The fatal flaw with the current business model.

I'd much rather prefer something from Nexon themselves in the form of something along the lines of a newsletter almost, not just a few posts or a thread on Nexon forums from their PR dummy lol

So you'd rather just have it all one-sided with no interaction at all?
That's weird.

So you'd rather just have it all one-sided with no interaction at all?
That's weird.

Of course I wouldn't, but you're never going to get a full-on public Q&A where they answer every question, especially ones detrimental to their company. Maybe an actual Nexon employee who was active on their forums and opened a Q&A thread, or one who came to a site like this. Nothing against Aurtrax or whatever, but we've all seen in the past how much they're limited when it comes to questions and answers about the actual game.

Of course I wouldn't, but you're never going to get a full-on public Q&A where they answer every question, especially ones detrimental to their company. Maybe an actual Nexon employee who was active on their forums and opened a Q&A thread, or one who came to a site like this. Nothing against Aurtrax or whatever, but we've all seen in the past how much they're limited when it comes to questions and answers about the actual game.

Be realistic here. Hardly any company would go as far as to do that.
Also why are you saying Aurtax isn't a "real" "nexon employee"?

It seems what you're really wanting is someone from Nexon Korea, and not Nexon America. Is that it?

Be realistic here. Hardly any company would go as far as to do that.
Also why are you saying Aurtax isn't a "real" "nexon employee"?

It seems what you're really wanting is someone from Nexon Korea, and not Nexon America. Is that it?

What? I thought I was being the realistic one, hence the "newsletter". That post was stating what me and every other user would probably want, but wouldn't get.

And of course, I'm sure just about anyone would prefer someone from Nexon Korea for a Q&A over someone from Nexon America because the only answers from Nexon America you'll be able to get are ones related to special events.

I admired forums and communities I was part of prior to starting MNN in 2007. But, interview after interview even when I asked a slightly honest question that wasn't "What events do you have coming up next month?" "What's the new big update?" that was geared at the questionable changes they were making to the game, they simply 'removed' the questions and sent me a brand new interview of questions they compiled that would show the company in a better light. I tried this maybe, two or three times.

This reminds me of the question dodging debacles of the past, like when they had a "live Q&A chat with actual GM's" that turned into an hour (or was it half an hour?) of GM's cherrypicking meaningless questions like "What's your favorite color?" rather than addressing the questions that had to deal with the actual game and company, which is what the community really wanted to know. Granted, I suppose that GM's are really just lower level employees who can't really give some of the answers, but the point was, the community got all excited and spent days compiling questions about Nexon, only to be severly disappointed when we simply found out what Hime's choice of lunch foods was.

I didn't know they'd actually go as far as giving you pre-selected questions that THEY came up with to post as being YOUR interview. I get refusing to answer, but to basically send out a pre-made interview of stuff you weren't even interested in asking...that's crazy.

That's not the situation I read when I see his posts on the official and fan forums. He seems pretty dedicated to me. I guess he's a good pretender if he isn't.

Hime had a basilmarket account, she thought of southperry as a bunch of haters (via twitter), although sp was not recognized as a fan forum at the time. Just because he has limited power doesn't make him useless either, just having such a high standard is going to lead to a lot of disappointment.

Hime had a basilmarket account, she thought of southperry as a bunch of haters (via twitter), although sp was not recognized as a fan forum at the time. Just because he has limited power doesn't make him useless either, just having such a high standard is going to lead to a lot of disappointment.

It isn't a high standard.
You don't really have to try hard to do better than Hime.

It isn't a high standard.
You don't really have to try hard to do better than Hime.

It's that mindset I'm talking about, Hime DID the best she could with the resources she had.

It's that mindset I'm talking about, Hime DID the best she could with the resources she had.

and what resources did Girasol have that no one else has had?

and what resources did Girasol have that no one else has had?

Girasol was an Assistant Producer, Hime was simply the Community Manager.

and what resources did Girasol have that no one else has had?

Specifically she was an assistant producer who took Hime's position temporarily.

Girasol was an Assistant Producer

Interesting.

I also received messages from people who claimed to be ex-employees at free-to-play companies, and who told me that their respective employers would often build games purposely to entrap these "whales."

One such response in particular (for which I was able to verify the respondent as having worked at the company named) gave a stark picture of what's going on behind the scenes. I've chosen to blank out the name of the company as I see this as being able to apply to multiple game studios, rather than just the one discussed.

"I used to work at [company], and it paid well and advanced my career," the person told me. "But I recognize that [company]'s games cause great harm to people's lives. They are designed for addiction. [company] chooses what to add to their games based on metrics that maximize players' investments of time and money. [company]'s games find and exploit the right people, and then suck everything they can out of them, without giving much in return. It's not hard to see the parallels to the tobacco industry.

This employee chose to leave the company as a direct result of feeling dishonest due to the work being done -- feeling like they were making the lives of a select few players worse.

I read through the article about the "whales" and it was pretty interesting. Gambling in free-to-play games was basically compared to the gambling industry. And spending was also compared to spending on physical items that aren't really useful, like a handbag.

But here's what wasn't mentioned- look as far as any online F2P game's terms of service, and you'll see that the moment you drop a dime on the game, it's gone because you literally bought nothing of value. All ingame items specifically are said to have zero real money value in your hands, despite that you may be required for fork over $20 to obtain it. Okay, perhaps some people have used eBay or some other site to sell their ingame characters/goods (premium or not) for cash, but that's completely illegal.

At least when you buy a real world good, be it a handbag or new pair of shoes, it depreciates the moment you walk out of the store with it, but at least it still has value. Until you damage or wear it out or use it all up, that handbag you paid $200 for might still be worth $100 if you decided you didn't like the color and wanted to sell it to someone else. Or you could even give it away and let someone else appreciate it as a valuable gift.

