and distribution in the West.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In the upcoming MMO shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division , New York will be at the center. In a blog post, one of the developers explains how he researches to capture this feeling.
New York will not only be the backdrop of the MMO shooter The Division, but will play a central role. Therefore, the Ubisoft team is currently spending a lot of time exploring the city and drawing inspiration from the “real” Big Apple for the virtual one they will create. To do justice to the dense verticality of the city alone, one must wander through the streets of the city that never sleeps, look up at its skyscrapers, and breathe in the city. This is what Martin Hultberg, the IP Developer of the team, believes.
In January they were in New York: “In a way, we were lucky. The weather at this time of year is similar to our game, and because of the upcoming Super Bowl, the security measures were strict. At some points, the city felt like it was under siege.”
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There are so many service providers and their vehicles in the city. Maintenance work must be carried out constantly. Police officers were managing traffic. Plumbers were taking care of water damage. What if these lifelines, these regulating forces, all disappeared? Most New Yorkers, according to Hultberg, live with an empty refrigerator. They are permanently in cafes, eating in restaurants. What if they all closed?
The first thing that struck him when he crossed the Brooklyn Bridge, he writes, is how small one feels in the face of so many skyscrapers: “I spent many hours thinking about disasters and how to survive them. And I can tell you: I do not want to be in a modern city when everything goes off the rails. So many places from which you can be attacked. So few places to hide.”
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In Destiny, the Titan ability “Fist of Havoc” creates spectacular situations in the Crucible, in the raid Crota’s End, and also in regular Strikes. The Super of the Striker subclass even provides for some creative cheesing.
Every class in Destiny has its quirks. The Hunter handles the knife excellently and uses the Golden Gun devastatingly, the Warlock is a Bomber who can rise from the dead. The Titan is a coveted bubble maker on one side, while on the other side, as a Striker, he already has some offensive potential with the “Fist of Havoc”. You can see in these videos how to creatively use this ability that has earned the Titan the nickname “Superman” more than once.
Ten Bounties at Once
Here, a particularly diligent Titan has selected 10 bounties and arranged them in such a way that he completes them all with a single Fist of Havoc. The moment is truly impressive. A lot of planning and time went into timing everything and saving the bounties. It could have been done differently – but it works with the Fist of Havoc.
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The Fist of Havoc is also used for a spectacular cheese or exploit in the raid Crota’s End. The stunt as “Superman” has entered the annals of Destiny’s history. It was discovered about two weeks ago. The “cheese” is so spectacular and creative that some are already asking Bungie to keep it in the game. Why is it called Superman? See for yourself …
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In Strikes, the Fist of Havoc is also used, as guardians use it for a particularly satisfying way to clear the hated strike boss out of the way. Here, Sekrion gets acquainted with the Fist of Havoc.
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And of course, the Fist of Havoc also plays a role in the Crucible. Just this week, there is a top 5 list of spectacular plays that revolve exclusively around the Super ability of the Striker Titan in Destiny. He has the ability to really clean up with the Super.
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In the survival MMO H1Z1, there are T-shirts, not real ones, but virtual ones.
“I survived Player Wipe 1” is printed on the front of the new T-shirt, and the back has three bullet holes. With this new cosmetic T-shirt, DGC aims to reward the most loyal players who have been playing since before the wipe.
The T-shirt was released today with the patch. The announced server wipe from a few days ago reset the game. Players had to adapt to new worlds afterward. Additionally, in H1Z1, each player can now only create one character per server.
What else was in the patch on February 10th is revealed in this video by ProNDC about H1Z1.
http://youtu.be/eG17h3nymAg
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
To Turtle Rock’s asymmetrical MOBA, the 4vs1 online team shooter, Evolve a launch trailer has been released.
Today, Evolve is officially out. “Officially” better said, the first people have been playing for a few days now.
As it happens in the first hours: People are orienting themselves, there are already the first reviews and it is also being analyzed which resolution is on the Playstation 4 and which on the Xbox One, where it looks better. It actually seems at the moment that the PS4 is ahead, but there will surely be more on that in the coming days.
For now, Turtle Rock is delighting us with the launch trailer for Evolve. Our favorite part is always the blurbs: When you take two or three words from a lengthy review and quote them. Someone must have stayed up all night to decide whether to lead with “Intense!” or “4.5 of 5!”.
