http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2012/ 06/08/NY21443
I really hope this does not affect Guild Wars 2's production in any sort of way. I've personally played Combat Arms (made by Nexon) and the hacking problem has always been a problem, and Nexon seems to do nothing or very little about it. I don't know what any of their other games are like though, so I can't really say much. I really like NCSoft. I hope this "partnership" doesn't go downhill.
ID:815686
 Jun 14 2012, 12:53 pm
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Jun 14 2012, 5:09 pm
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Flysbad
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What's NCSoft?
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It's a shame to see a company that knows what fun is, is getting consumed little by little, by a money-milker such as Nexon.
Never been a fan of NCSoft before, mainly due to their P2P style and level-based games, and generally, P2P games are never popular(Except for WoW), But the ideas they've presented in Aion for example, were really stunning and creative, Wings for example, It gives you the feeling that it's an actual open world MMORPG and freedom to fly around and explore(Flyff implemented this but it wasn't as successful), so I think they deserve some praise for their creativity, however their execution was poor(Making it P2P is never good, but yet it's somewhat better then having a cash shop and overpowered weapons, and pubescent kids as GMs, eh?) I don't think Nexon buying 14.7 percent of NCsoft is going to affect anything much, actually, It might help out, since they paid money to NCsoft, which might speed up the undergoing games developments, besides, chances of them interfering with GW2 is really low, since the game has already been planned out, and is under development. | |
I've never played any of NCSoft's other games apart from Guild Wars. Guild Wars is free to play and is not level-based. I wanted to play AION, but I didn't have the money for it at the time and then there was the whole security issue which COMPLETELY turned me off to the game. AION wasn't the first and only game to implement "wings". Everquest and Everquest 2 and Vanguard and Perfect World International are 4 games off the top of my head where you can fly around and explore (all of which came before AION).
AION has players as GMs? Nexon buying into NCSoft like this means that NCSoft's success will also be Nexon's success (eewwww). Nexon just makes games to make them money. They seem to crank out a new game every week; kind of like Zynga. Whereas NCSoft actually makes fun to play games (even though I've only played Guild Wars and the GW2 beta haha). I've tried a few games from Nexon (mainly Combat Arms), and they are fun up to a certain point before it turns into a job. | |
Nexon has players as GMs, look at Maplestory.
Technically, it means Nexon's success is 14.7% of NCSoft's success. Nexon doesn't know how to manage, or moderate games, they're shitty, period, if it weren't for Mabinogi and Maplestory, none would've heard about the name "Nexon". Perfect world, vanguard, and everquest..if I'm not mistaken, they're all classic MMORPGs, Aion is a MMORPG too, but it's different, The graphics is different, it has a decent storyline and game mechanics is unique, which made adding new features to the game mean something to the people. NCSoft has always been a great company though, they're the first if not, one of the few to have a pretty badass mecha game. GW is level-based as well, You need to level up to gain skill points, meaning, the ones with higher levels has more skills then you do, making them superior, It's a grinding game. | |
14.7% isn't a controlling stake, so ... this essentially means nothing. Doubly so as a minor stakeholder like that will probably mean they get a non-executive position on the board of directors and so consequently ... don't really get to make any decisions.
It's really more an investment to them, that maybe they can agree to make business alliances off as far as customer-facing changes go. | |
Guild Wars is most definitely not a level-based game.
You can beat each campaign with a level 2 player in your party (I don't know if this applies to the Eye of the North campaign or not since last I knew you had to be level 10 to gain access to it in-game). You can wear any equipment made for your character's profession at any level you want. I, myself, ran around the campaigns at level 5 or so, wearing the best armor in the game. The only equipment that is remotely "level-based" would be the weapons that require a certain level of an attribute, which can be mitigated for the most part using runes on your armor, which can also be worn at any level. NCSoft made it a major point to make Guild Wars NOT level-based. Guild Wars is "skill-based", meaning you are only as good as YOU are; how well you use your skillbar and interact with your team. And as for the "level up to gain skill points" thing - obviously you haven't played it for a couple years otherwise you would have known about tomes in the game. Another point is that Guild Wars's level cap is 20. You can reach this level cap within the first few hours of the campaign (except the original, which actually required effort), which further proves that it isn't "level-based", when everyone is running around at the same level. After you reach this level cap, any further experience you earn, will earn you skill points, which you can not only spend on buying new skills for your character, but buying consumables at certain NPCs, which is exactly what 99% of the game's populace uses them for. As for the grinding aspect - all MMORPGs turn into a grind-fest at some point. In Guild Wars's case, you grind out faction points and farming items from certain areas, which you won't be doing until you've gotten far enough through the campaigns. I would expect that kind of opinion on the game from someone who hasn't really played the game, if at all. I played Guild Wars for 3-4 years before finally saying enough is enough. ----------------------------------- Back on point - Nexon: That 14.7% is a pretty hefty portion when it comes to deciding yes/no on something. No, it isn't a controlling portion, but it's still a decent amount to make a difference when it comes down to it. | |
Well, it doesn't actually net a executive position on the board, that's not how boards of directors work. It may grant them a non-executive decision, meaning they can participate in discussion, but not votes. Private limited companies are rather different affairs, but that's the lie of the land for NCSoft I believe.
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Oh okay; I gotcha. Very nice to read that. It's rather relieving knowing that Nexon can't do anything other than make a small profit :)
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