PROOF: Big Bang - December 7th

Blizzard is a different level of a company too. Subscription based games and free to play games all share the same problems. However with Blizzard the developers are directly involved with the entirety of the game and often spend lots of extra time making the game as close to perfect as possible. By comparison with Nexon which invites average users to participate, Blizzard has professional staff for this.

Subscription fees and game enhancements all help pay for these added personnel that maintain the game.

Blizzard might drop the pay-to-play scheme but if you look at the success they've had with it regardless, as well as other subscription pay-to-play/use services like XBox Live and even Final Fantasy Online, pay-to-play won't vanish.

Regardless of how you look at it, Nexon to a point is a pay-to-play service. In order to be married and use the Amoria PQ, you have to buy Nx. In order to survive many higher level bosses, you need a pet and HP pouch which costs money, and to keep certain pets alive, they need a Water of Life which costs Nx. Now none of these are necessary, but still these services do help expand what you can do in the game.

I think that the big bang patch goes a long way toward remedying many of the issues player experience. Particularly, archers will get a passive that increase their HP, as will shadowers (and possibly night lords, I can't remember exactly). You won't need to buy NX anymore, and I certainly won't (except for a pet, because I'm lazy... ).

I think that Blizzard is on its own level that most companies just can't come near. They've released three major games - diablo, starcraft, and warcraft - all of which were gigantic hits with millions of fans. Hell, they own Korea. Nexon is a pretty large corporation, and Maplestory is a pretty famous game, even if most of the people who know about it have a negative opinion of it.

It's like comparing an elephant to a blue whale. Sure, the elephant's smaller, but it's still pretty big.