Nexon has released a new game called PopTag. It has been in development for about a year now and it seems like Nintendo has something to say… (Well, not really, but this game does seem like Bomberman.)

You know the very similar retro game back in the late 1990’s? Clueless? Well, don’t worry I’ll fill you in. Bomerman is a game that allows the user/player to play as a character in a map. The character on the screen has an objective: to kill the opponent. No matter how hard/tactical/ugly the monster is, the person must fight it. The character has bombs which are used to destroy the enemy.

In PopTag, it seems like the same exact thing. Except we aren’t using bombs, but something much safer: water balloons. The objective of the game is to try to get as many points as possible and to defeat the boss before you feel like a fool standing there with monsters “draining” your life. You are allowed to work in teams.

So let me ask you, (Yes, I mean you…the person staring at the screen) do these look familiar? Compare them and see for yourself.

What do you think? Share your opinions below.

Youtube- (Bomerman Video)

Wikipedia- Bomberman Info

Nexon’s Official PopTag Website

Nexon, are you ready?

Due to the recent reports about GMS (MapleStory Global), using a new set of codes to launch the game via their website. Nexon might not have noticed… we use Window computers to play MapleStory, not Macs (Apple Computers)!

What do I mean?

Hypothetically speaking, launching Maplestory using a website launcher is like managing your banking/SSN (Social Security Number) without thinking about spy-ware entering your computer, and stealing your data.

Playing MapleStory on the official website is a BIG risk. Nexon really has to step up their protection. The new Hackshield program currently in use wouldn’t do squat to protect us from website-based attacks especially account fraud and keyloggers. Keyloggers are extremely deadly. They can see what you type on your computer and where you go.

Spyware is also a concern. There are tons of websites out there pretending to be official MapleStory websites offering to give you free NX for your account information. In early 2008 there were at least 100,000 accounts hacked due to their owners entering their information on a fake official site. (According to the Maplestory Website Notice in Early 2008)

Nexon and everyone else in the MapleStory community should STOP and think about how this change can affect the safety of accounts. Security must be improved if the web client is to be a success. Just be careful and mindful of URL’s and links and you should be fine. Make sure that when you log in to the MapleStory homepage to launch MapleStory you aren’t on maplestory.nexonn.net.

Is Nexon ready for this big leap? OR am I just insane to bring this up…I don’t know…but tell us what you think.

Sources: Basilmarket.com/google.com/maplestory.nexon.net/nexon.net

Last year Nexon America had been delivering many-many new games features to Maplestory~PopTag. But one in particular is the release of iTCG Online…

Now iTCG Online is a game that is based on it’s “brother” game Maplestory. Most of the equips/items/monsters/etc, are from the game itself.

(Background: iTCG Online is a free Nexon game that only needs to have a web browser open to experience. The game is sort of a like when you play with Yu-Gi-Oh/Pokemon cards. They are attacks, skills, items, trade, deck building. And they are all virtual.)

But it seems like Nexon is slacking off in their lead game (Maplestory). Apparently they put more work in iTCG, than making Maplestory a better MMORPG for the rest of us. If you observed the past year (2009) Maplestory South East Asia (MSEA), had gotten a wide varrity of new maps/places/items, you name it! The people in Global Maplestory, however, had been struggling behind them one patch after another, (we are about maybe 1~2 months behind MSEA.)

I am not criticizing iTCG Online, I am just saying that wouldn’t it be nice to have: The Ninja Castle? Neo Tokyo? or any other maps that other servers: KMS~MSEA (Korean Maplestory~ Maplestory South East Asia)?

It just seems like Nexon is putting up an excuse or a cover so that the Nexon community wouldn’t be AS mad that they don’t have as many features as other version?

Leave us a comment on your perspective below. Maybe I am just crazy, but who knows…

It’s Christmas time and what better gift to give than a Nexon Game card! Don’t know what to get your parents? Go out and buy a Nexon game card. Thinking of getting grandma some jewelry? Screw that! Get her a Nexon Game card! It’s fun for the whole family!

Nexon’s latest attempt to earn a quick buck from your piggy bank is this holiday season’s “White Winter Sale.” Hoping you’ll ask jolly old Saint Nick for a Nexon Game card to cash in on all the discounts in equips, pets, gachapon tickets, marriages, etc. Nexon America has succeeded once again in convincing thousands of 10 year olds to go beg their parents and Santa Claus for $25.00 and boy is it working.

Only a few weeks after the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales Nexon is at it again. It’s no coincidence that Nexon released the Aran class and a new server right around Christmas time. Only a few weeks earlier players purchased tons of hot items on sale (when the cash shop wasn’t glitched) and now there’s another sale? Hundreds of forumers on Sleepywood.net weren’t slow to criticize Nexon’s “eerie precision” in planning events.

