Evan was just an average boy living in Henesys until the day the dream came.

In the dream Evan wanders a strange fog-enshrouded forest. Terrified and alone, his eye catches sight of a strange illuminated boulder engraved with bizarre glowing runes in no language known.

Evan follows the light toward the rune-carved boulder as if in a trance. Then the boulder cracks with a noise like the world has broken and Evan is face-to-face with a majestic black-scaled face. Ancient, wise eyes stare into his own and a voice echoes in his head.

Let the NEXT HERO RISE as Evan finds the Onyx Egg and becomes the descendant of the Dragon Masters!

Coming soon sometime in March! Prepare to feel the THUNDER! (lame)

Link: http://maplestory.nexon.net/evan/main.html

skycombat’s video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSsYHAJRDRs&feature=sub

( What shocked me the most about this is that we’re actually getting a job content faster than MapleSEA! )

That’s right people! Nexon announced this ages ago but its finally set to release in Korea April 15 of this year. The game will have the four original class to play as, archer, mage, thief, and warrior. Looks like pirates get the shaft in this game. That game isn’t gonna be the same as the MMO that we all know to love and hate. BUT! The game will have codes to give you free stuff to your online character! YAY!? Could be good, could be bad. Anyways, Nintendo will be launching this game with its very own special edition DSi for 237,000 won ($204 USD) to heavily promote the DSi in South Korea. (Not sure why when the DSiXL is scheduled to release later on this month, that will have almost twice as big of a screen.) For the game by itself will run your wallet around 39,000 won ($34 USD).

Don’t get you hopes up just yet though. The bundle or the game have not been announced anywhere outside of Korea as of yet so.

On KMS’s website they now have a Dual Blade section where you can now download new Dual Blade wallpapers and a Dual Blade screen saver. If your interested in downloading things click the picture below. (must be in Internet Explorer though)

As well a trailer of the new Dual blade class! VIDEO BELOW ENJOY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scmGD_YWb0o

In my personal opinion it seems OK. I think Aran and Evan both look like they brought more to the table, but that’s just me. I guess we will have to see how it all plays out in the end. Should be fun I suppose.

All credit to Spadow on this translation here though. Here is the translation of the story of the Dual Blade. Seems interesting.

The previous Dark Lord had a student Jin and a daughter Sulhee.
So basically what happened is that the friend of the previous Dark Lord, Tristan, requested help to kill Balrog.

Unfortunately, Dark Lord got turned into a monster by Balrog and his student Jin had to kill Dark Lord because he was attacking Kerning City.
The daughter of the previous Dark Lord, Sulhee, saw the dead body of her father brought by Jin.

She thought that Jin framed him and killed him because of his position.
So Jin became the next Dark Lord and Sulhee created a secret dark organization to go against Jin. (Although, she loved Jin)

Now the rogues are disappearing from Kerning City by Sulhee’s command to make them into Dual Blade to fight against Jin.

KMS will be getting this very shortly so look for it in GMS about 6 to 10 months from now? HEH

-Subspace

Maplestory… you really made these two years interesting. Maplestory you have created many things, (translated). Now 10 patches later from v73, GMS (Global Maplestory) is closer to becoming a Universal world carrier. Let’s recall the main patches we have gotten.

v73 = Knights of Cygnus Job

v75 = Monster Carnival 2 / Mu Lung Dojo

v77 = Haunted House 2 / Balrog PQ / Trend Zone Metropolis

v79 = (Ep 1) Explorer Job

v80 = Aran Job / New Server: Galacia / Mush-King Empire

v81 = Monster Survival Quests

(Current as of 2/17/10) v83 = Neo Tokyo / Kerning Square Mall

{[( NOTE! THIS IS ONLY MY OPINION AFTER RESEARCH, I COULD BE MISSING INFORMATION, WRITE MORE BELOW!!!)]}

So between the Summer of 2009 and the beginning of 2010 we had more updates than any other other year before. It seems like it’s been a fast 6~7 months. But, the reason why I am writing this, is because… GMS is soon to really live up to it’s name. But apparently…we have more to come. Anyone here oh… Maplestory DS? So…

Maybe I am wrong, maybe version 50~60 is better than anything else we had in GMS’ Lifetime, write your opinions… tell me… do you agree or…disagree. Discuss!

A lot of new information has been posted on the new “Dual Blade” job in the past few days. First off the release date is 2/25 which is just around the corner! Second, the biggest buzz about it so far is that even though the Dual Blade class will have its own cash shop, its being promoted as the 3rd adventurer thief class. With the other two being Bandit and Assassin of course. A couple reasons most people are thinking it will be an adventurer is because, the job IDs of the current heroes (Aran & Evan) are 21XX and 22XX. Where the job ID for the Dual Blade is 430 which falls in to the thief category. Another reason that Dual Blade is leaning more towards the adventurer side is, in a recent presentation Nexon shows that the Dual Blade class when you select a character looks VERY similar to the adventurers unlike the two heros.