And for gambling? Real machines/lotteries/etc have an average payout based on odds and prizes, which statisically mean each time you put a dollar in a slot machine with an "80% payout" rate, that spin is still worth 80 cents on average, as opposed to the 0% that Nexon guarantees you since your cubed item is worth $0.00, despite that gamers "value" the item on how much someone had to spend to make it.

When you think about it that way, it's pretty wrong.

That's why i was trying to make the connection to las vegas, i did read through the article myself and it's stuff i've read about before, especially the addiction stuff which interests me because of the psychological implications.

I also read a couple articles which was talking about making virtual goods have values and how the law is way behind in that regard. The law courts have to collaborate with the gaming industry to find a viable way to make the things we do in games and pay for our intellectual property, because currently as zeek said it's worth $0. The only thing we gain from what we spend or spend time on when it comes to virtual games are all abstract emotions so they are finding it very difficult to put a price tag on it.

Pointless discussion. Even if they were to actually change the law, the problem is Nexon's definitions of "prepaid" just flat out override it. You aren't technically paying for a service, you use their service, but when you purchase NX, it's giving them permission to charge your account while they "reward" you 25k nexon points which have no real world value.

That's why i was trying to make the connection to las vegas, i did read through the article myself and it's stuff i've read about before, especially the addiction stuff which interests me because of the psychological implications.

I also read a couple articles which was talking about making virtual goods have values and how the law is way behind in that regard. The law courts have to collaborate with the gaming industry to find a viable way to make the things we do in games and pay for our intellectual property, because currently as zeek said it's worth $0. The only thing we gain from what we spend or spend time on when it comes to virtual games are all abstract emotions so they are finding it very difficult to put a price tag on it.

The concept that technically, Nexon could just close the game and all those virtual items and money would just disappear is somewhat daunting. At least when you buy a console game you own that game and can do whatever you like with it.

Pointless discussion. Even if they were to actually change the law, the problem is Nexon's definitions of "prepaid" just flat out override it. You aren't technically paying for a service, you use their service, but when you purchase NX, it's giving them permission to charge your account while they "reward" you 25k nexon points which have no real world value.

Exactly. The law won't change. I think it comes down to whether or not buying NX cash is considered paying for a service as opposed to actually paying for goods. If it's paying for a service, the service being the ability to obtain special items (the cash shop) then couldn't that be considered a high-end service? A free account versus a premium account? Obviously they end up making more money than just charging a flat monthly fee of $10-$25 for access to this content. In my mind, they could argue that if ethics or legality was ever brought into the equation. It's definitely misrepresented by appearing to be a pay for goods type of thing. But I'm no lawyer or banker so I could be completely off base here.

Does anyone here play World of Warcraft? I'm not familiar with the game, but if any of you are I would be very interested to read a comparison between Nexon and Blizzard and WoW and MS business wise.

P.S. I was in a party for Dimension Invasion today and the party members were making fun of my Bishop's damage. Guess that's what you get for not cubing?

Exactly. The law won't change. I think it comes down to whether or not buying NX cash is considered paying for a service as opposed to actually paying for goods. If it's paying for a service, the service being the ability to obtain special items (the cash shop) then couldn't that be considered a high-end service? A free account versus a premium account? Obviously they end up making more money than just charging a flat monthly fee of $10-$25 for access to this content. In my mind, they could argue that if ethics or legality was ever brought into the equation. It's definitely misrepresented by appearing to be a pay for goods type of thing. But I'm no lawyer or banker so I could be completely off base here.

The same concept applies even as a service. Literally when Nexon is marketing to you is an increase of an NX balance, which, again, is a worthless number with zero real world value. Even before you spend it on an item, the spendable NX you have is technically worthless by Nexon's own terms of service. Why am I being asked to pay for something with no value?

Oh, but then Nexon gets pissed if you try to steal NX by racking up a bunch of charges, then calling into the bank and reporting the card stolen so you don't have to actually pay for it.

The same concept applies even as a service. Literally when Nexon is marketing to you is an increase of an NX balance, which, again, is a worthless number with zero real world value. Even before you spend it on an item, the spendable NX you have is technically worthless by Nexon's own terms of service. Why am I being asked to pay for something with no value?

Oh, but then Nexon gets pissed if you try to steal NX by racking up a bunch of charges, then calling into the bank and reporting the card stolen so you don't have to actually pay for it.

For each "real world" U.S. Dollar that you authorize us to charge to your credit card, you will be awarded one thousand (1000) units of Nexon Cash;

It's not seen as an exchange by the law or by nexon. It's essentially donating and allowing nexon to charge your account and them rewarding you with "units" to purchase licensed virtual items.

To my mind nothing going to work when it comes to micro-transaction games which i think is the bigger problem driving all the others, you will always get those who pay alot because they can, those who spend every now and then, then those who are just happy paying nothing. Which leads to the current problems we are currently seeing.

Besides that of course is the usual things they should fix that we all know and have posted that would make the game alot more enjoyable as a whole, nothing to disagree with on that.

The problem is how to create a game where players are satisfied with their spending that doesn't end up being a chase the mobydick scenario, while keep at the same time keeping the profits up, because it has been seen time and time again with games like this people don't pay if they can get where they want to without paying, and if they do it's usually not enough to keep the profits up. In addition to having to constantly make new updates to keep players interested more than a few weeks when it's too easy. That is the ultimate problem if you are looking at reforming the current business model.

You keep talking like you understand profits at all. Maplestory made a profit for the first 4 years of its life without miracle cubes. So whatever made up argument you have about this "No that won't work because they won't make profit" is absolute horse sh`it.