If you want to know more about the game and see some initial guides, we recommend our Evolve theme page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
ArcheAge removes the AFK timer, players can now stay logged in for hours without tricks.
At the release of ArcheAge it was a major topic: The AFK timer! Players simply stayed logged in and tricked it, hitting straw dummies for hours or remaining in the character selection, blocking valuable space on the server. Others got stuck in queues and complained. Now the AFK timer is being removed.
At the release, the “Stay logged in” was crucial because it took an eternity to log in – with all the full queues. That is no longer a problem. Still, it is advantageous to stay logged in, after all, you get energy much faster or (for free-to-play players) only that way.
Speaking of energy: This is a sensitive topic. Users are already discussing on reddit how this will drive up the electricity bill.
In Germany, the AFK timer is supposed to be removed during maintenance work on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, around 3:00 AM.
My MMO says: The “If you are logged in, you get” system that ArcheAge uses is actually an idea from the Asian region, where players play through internet cafes and pay by the hour. Publishers share in the revenues.
Here in Europe, where everyone has a computer at home, it always felt like a foreign body. Trion Worlds will definitely not win an award for environmental awareness by removing the AFK timer.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny , the raid “The Glass Chamber” has now been defeated almost without violence. At least no shots were fired. The so-called “No Gun” run is receiving a lot of praise.
The video of their run is delighting Destiny fans around the world. There was a carefree atmosphere in the video. Lots of laughter. Players often wondered, just as fans at home did, how these unconventional “Punch in the Face” tactics in the raid really worked. Titans are already the favorites of many with their attitude “The bigger it is, the more fun it is to punch it”.
Now, some saw the performance of the six players and said, “Well, Crota’s End, the new raid, is also poorly designed.” There was a challenge posed on whether the players would manage to push through in the old raid, “The Glass Chamber”?
A heart for Exotics: Synergy effects are key.
Challenge accepted – Destiny Titan team takes on Atheon and his boys
In a new three-part video series, the heroes are now taking on the Glass Chamber. The raid is praised afterwards for its design and for the unusual strategies required from players.
This video series is also receiving a lot of enthusiasm from the Destiny community: “This is even better than the first time!”, is what one reads there. However, this time not only Titans are involved, but a Warlock is also being dragged along. Synergy effects are indeed key.
According to the players, “The Glass Chamber” wasn’t so hard without weapons. Only Atheon posed a problem, as he always ran out of grenades.
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The numerical rating system and thus the rating aggregator Metacritic is under threat. The large European site Gaming-eurogamer.net wants to break away from “rating by numbers”.
Ratings are a sensitive topic in the gaming industry. Readers and the industry are attracted to these small or large numbers that condense massive articles into something that can be grasped at a glance.
Through this number, the success or failure of a product can supposedly be evaluated objectively. Just recently, the CEO of Take-Two stated before the release of Evolve, how important numbers are in the industry. This is not like movies, where a film is loved by critics but rejected by audiences. In games, critic opinions correlate with buying behavior.
In short: A rating above 90 brings in serious money. This is then also passed on to the developers: Allegedly, there were bonuses for Bungie connected to a high rating for Destiny, which were then not achieved.
Many readers skip the tedious reading of a review and jump straight to the end. Or they skip watching individual reviews altogether and go directly to metacritic, where ratings from large international magazines are mixed into an opinion mix that is supposed to provide an objective picture. A single review, so the logic goes, can be mistaken. If you put 50 in a pot and mix vigorously, the right thing will emerge.
Today, Eurogamer.net is one of the first “major” general gaming sites to break away from the rating system. Local editions are also pulling out. They only want to make recommendations in the future.
By doing so, they consciously give up their place in the Metacritic machinery. According to Eurogamer, they rejected an offer from Metacritic that practically wanted to “convert” their ratings. They apparently no longer find it acceptable that their differentiated opinion is reduced to a number that then has the influence that the review is supposed to have.
For many game creators, far too much is riding on a Metascore – good or bad – for us to allow it to be influenced by a rating that we don’t think represents us fairly, or that we don’t have full control over.
Over the years, we’ve come to believe that the influence of Metacritic on the games industry is not a healthy one (and we’re not alone in this opinion in the industry, either). This is not the fault of Metacritic itself or the people who made it, who just set out to create a useful resource for readers.
Large numbers are important for Evolve.
Only rough recommendations from now on
In the future, they want to give 4 “rough assessments”: they want to warn against bad players, say nothing about the average ones, recommend the better ones, and award the very best. However, Eurogamer-net would still like to keep the “Google stars”.
