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Nexon's games might be "free", but they're also trash. Case in point: Dungeon Fighter Online suffers frequent hacks and break ins, and players complain on the message boards about SIX MONTH WAITING TIMES for tickets involving account hacks and the items stolen are items that were paid for by real money. I'll take my $60 game thank you very much, because that's the only money i'll have to spend on it to enjoy it, and no one's going to break into my account and nick all my stuff. An example of the kind of crap Nexon customer support makes its players deal with:

Greetings,

****Please note that this is an auto-generated message from Nexon Support based on your support ticket. If you are reading this message in your email, please understand that any replies to this email will not be seen by the Nexon Support Staff. If you would like to provide additional information please add a comment to your ticket.****

Unfortunately, we are continuing to experience a high ticket volume at this time. We have not forgotten you and we apologize that a GM has not yet been able to assist you.

Please note our Nexon Support business hours. We answer tickets Monday through Friday, 10am to 6pm Pacific time.

We will do our best to assist you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your continued patience,

Nexon Support Team

Ticket Information:

Ticket #: 19000-1054887

Date Created: 1/18/2012 05:55 PM PDT

Ticket created in January, nothing but weeks of automated emails. A little ironic that a person whose company is this epicly awful at serving their customers is trying to tell others how to operate their business.

Mod parent up.

If you're looking for a hack-and-slash fix, there are hundreds of free alternatives; I'm loving Dragon Nest at the moment. And also plenty of very high-quality ones that you only have to pay for once, such as Guild Wars 2.

I'm not interested in paying money for a game that exists to sell me more crap. Diablo III is just Mafia Wars in RPG form.

Similar business models that work on the web for "free" stuff may work for Facebook as well. I'm not familiar with your game's specifics, but developers generally offer MMO's (especially ones from Korea breaking in overseas) for free to attract people, then offer premium content for an extra price (cooler equipment, avatar accessories, etc). They offer everything from traditional MMO-style fantasy games to online virtual golf with the same basic business model.

If all the coolest stuff is already free, it sounds like your friend just didn't plan this in such a way that can make money. Since he didn't know how Facebook pays developers, I would definitely say that planning and profit was not a priority. Maybe the game can be redesigned so all the cool free stuff just isn't as cool as the newer paid content.

http://combatarms.nexon.net/

Here is a good one. Small urban environments. All of the weapons are modern. Weapons and upgrades you can earn by playing more. Some items only available for pay, but you can get away with only using all the free items.

go go go

Nexon Cash

See Maplestory, Gunbound, and Gunz.

I see that there are persistent customizable characters, but how is this an MMO?

I see nothing to indicate that it is, judging from the official website: http://combatarms.nexon.net/

In the summary it says "they're free to play" as in the game is free too. Game's website

So you didn't pay for the game. Therefore, what things should they have given you when you "paid" for a free game?

It's kind of a neat concept. Imagine WoW where you could pay a dollar to get a good sword.

Speaking of WoW, why should I have to pay every month to play a game that I paid for. Guild Wars is free once you buy the game. And Eve-Online is free for the game, but you pay every month. WoW skrews(sic) you instead.

Totally agree. Maple Story is a good example. The extra paid items in the game are not ones you cannot play without, they simply make you look more funny, or play a little easier. And you cannot have them forever - they last for three months, and you have to pay again if you need them.

On the other hand, what the TFA says doesn't sound good. Monthly fee for extra content? Monthly fee?

"That's like saying that the Internet will never work because what most people want is to just sit in front of a TV set and watch."

Not quite on the head, but as close as you can get in describing MMORPG mentality. Here is what my obserations have been, on MMORPG's (I have played quite a few, including two from this company, one in about 1994. Yeah, it's still making money.

basically here is it: People who play online RPG's for the most part Do Not Seem To Roleplay. Go into Anarchy Online and start asking around about george bush or something, nobody is going to say, "George who? Is he a new planet overlord?" or whathaveyou. Because they are probably not getting into it that way.

Fine, whatever.

But when you trust those same users to entertain themselves, you tend to end up with Missions or Quests or whatever that go like "Kill rabbit, get GiantGlowingSwordOfExplosionNess" Or just crap that isnt that entertaining to ME, or to anyone else for that matter. Why? They'll say "It's just a game." or more likely "d00d itz jus a game, U R GAY how dos you dad lek it??".

The games I've played from Nexon Inc, Including one named "Darkages" (NOT DAoC) was very different. When it was released, they players were put in charge basically. They made laws for the various cities (Only two had governments, but there were like... 8 cities in all that you could go to. They just didnt have an established gov't) These players, as one of the first rules or laws if you will, stated "You have to actually Roleplay in this game or you get kicked out of these two bigass main cities with all the good hunting/commerce places"

There were very complex rules regarding punishment for breaking the laws, including capitol punishment by the hands of these wierd wraith looking things (called Sgath), being kicked out of one town or another, and so on. There was also Organized religion. 8 of them. Yes, all handled by the players, because they wanted to, they were dedicated to the community in some way, and certain features were implimented by the developers.

On Commerce, The players will make their own comemrce system. Im a whateverclass and I need a whateverstick to hunt with people this way at this level, so I get one. Then I sell it to someone in my own position later. Or I need a magicgreenringthingy to give to the giant crab as part of a BigMagicSword Quest, theres a market for these items. Fairly simple if you ask me, markets create themselves among players if conditions are right. You even see inflation and recessions!

Now this is drawing on, and theres more including guilds, guild/religion quests, and a buttload of player created content and contests including a very, very, VERY vibrant community consisting of: Art, poetry, music, stories and anything inbetween including webcomics.

Nowadays it's changed quite a bit and some law have been 'repealed' if you will, and the RP aspect isnt so nazily enforced by the PLAYER ELECTED OFFICIALS.

This is an example of a game kinda done right. The only thing it needed was more content created by the developers in the form of Hard Coded Item Giving Quests and Events. But nonetheless, players carried on doing things that you might do in real life and having a blast doing it.

Now FINALLY getting to my point (and I'm sorry). I believe equal shares of Developer Content and Player Content and Community Encouraging Activities are required to produce a game that is fun, and will stay fun/fresh for YEARS.

You cant let players loose in a box and expect them to play tag. You also can't yet players loose in a roped-in-line of quests and level hunting either. You need it all if you expect to make cash for a long time. Though if you sell each copy of the game for 50 bucks, you make your money either way. What a system!

This is why these games are ridiculously difficult to get right, and make it last. (In adition, Not charging 50 bucks for a game Im going to pay monthly to play AN

I have a level 60 monk on Everquest

And a 90 rogue in Nexus:tk\

But I'm not addicted.

I can quit whenever I want. Alhough I don't try. because I don't want to.

a freind of mine in a MUD I play, Nexus got banished (his account was deleted) when he created a website that made fun of the admin. It was (mostly) harmless, and should have been protected under use of fair parody.

However, it wasn't that way. The company contacted his ISP and had the content deleted. He had backups, so it hardly phased him, with only about a 2 hour downtime.

His problem with it though, was that they deleted the content even after he was no longer under the EULA that said he couldn't do a site like his.

He doesn't want anyone blatantly giving away the URL, but his name was genji, it was works.org

I hope that's not too blantant.

"I have not slept a wink"