Also another thing that is pushing towards adventurer is its job advancements.
1st Job Advancement (Lv. 10) → Rogue
2nd Job Advancement (Lv. 20) → Semi Dualer
2nd Job Advancement + (Lv. 30) → Dualer
3rd Job Advancement (Lv. 55) → Dual Master
3rd Job Advancement + (Lv. 70) → Slasher
4th Job Advancement (Lv. 120) → Dual Blader

Not to mention the main city is based right by Kerning City.

But of course nothing is for certain with Nexon. It hasn’t even hit Tespia yet so its one of those things that could change any moment. Like always we will keep you up to date as information becomes released.

Below are some sneak peaks of the new skills Dual Blade will have to offer once release.

Flying Assaulter

Owl Dead

Upper Stab

Sudden Death

Bloody Storm

Chain Hell

La Times posted a new article today about how Digital Sales are steadily going on the rise. With Nexon Corp.’s US Division’s VP Min Kim as the main focus of the article. Each year digital sales in games are increasing. In 2009 MapleStory’s sales grew by 12%! To be honest, when I saw this article I was surprised to see how young the VP of Nexon America was. Let’s see if he can turn Nexon’s poor reputation around. Below is the article from Ben Fritz and Alex Pham.

All Credit to this article goes to LA Times

LA Times

By Ben Fritz and Alex Pham

February 9, 2010
The future of the video game business is playing out very differently on two sides of Los Angeles.

In Westwood, nearly 200 people recently lost their jobs when Pandemic Studios, the maker of Saboteur and other gritty video games, shut its doors.

But 12 miles east, at Nexon Corp.’s U.S. division, bustling staffers are upbeat as they prepare to double the size of their workforce. The South Korean publisher best known for its lighthearted game MapleStory saw sales climb 12% in 2009.

The difference? Pandemic makes games on discs that come shrink-wrapped in plastic boxes and sell for $60 at stores such as Best Buy and Target. Sales for that kind of video game fell 11% last year.

Nexon, however, distributes its video games online free of charge and generates revenue by selling virtual items such as weapons and costumes that players use in the game.

Whether it’s $15-a-month subscriptions to World of Warcraft, $10 downloads on a PlayStation 3, 99-cent iPhone games or ad-supported games on Facebook, digital transactions are growing fast and could be the future of the video game business.

Even as traditional media companies struggle to find profitable business models on the Web — as evidenced by recent moves by Hulu.com and the New York Times to start charging for content — the games industry is experimenting with a variety of methods to generate revenue online.

“What a lot of folks miss is that when you add online services, micro-transactions and subscriptions, the whole industry is headed for strong growth in 2010,” Electronic Arts Inc. Chief Executive John Riccitiello said.

Discs aren’t going away soon. Retail video game sales are still a $45-billion-a-year global market, compared with an estimated $5 billion for online digital games. And game executives expect sales to remain strong for blockbuster titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has raked in more than $1 billion since its launch in November.

But the long-term trend is clear: Retail sales are declining, and online digital sales of games face rapid growth.

Valve Corp.’s Steam service, the largest seller of downloadable games for personal computers, reported a 165% jump in revenue in 2009. Direct2Drive, owned by News Corp., grew 40%. Sony Corp. reported that sales of downloadable games and game-related content on its PlayStation 3 increased 139%, and Microsoft Corp. saw 50% growth for the same items on its Xbox 360. EA’s digital revenue grew more than 25%.

There are still risks in depending too much on online revenue for games, however. Unlike the shelves at Wal-Mart, there’s no limit to the number of games that can be stocked in a digital store, making it difficult for individual titles to stand out. Apple Inc. alone sells more than 130,000 games and applications for the iPhone.

In addition, although people are spending more time playing games online, they tend to pay less for the experience, leading to lower revenue generation.

“Unfortunately, as with other media as they migrate from traditional distribution to online, you increase the amount of hours spent, but you decrease the amount of money you get,” said Bing Gordon, partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and former chief creative officer at EA.

The transition to online gaming is particularly evident at EA. In December, on the same day that it announced it would lay off 1,500 workers, EA agreed to buy Playfish, a maker of games for social networks such as Facebook, for $275 million.

The costs of distributing goods digitally are much lower than manufacturing and shipping discs. Production expenses are lower as well, because players online are often interested in shorter, less lavish experiences that cost less to make.