According to their own statements, Eurogamer is separating from the rating system because it no longer meets today’s demands. It does not do justice to the games, the readers, or the testers. Is it really fair for a brilliantly balanced multiplayer game to be penalized for a lack of story, they ask?
Additionally, Eurogamer states that ratings are inflating today. Even a 7/10 or 8/10 is portrayed as a disappointment.
Destiny allegedly lost a bonus because it scored too few points at Meta-Critic.
This is how we see it. How do you see it?
My MMO says: With all the good arguments: It is certainly also a strategic decision of the gaming site.
Who ends up as one of 80 numbers on Metacritic, from which the average is calculated, might feel somewhat flattered (especially as a German site), that they belong to this exclusive circle, but it doesn’t really bring clicks or prestige. It makes sense that Eurogamer retains the “Google stars” since they stand out and bring clicks. Of course, the review is also condensed to a much rougher “rating” here.
That clear numerical ratings are losing importance in today’s time seems clear to us as well. Our Cortyn has dealt with the topic in a Criticism Wednesday.
How do you see it? How would you like a rating system from us at mein-mmo.de?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In World of Warcraft, the new race at the Darkmoon Faire is drawing comparisons to Mario Kart.
For some, the SELFIEs were absolutely the last thing that should be in a fantastical and dark world like World of Warcraft. However, they will probably enjoy the new Darkmoon racing better: With some absurd mini-games, WoW players have already gained a lot of experience, and the Darkmoon Faire exists somewhat outside the normal storyline, in a kind of meta-area.
The site Kotaku draws comparisons of the new race to the classic Mario Kart. On a set track, players would have to reach three markers as quickly as possible. Along the way, there are speed boosts, jump gear, and other gags. If other players are in the race, it is said that amusing chaos may occur, like in the game classic Mario Kart.
There is an initial video from the PTR for you, the event is supposed to become a part of patch 6.1, which is still to come:
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In Destiny, the weekly Nightfall strike leads to the Nexus during the week of 2/10, facing Sekrion.
After all the craziness of the past two weeks with “Taste the rainbow” and Triple-Burn, this week we are back to basics: It’s time to go to the Nexus, facing Sekrion. The Nightfall in Destiny is a very important topic for many guardians because a successful completion not only offers the chance for great loot (exotics and such), but also provides a 24.5% bonus on all earned experience and reputation. And a cool graphical effect.
The modifiers in the Nexus during the week of 2/10 in the Nightfall
The five modifiers from 2/10 to 2/17 at 10:00 AM are:
Nightfall – If the fireteam dies, they return to orbit. The Nexus must be conquered from the beginning.
Epic – Makes it harder, otherwise it would just be heroic
Angry – Enemies are unaffected by heavy damage
Juggler – for the weapon you are holding when an enemy dies, you do not receive ammunition – and yes, this invites to tricks with the rocket launcher
Void-Burn, Void-Burn – Void damage is significantly increased, applies to guardians as well as monsters
The heroic weekly strike this time has no burn active, only Juggler.
Which weapons are recommended for the Nightfall this week in Destiny?
It’s about time to pull out the new weapons. Many guardians already have toys from Crota’s End, so the arsenal should slowly change. This week, Void weapons are in.
Primary: For a long time, the “Atheon’s Epilogue“, an auto rifle, was the front-runner. Now the preferred Void weapon should be the “Crota’s Word“, a Void hand cannon. If you have it, you have it.
Secondary: Efrideet’s Spear, the Iron Banner sniper rifle, in the Void version is definitely a great choice. If you own it and have re-rolled it accordingly. For those who prefer a riskier option: Swordbreaker, a Raid shotgun, some consider a good idea. The classic Praedyth’s Revenge is of course also an option.
Heavy weapons: The rocket launcher “Truth” should provide strong services. There are also cool Void machine guns.
Of course, there are other solutions for each weapon type as well. Generally, Void damage is favored and anything with range should be preferred.
The thing with Void damage.
Tips, guides, safe spots for the Nexus?
For the Nightfall: The more players you go in with, the more aggressively you can play. Those going solo into the dusk should be extremely cautious. Otherwise, it can lead to frustration.
We will look for videos of successful, creative, or otherwise notable runs throughout the day and present them to you, also in German. You can learn something from that.
