The biggest broadband game you never heard of - Kart Rider
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The biggest broadband game you never heard of
Kart Rider
(old news - 10:01AM Monday Jun 27 2005)
tags: gaming
In the most connected country (Korea), Kart Rider recently dethroned the venerable Starcraft as the biggest online game. The company that makes it, Nexon, has also achieved something far more significant: it has cracked the money making formula as well. By selling cute digital upgrades to the player's kart-racer avatars, the company pulled in $110 million last year and expects $250 million revenue this year. When Koreans were recently polled for their most impressive automobile, a Kart Rider premium entry even crept in at #2, just behind the Porsche Carerra GT. Over 25% of the entire population admits to having played Kart Rider, a remarkable performance that cannot have escaped the eyes of online game-designers world-wide.

Although Kart Rider is only slated for asian expansion (the company is keen to launch a Chinese edition), if you want to see what it is like to buy your way to the top, perhaps you can look into a sailing the Doubloon ocean at Puzzle Pirates (another quietly popular game you never heard of), or, just join a US MMORPG such as World of Warcraft, and then shop for pre-levelled avatars on ebay. Gamers racing (or fighting) their wallets is definitely here to stay.

More on Kart-Racer can be found in the english edition of the Korea Times and an admiring Business week article is here. The center of the Kart Rider universe, and the all-important upgrade shop, is its korean site kart.nexon.com.

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b10010011 @ 27th Jun 10:19AM:
cute sells!

Jusr goes to show you. If you want to make money in gaming. Make it cute so the girls will want to play and so mothers will let their children play.
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Anonymous @ 27th Jun 10:27AM:
Re: cute sells!

Asians are such a weird people.
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Sefirato @ 27th Jun 10:37AM:
Re: cute sells!

Asian girls that are into games are sexy. ;)
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Primis1 @ 27th Jun 10:39AM:
Re: cute sells!

Agreed. Asia has Shot Online! too -- a MMO golf RPG. Yes, you read that right, a MMO golf RPG. They'll play anything over there, apparently. (For the record, I played the game and it's a good game, but... I can't fathom playing it all the time).

Nexon makes Shattered Galaxy though too ( definitely non-cute game), which was a pretty good game until it got to the point nobody playing spoke English anymore.
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bogey780 @ 27th Jun 11:03AM:
Starcraft

I quit playing that game a long time ago.

I think the final thread for me was the backstabbing by asian players who'd insist I sent them a private message laced with epithets. The only joy I had after that was watching the rubes who believed him get backstabbed in turn.
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fiddelm3742 @ 27th Jun 11:09AM:
Re: cute sells!

The idea of selling avatars, and accessories sounds very familiar to another Online game Gunbound. It's a WORMS-esque style game full of avatars and things for players to waste money on. I think it either started in Korea or Taiwan. It is available in English as well. »gunbound.softnyx.net/
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Tsume @ 27th Jun 11:19AM:
Re: cute sells!

Yeah, lots of MMO games are doing things like that now. Hell, GunZ Online Korea Edition makes money by selling premium items for your characters. The game itself is free and so is playing it. The newly launched GunZ International Edition is expected to do the same thing, whenever they finish the beta.
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Tsume @ 27th Jun 11:21AM:
Re: Starcraft

Haha, it happens all the time.

Not to mention the fact that the game was so easily exploitable... Programs called 'ladder bots' could get you ranked at 9999 in the ladder in under a day, as long as you had two valid CD keys (not hard to get with 'social engineering').
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Verizon's CEO is the business equivilant to Germany's Adolf Hitler.
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moko @ 27th Jun 11:35AM:
Re: Starcraft

thats why asians like it.....easy to cheat on.
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Tsume @ 27th Jun 11:41AM:
Re: Starcraft

True, most of the cheaters I ran into either spoke no English or pretended to speak no English.
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Verizon's CEO is the business equivilant to Germany's Adolf Hitler.
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DrewCapu @ 27th Jun 12:00PM:
Re: cute sells!

Agreed. I have a few import model friends (and some not "regular" models) who spend a good amount of their days playing video games, both console and online. Whowouldathunk?
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koitsu @ 27th Jun 12:59PM:
Re: Starcraft

gg next map

kekekekeke ^_^
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FTCXtreme @ 27th Jun 01:09PM:
Show me some pics of this game

I wanna see some in game footage see if I like it.m Probably not seeing how asain games try the weird cute hello kitty fashion which is creepy by my standard but what the hell, worth a try. Maybe its like Mario Kart(In a crazy asain hello kitty fashion).
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kenyg @ 27th Jun 01:29PM:
games I never heard of

my wife plays puzzle pirates.
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wuy3 @ 27th Jun 02:40PM:
Re: Starcraft

you guys are just jelous we asians know how to break the system so well. :p
too bad it means almost every politician in asia is corrupted :huh:
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rit56 @ 27th Jun 03:29PM:
Re: cute sells!

what a racist. what are you going to say when they run the world? hello sir? the Chinese, a Communist country will own America in 20 years thanks to Mr. Bush and his deficit. how about smart.
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Anonymous @ 27th Jun 03:38PM:
Re: cute sells!