But lower cost is only one reason that game publishers see dollar signs in broadband and wireless connections. When players get engaged in an online game such as World of Warcraft, they become a subscriber, ensuring a continuing revenue stream for the company.

“We’re going away from a packaged-goods mentality to a service mentality, which means instead of extracting as much money as we can at once, we’re generating ongoing revenue,” said Gabe Newell, managing director of Valve.

Even games sold at stores are having their business models transformed by the Internet. As the cost of producing a top-quality title has escalated to $20 million or more and sales have stagnated, publishers have become increasingly dependent on players who have already bought the disc to fork over an additional $10 to download more digital accessories.

“It’s crucial for the economics of our business today,” said Peter Dille, senior vice president of marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment of America.

Companies such as Playfish, Nexon and Zynga Game Network Inc., meanwhile, offer free versions of their games and generate revenue by “upselling” players on additional content.

Nexon has a catalog of more than 10,000 virtual accessory items for sale that run from $1 for colored contact lenses for characters to a $32.90 sniper rifle. Most players never touch any of it, but the minority who do buy the features are enough to make it a viable business, company executives note.

“We operate by the 80/20 rule,” said Min Kim, Nexon America Inc.’s vice president of marketing. “Twenty percent of our audience make up 80% of our revenue.”

Playfish co-founder Sebastien de Halleux notes that by dividing the company’s online games into small chunks that can be rolled out and sold separately, Playfish captures revenue from a broad range of people, unlike retailers that charge a single price for a uniform experience. Some Playfish fans spend only a few dollars, but others invest $100 or more.

The result, De Halleux said: “Over time, many of our players end up spending a lot more than they would for a retail disc game.”

KMS has recently announced a new event that involves the new Dual Blade Class arriving in coming weeks.

Sealed boxes will drop from certain monsters and each box will have a chance to drop “Owl’s Tail Feather”, Unagi, Pure Water, Elixer, Blade scrolls, Chaos scrolls, and a few other things. You may use the “Owl’s Tail Feather” for a quest or can save it till 2/25. If you keep the feather you will receive a box. Inside this box is a random item. With this box however you have a chance to receive one of these new blades.

You also have to collect feathers for a chance to play in Tespia from February 18th until May 2nd. There’s a good chance that when Tespia opens February 18th that the Dual Blade class will be there waiting for all the lucky new people to play.

- Subspace

Credit Thanks to:
KMS Maple Story

As many of you know KMS has recently released some new information on the next new hero class soon to be release in KMS. There has been no official release of what the name of the new class will be, but for now its just be called “Dual Blade”. A few names have been rumored to be thought of what it could possibly be called such as “Ryan”,”Ivan”, “Odan” and “Ian”. But we wont know for sure till they release more information in the KMS database. This new hero class will be the first class to harness dual wielding weapons instead of two-handed or one-handed/shield. From what has been leaked so far it will be for sure using a new weapon called “Blade”, but is still unsure if it will be Dagger/Blade or Blade/Blade. Once more information is release we will let you know as soon as we know. Currently the new Blade scrolls are dropping in KMS Tespia, but the class has yet 2 be release. KMS has announced a huge update will be arriving in March where the new hero will arrive, which is much sooner than most of us have anticipated. Another unique fact about the new Dual Blade class is that like Evan it will have more than 4 job advancements. It will supposedly have 6! Of course though since none of this has been release even in Tespia there is a good chance a lot of this could all change before the official release of this class to the main servers. Below is some more information about what has been release about the class. credit goes to http://forums.asiasoftsea.net/showthread.php?t=758965

02/03/10:
KMST Extraction 1.2.286: (The thief does not appear to have been released into the test server yet, but there’s some interesting things in here.)
http://www.southperry.net/forums/showthread.php?t=23526

02/06/10:
KMST Extraction 1.2.288: (This thief is revealed to be a third branch of Adventurers instead. However, the thief appears to be far different than any other adventurer, as the thief appears to have SIX job advancements. There’s some speculation that the overall story might treat this new branch as part of the Legend/Hero story.)
http://www.southperry.net/forums/sho…t=23611&page=1

—

Currently known information:

Story:
The KMST 1.2.286 extraction has some data of tiger mobs. Translating the quest data from the same extraction indicates that they’re part of an event, but I’m not sure if it’s a pre-event for this class or a completely unrelated event. They do mention something about a teacher, though.

Even though the latest KMST extraction indicates that this thief is not a Legend, I’m leaving this section here because Nexon has to have some interesting explanation for the third branch of Thieves suddenly appearing. After all, there is some interesting speculation that while this Thief is classified as an Adventurer in the data, the story might consider this to be a Legend/Hero thing (’starting out as a nobody, advancing towards a greater destiny’ type of thing).