So far, Nexon’s sale has been highly effective. Almost every item has been sold out (usually within minutes). Today in only 30 minutes in the Galicia server every pet package was sold out. The question becomes, “Is it worth it?” Some deals are too good to be true and are usually snatched up by lurkers in the cash shop and other times only 10 quantities are sold. Since you don’t purchase individual items when you buy NX cash you’re basically throwing caution to the wind. Elemintz of Scania purchased a $25 Nexon Pre-paid card in hopes of getting a pet only to have his hopes shot down. “I went out and bought an NX card hoping to get some sweet items on sale. When I logged on to buy a pet today, they were all sold out! I was like OMGWTFBBQ!”

With only a few days left in the sale we can only guess if people will actually be able to purchase the items they want at great prices or if they just wasted their money.

We want to know what you think! Do you think Nexon should put quantity limits on sale items? Tell us on the comment board below!

The images above are courtesy of Wikipedia.org

Within the last several server checks we have noticed that MapleGlobal has added several new cash items. It first started with their Chaos Package outfit. Some players said it looked oddly familiar. They were right.

It didn’t take long for many to put the pieces together. The metal suit that was being advertised on the front page of the MapleGlobal website was a direct reproduction of the popular anime show Full Metal Alchemist. The metal monster is one of the main characters in the show, Alphonse Elric. Skeptics still believed that it was just a coincidence.

The server check on October 15th yielded more new cash items (seen below).

Naruto  (Naruto)  Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist)

Do they look familiar? Well, that’s because they are both from two hugely popular anime shows. The first image is Naruto from the popular ninja anime, Naruto. And once again, the second image is the main character of Full Metal Alchemist, Edward.

Nexon’s Maple Racing Helmet and mount look strangely similar Speed Racer.

Over the past year Nexon America has been cracking down on private servers for violating intellectual property. Private server supporters and Nexon supporters have both pointed out the fact that these two shows are not owned by Nexon America. The images they reproduced are technically intellectual property of their respective companies.

Stealing intellectual property and profiting from it has been a main point in Nexon’s ongoing fight against private servers. However, if Nexon is reproducing these images without permission they are violating those same laws. How?

1. Full Metal Alchemist and Naruto are owned and licensed by respective companies (Nexon is not one of them)
2. These items are cash shop items. Cash shop items cost money, so technically Nexon is selling items that are not theirs.

We cannot be sure whether Nexon America has the permission to use these items in their game. Is it somehow okay if a multi-million dollar corporation reproduces intellectual property but illegal if a 12 year old kid does?  Nexon America’s possible hypocrisy could be a main arguing point for private servers.

*Disclaimer: This article is an editorial. The views expressed in this article are that of the author.

Hello people!

Since I’m new here I probably have to say hi and tell about myself…

Well lets get started:
I’m Lars (known as MrPudding here, and on Maplestory fora), I’m 13 (turning 14 in January) and I live in the Netherlands, meaning I live in a (GMT+1) zone.
I learned English at school and I will be here to update about MapleStory Europe, MapleStory Global, MapleStory SEA, Combat Arms Europe, Combat Arms Global, Dungeon Fighter, Mabinogi and so many more Nexon games!
(bolded will probably be my main tasks here)

I am seriously ADDICTED to Combat Arms and MapleStory!

Well if you have any questions left, comment below!

Goodbye for now!

Pudding.

After an 11 and a half hour delay (20 hours and 35 minutes total) and thousands of maple retards whining on forums about not being able to sit at the computer and kill mushrooms (yet still wasting a whole damn day complaining) we expected version 0.75 of MapleGlobal to be completely kick ass.

We were wrong.

Many pegged Monster Carnival 2 as a great new party quest that would immensely improve leveling from levels 51-70. At last, no more grinding until 70! Wrong! Monster Carnival 2 is one of the most useless PQ’s in the game. Monsters give anywhere between 1 and 8 EXP (which at levels 51 to 70 is basically 0.000000001%). An A rank win earns you 87,500 EXP which at level 60-70 won’t earn you more than 7-10% per win. For the 10 minutes you spend CPQing, you could easily earn more EXP by just training.

Monster Carnival 2 does have one positive feature. There are two medals available to the top pqers: the Absolute Victory Carnivalian Medal and the Gifted Carnivalian Medal.

The downside is, you would have to pq all day to even stand a chance of getting this medals! It hardly seems worth the trouble (unless you’re one of those medal junkies)! There is also a new Spiegelmann’s Necklace that offers a few new stat boosts, but nothing to jump up and down for, which can be attained like in CPQ1 by trading in Maple Coins.

The landscape of CPQ2 is messy and the monsters aren’t the least bit challenging. In Monster Carnival 1, players were able to choose from 3 maps that offered flat landscapes, small landscapes, and large landscapes with platforms. KSing is almost unavoidable as players are forced to fight virtually on top of one another. With only three measely rooms it hardly seems worth the time.

Sadly a perfect opportunity to improve game play and offer a consolation to the oh-so-familiar outcry heard round the maple world, “Leveling is so hard!” was completely missed. Looks like it’s back to the grind-fest!