As the first video, we present to you the passage of a German-speaking trio team. The Warlock has Obsidian Will on, along with Crota’s Word, the sniper rifle Sovereignty (from the Queen’s Wrath event). And the rocket launcher Truth. There is a safe spot with Sekrion, where a three-person team works with backups. It is a tricky strike, where one can easily go down. Caution is advised. http://youtu.be/SLHQviwoO3Y With English commentary, it goes solo through in a fast run, lasting only 6 minutes the video. The “important” parts are explained: Play passively at the beginning, stay in the retreat area. And here, the YouTuber already presents small tricks for the Servitor and safe spots. Then, he also gives tips on how to sneak through the middle part with minimal enemy contact, and has some extremely good advice for Sekrion as well. http://youtu.be/jO7l0DMy0sE
Better late than never: On the official website, the plans for the current year of the Free2Play MMO “Star Wars: The Old Republic” have now been revealed. While there are no major revelations from Bioware, all the already known goals are once again neatly listed.
Since this was probably too little to justify a separate developer post, they also talked a bit more about the general direction in which SWTOR is supposed to develop.
Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMO, but also a Bioware game
“Combat, exploration, progression, and story” are according to the lead producer Bruce Maclean the four core elements of a good MMO. While in recent years they mainly focused on combat and progression, they wanted to emphasize the “BioWare” aspect a bit more with “Shadow of Revan” and bring the story to the forefront. This will also be the case in the upcoming expansions. The personal character story will be woven into the narrative (at least partially) and new decisions are intended to carry more weight in future content.
I don’t want to give away too much, as we are still in the middle of development, but I can assure you that our plans for our game will bring the true Star Wars™ experience back to the forefront. – Bruce Maclean, Lead Producer.
2 Addons and a lot of “small stuff”
In total, they plan to release at least two major expansions this year – the first in summer and the second at the end of the year. In between, they want to keep the players entertained in other ways.
As previously reported, Patch 3.1 will bring the hard difficulty level for the latest flashpoints on February 12 and the 4th PvP season will begin.
Several weeks later, they will implement the outfit designer into the game and advance the storyline on Ziost a bit to clarify open questions from the “Shadow of Revan” expansions.
In an even more distant future, there will be a new stronghold and of course the Togruta as a playable race.
As soon as there are further information, we will of course keep you updated. You can read the entire developer post on swtor.com.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Electronic Arts announces the end of the title “Shadow Realms”, it will not be further developed. The team from Bioware is supposed to focus more on Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Six months ago, there was an elaborate trailer campaign for this, and now it has come to an end. The title “Shadow Realms” will not be further developed. The team from Bioware worked on the game.
Shadow Realms was envisioned as a 4vs1 online game, where 4 “adventurers” faced a kind of dungeon. The opposing player was to throw dangers and difficulties in their way, ultimately aiming to triumph over them in a final confrontation or not.
Even at Gamescom in Cologne, Shadow Realms was promoted and presented as one of the upcoming major projects. Already in November, Electronic Arts had buried a MOBA project called “Dawngate”.
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But the biggest focus for our team in BioWare Austin will be on Star Wars™: The Old Republic™. As every Star Wars™ fan knows, this is a massive year in the Star Wars universe. We have some great plans for expanding this epic game this year, and look forward to sharing the news about those plans with our players in the coming weeks.
Ironically, the announcement of the end of Shadow Realms comes on the same day as Evolve an asymmetrical 4vs1 experiment just takes off. A push from the major U.S. gaming print magazine Game Informer likely made such a statement necessary. They had caught wind of it, inquired, and pressed for answers.
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In the fantasy MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online, the new armors for the Orc and Redguard races are proudly presented. Here, attention has been paid to details.
Armors are important in The Elder Scrolls Online. There are always discussions about balance regarding armors; the light cloth armor, traditionally favored by magic users, is the strongest. Recently, there was a kill screen from the first Sanctum with 1.6 on the PTR, and as soon as only clothies stood around, everyone was once again throwing their hands over their heads.
But it’s also about aesthetics. The design department at Zenimax has once again reflected and what they came up with can now be seen.
They have improved and redesigned the light, medium, and heavy armor of the Orcs and Redguards and now present the changes in detail.
There is no date known yet for when the Update 6 is supposed to go live. This week, copies of the characters for the test server are to be made again, so one can probably assume that it won’t happen this week. At the latest by mid-next month, when they switch to Buy2Play, they want to be ready.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Destiny a player has perfected the mastery of throwing a deadly knife as a Hunter.