—

Equip Type and other Information:
This thief appears to wield a new type of weapon called “Legendary Dagger”, or “Dual Blades”. One such weapon has been found in KMST Extraction 1.2.286. There are even new scrolls for this type of weapon.

Also, they have a seperate cash shop from the other Adventurers at the moment. Perhaps in the future, they will be merged.

NULL (no name yet)
Legendary Dagger – Thieves only
Required Level: 12
Required DEX: 25
Required LUK: 25
Weapon Attack: +27
Slow(7)
7 Slots

There is a new equip slot available for all classes, Shoulderpads. The two currently existing shoulderpads are listed below. It is unknown at this point how to obtain them.

호랑이 발톱 (Tiger Claw)
Shoulderpad – All classes
Required Level: 20
Weapon Attack: +2
Magic Attack: +3
STR: +2
DEX: +2
INT: +2
LUK: +2
MDEF: +16
WDEF: +20
Tradeblock
Time Limited
One-of-a-kind

검은 호랑이 발톱 (Black Tiger Claw)
Shoulderpad – All classes
Required Level: 20
Weapon Attack: +2
Magic Attack: +3
STR: +2
DEX: +2
INT: +2
LUK: +2
MDEF: +16
WDEF: +20

—

Skills:

This Thief has six job advancements. Their first job is the same as any other thief, the standard ‘Rogue’ stage. No confirmed animations yet.

All of the below information has been Google Translated from what Fiel has provided in the 1.2.288 KMST Extraction. So far, nobody knows at what level that these job advancements will occur.

General animations:
- Stab
- Swing D1
- Swing D2

All skill descriptions that I provide are max level unless noted otherwise. If you want to see skill effects at all levels, visit the KMST 1.2.288 extraction link provided in the Updates section above.

Also, note that since this is in the test server, these skills are subject to changes at any time during this testing phase. This is especially considering that a lot of them currently appear to have placeholder skill names, strings, and are generally incomplete.

Second Job: “Blade 1″ (the blade part is obviously a placeholder name)

1: Blade Mastery (20 SP to max)
- 60% Mastery and +20 Accuracy

2: TS (20 SP to max, placeholder name)
- MP -10, “Damage to Consumer” (?) 116%
- (This is at Level 10, the skill strings do not extend to 20 at the moment)

3: Blade Booster (20 SP to max)
- HP -10, MP -10, blade attack speed up for 200 seconds

Third Job: “Blade 2″

1: Endure (20 SP to max)
- Additional recovery of 60 HP and 20 MP every 10 seconds

2: SH (20 SP to max, placeholder name)
- MP -30, Speed +40 and Jump +20 for 200 seconds
- (Even though the skill currently has a placeholder name, I am very sure that this is basically Haste.)

3: Fatal (30 SP to max)
- MP -27, 80% Damage.
- (Unfortunately, the translation currently does not say how many times this attack hits. I’ll have to check with Fiel and Spadow later.)

4: SStorm (30 SP to max)
- MP -27, 80% Damage.
- (Uh… The skill strings are exactly the same as Fatal. Placeholder strings?)

Fourth Job: “Blade 3″ (Perhaps all of the Dash labels are placeholder names.)

1: Dash (1 SP to max)
- No skill strings attached. Obvious placeholder.

2: Dash Attack (1 SP to max)
- Same situation as Dash.

3: Flash (20 SP to max)
- MP -27, 140% damage, attacks 6 times

4: Dash (20 SP to max)
- MP -13 to jump a certain distance
- (Seems to be exactly like Flash Jump)

Fifth Job: “Blade 4″

1: BStorm (30 SP to max)
- MP -15, 74% Damage
- (This is at Level 10, the skill strings do not extend all the way to 30 at the moment)

2: Mirror (30 SP to max)
- MP -55, consumes 1 Summoning Rock, normal attack 80%, basic attack 50% for 180 seconds
- (This appears to be exactly the same as Shadow Partner)

3: SDTh (no mastery listing, placeholder name)
- MP -60, Damage 120%, Range 120%
- (This is at Level 20)

4: Assault (no mastery listing)
- MP -60, Damage 120%, Range 120%
- (This is exactly the same as the previous skill)

Sixth Job: “Blade 5″

1: N/A (no mastery listing, placeholder name)
- MP -40, 120% damage, 8 seconds accumulative damage, Critical Damage 250% with 90% probability
- (This appears to be exactly the same as Assassinate)

As more information is released I will keep you up to date.

- Subspace

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…