Better luck next time, Nexon.

SAVAGE’S RATING:

Think of the most corrupted kid in your life and then compare him to this.

Kid Discovers Vanessa Hudgens Nude Pics – Watch more Funny Videos

(PS There is nothing illegal in the video so don’t worry!)

-M3 ALViN (formerly known as windjungj)

I read this very interesting article on MMO hut and I thought you would all like to read it. And before you start shouting insults keep in mind that A) this post was not written by me and B) it is an editorial. If you have any common sense and maturity, then feel free to continue reading.

By, Justin Miller

It is a rare thing when a MMO gains such popularity that it actually has multiple TV commercials airing in the united states. So rare in fact that only a small hand full have ever achieved such market penetration in the history of the medium.

What completely befuddles me is how this one particular game released in 2005 managed to ascend beyond the obscure realm from which it spawned, and become a international super Juggernaut that claims to have enough concurrent worldwide accounts to fill a small nation. It befuddles me because the game is horrible!
No not World of Warcraft; I am talking about MapleStory. If you have never at least heard of this game then I do not really know how you found this article. MapleStory is the flagship MMORPG from Nexon; the companies bread, and butter.

When it launched back in 05 it was a one of a kind game, a 2D platformer MMORPG where you ran, and jumped, and fought much like in the old Castlevania games. It also pioneered another innovation that has become almost standard among eastern, and even some western MMOs, the Free to Play, and cash shop systems.
Rather then having to buy a boxed copy of the game and then pay a subscription on top of that, players instead were able to download the full game directly from the developer, and play as much as they wanted for free. Then if they REALLY liked it they could pay real money for special items, and clothing unattainable though normal play. Back in the early to mid 2000’s this was a radical departure from the standard pay to play norms of almost all MMOs, and was the key to the games early success. Nexon throwing up banner ads from hell to breakfast also might have had something to do with it as well.

But times change better games come out, and MapleStory must die!

The very fact this game has the astronomical sum of 70 million world wide accounts just sickens me. Well that’s actually a lie, the 70 million accounts I mean, not me being sick.

MapleStory being a free game, an account costs no money, so many people create multiple accounts for whatever reason.
Then you have to factor in the millions of dead accounts, closed accounts, banned accounts, and god only knows how many of those 70 million are goldfarmer/goldseller accounts.

The day the game was released its graphics were already a decade out of date. I am by no means a graphic snob, but when you launch a 2D title that looks like a TurboGrafx game, has 3 frames of movement, and pixels large enough to kill a small dog YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG!

Of course Nexon has used the fact the game looks like Bonk’s Revenge to their advantage. MapleStory is constantly updated with new zones, and mobs because they are just so easy to make. What they have never updated however, is the games frustrating, tedious, and completely broken gameplay.

To start, why make your MMO a platformer at all when the characters can barely jump as high as Mario in the original DonkeyKong? You are not going to clear any rolling barrels with those weak ups, and you are certainly not going to jump over the games mobs, which deal damage to the player just by casually rubbing against them. This has created an enormous problem since the games release, and has never been addressed. To get through groups of mobs you either have to kill them, or just run through them, and take the damage.

“Whats the big deal with that? Just kill em.” you say. That’s where the problem with MapleStory’s monster claim system comes in. Say you are fighting a monster trying to level up, I come rolling in, and see you fighting this thing in the way of where I am going. I am a pretty high level guy, but for whatever reason I don’t feel like taking the damage running through your mob, so I hit it, and kill it. The game credits me with the mobs kill instead of you, and all that fighting was for nothing, You are now mad at me, and will probably start shouting at me in misspelled caps locked sentence fragments about how I am a kill stealer and you hope my mother dies of malaria or something equally ridiculous.

Which segways to the games worst aspect, the player base. Everyone either is, or at the very least acts like they are 13 years old. MapleStory has become the 4chan of the MMO kingdom. A feted warren of raw concentrated dickery, where all logic, kindness, and common sense has long died, dried up, and blown away. This goes for all forums, and online communities associated with the game as well; doubly so for the godless pit known as Basilmarket.com.

The most terrifying thing about Maplestory is not even the game itself, rather it is other developers looking at its numbers, mistaking it for an actual good game, and making clones of it. Wind Slayer. Ghost Online, WonderKing Online, all near identical carbon copies of a game that is fundamentally broken. LaTale is the only exception, being the only MMO platformer that has come in the wake of the MapleStory craze that is even worth playing at all, because it’s the only one that at least attempts to fix whats wrong with the formula.

With the unbelievable amount of free online games on the market now, there is no reason to still be playing this broken crappy game anymore.
If you have never played MapleStory, don’t. If you use to play it, and wonder if you should try it again to see if it has got any better, it hasn’t.
If you are playing MapleStory right now, stop, and look at all the infinitely better options you have.

No wait.

Learn to spell first, then go find something better.

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