In just five or six matches in the Crucible, YouTuber Mike Dash wants to gather enough material for this video. It shows him with the Falkenmond and a knife (or rather with a knife set) in the Crucible of Destiny. The tactic is simple yet effective: first somehow hit with the Falkenmond and then the thing takes off.
Many kills in the video are sequenced and show a corresponding dynamism; otherwise, the experts would surely say again: So what? Anyone can do that.
The “knife throwing” in Destiny is considered one of the most beautiful game mechanics, even among critics. There is simply something satisfying about running around in a world of pulse rifles and fusion grenades like a carnival performer from a bygone millennium, albeit as a somewhat bloodthirsty one.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Hearthstone there was an unusual lethal in an extremely tricky board situation. The player didn’t see it, but his fans did.
Hearthstone, as you know, is designed to provide a “story” after each match. And the more new cards with extraordinary abilities come into play, the more opportunities there are to tell a story.
The situation looks so bare and stark: The druid player has no cards on the board, the opponent is heavily equipped, his legendary shredder has spat out a trade prince Gallywix. The streamer Savjz is lounging a bit in his gaming chair and is deep in thought.
But while the player is still mulling over the situation, the stream chat is already going wild: “Lethal,” they write, yes spam. A combination that leads directly to the opponent’s death and thus to victory.
Pause the video after 40 seconds. Would you have seen the situation as well?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In World of Warcraft, there is a new world record in the Trial of Fire for tanks. One player endured for 198 rounds.
For many, gold is still far away, as it shakes in the Endless mode quite vigorously. A player has now completed 198 of the endless waves. One has to be quite Zen to maintain that level of concentration (3 hours, 18 minutes) for so long. It was – as many can imagine – a tank monk, a Brewmaster, who made it so far in the Trial of Fire Tank.
The Trials of Fire in World of Warcraft are actually designed to demonstrate the players’ capability to at least show a fundamental understanding of roles (DD, tank, healer) in heroic instances. In Endless mode with increasingly difficult waves, it then becomes a kind of high score chase.
At the moment, there is no legal way to play World of Warcraft on the Crimean Peninsula.
It may seem like a trifle to many compared to the misery currently unfolding and brewing in this part of the world, but: According to a presidential decree from Barack Obama, Blizzard cannot offer services for the online MMORPG World of Warcraft on the Crimea, which was annexed by Russia, and players cannot even be compensated for it.
The decree from the US government imposes a sanction that prohibits the import of American “Tech Products and Services” to the Crimean Peninsula. As Blizzard’s Customer Support indicates, this embargo must be adhered to.
The banning of World of Warcraft on the Crimea was discussed in the WoW subreddit, where an employee from Riot (League of Legends) stated: Yes, it is due to this presidential directive. It is also binding for us.
If this embargo expires, Blizzard intends to resume support.
A conflict is brewing in South Korea between rivals Nexon (Maple Story, Atlantica Online) and NCSoft (Guild Wars 2, WildStar).
In South Korea, there is trouble, as mmoculture reports. It has a bit of a Greek drama feel to it. The two heads of the software giants Nexon and NCSoft were formerly friends until their careers drove them in different directions.
In 2012, Nexon became a shareholder in NCSoft, acquiring 15% of the company, also to counter the pressure that companies like Riot Games (League of Legends) and Blizzard (StarCraft) suddenly exerted in Korea. Nexon remained quiet for three years and did not exert influence on NCSoft. That has now changed. Nexon wants to have a say in the management of NCSoft, apparently disappointed with the direction NCSoft is heading. The results are considered too weak.
NCSoft rejects this, stating that they have a different philosophy and such unilateral interference would lead to being less competitive in the market. As mmoculture reports, the Korean antitrust office (or its equivalent) is also watching Nexon closely.
Meanwhile, Nexon has made public what the “interference” is supposed to look like, as there is an open letter outlining the demands. NCSoft should collaborate more with other companies (including Nexon), involve shareholders and investors more, liquidate concrete assets, and disclose the compensations of certain managers when they exceed 500 million Korean Won (about 400,000 Euros).
This is probably what one would call a “power play” in such circles. It will be interesting to see how things develop.
Nexon has relatively few well-known “big MMOs” in the West; the more recognized are: Maple Story, Atlantica Online, Vindictus, and Dragon Nest.