What makes you think I'm a racist?

They have weird culture and habits. Japanese sex culture is just freaking sick! They eat all kinds of 'food' and obviously they have a bunch of weird games that are so extremely popular in Asia but not anywhere else. I wonder why??

They are WEIRD.

I agree with the Bush remark but let's leave politics out of it :uhh:
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BosstonesOwn @ 27th Jun 05:27PM:
Re: cute sells!

said by DrewCapu:

Agreed. I have a few import model friends (and some not "regular" models) who spend a good amount of their days playing video games, both console and online. Whowouldathunk?
Who says it has to be just asian girls playing games. I like any women who plays games. I think it's kind of fun to see a women owning guys as they scream in thier chat windows or even their headsets.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"
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BosstonesOwn @ 27th Jun 05:30PM:
Re: Show me some pics of this game

said by FTCXtreme:

I wanna see some in game footage see if I like it.m Probably not seeing how asain games try the weird cute hello kitty fashion which is creepy by my standard but what the hell, worth a try. Maybe its like Mario Kart(In a crazy asain hello kitty fashion).
Hey I was in your city today.. hehe

BTW Mario kart with online extension would be great game. was fun playing 4 players on a 27 in tv in the day imagine 16 player rumble over the net :)
--
"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"
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Viper007Bond @ 27th Jun 06:19PM:
Re: cute sells!

said by Anonymous:

Asians are such a weird people.
Got that right.
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DrewCapu @ 27th Jun 06:54PM:
Re: cute sells!

said by BosstonesOwn:

said by DrewCapu:

Agreed. I have a few import model friends (and some not "regular" models) who spend a good amount of their days playing video games, both console and online. Whowouldathunk?
Who says it has to be just asian girls playing games. I like any women who plays games. I think it's kind of fun to see a women owning guys as they scream in thier chat windows or even their headsets.
Nobody says it.

I actually meant to say "(and some not "regular" models)" -- I'm unsure how the not got in there
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anon @ 27th Jun 09:52PM:
Re: games I never heard of

English speakers are clueless about the international gaming world.

Nearly 60% of fee based game play on the entire planet goes to Korean based NCSoft, generated by Lineage-1 & Lineage-2. I've been playing these games on and off since 1996 and it still amazes me when I walk into a game room internet center here in NYC and they don't even have Lineage loaded. The Korean's are 5 years ahead of America when it comes to wireless, and all you can do is scoff at them. Such insecurity is pathetic; no wonder all your outsourceable tech jobs are going to India. BTW, if you think the Korean's are bad, wait till you go toe to toe with the Chinese...
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FlyinVR6 @ 27th Jun 11:13PM:
Re: games I never heard of

They're not ahead, they're just different. Because 25% of the population plays one game says what? Here in the USA you have millions of people playing millions of different games...not just a few select ones. What does that mean?...not much. However yu choose to turn it into a USA bash-fest in regard to online gamers. Yes, the Koreans have more PC "bangs" in one square mile than we have Starbucks within all 50 states, but it's their mentality of working together for one common cause that has made games like Lineage successful over there. I would love to have three full-time online gaming cable network channels dedicated to LAN tournaments with interviews and LIVE coverage of match-ups like they have. Why are so many FPS games over here so popular?....because individuality rules, and is accepted. Is one right and the other wrong?.....absokutely not. Why you choose to make such a contrast maybe helps you ward off your own insecurities whatever they may be. I admire what the Koreans have accomplished becasue they have achieved something very different from us, not better...just different.
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Kxpuc @ 27th Jun 11:41PM:
Re: cute sells!

said by Primis1:

Agreed. Asia has Shot Online! too -- a MMO golf RPG. Yes, you read that right, a MMO golf RPG. They'll play anything over there, apparently. (For the record, I played the game and it's a good game, but... I can't fathom playing it all the time).

Nexon makes Shattered Galaxy though too ( definitely non-cute game), which was a pretty good game until it got to the point nobody playing spoke English anymore.
i played Shattered Galaxy for a long long time long time ago and even back in the begining it was mostly singapore people playing it. The infamous Singlish i use to know but now have forgotten
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pkwon1 @ 28th Jun 05:19AM:
I got some pictures of this game

»kart.gametime.co.kr/screenshot/list.asp

this site has korean language but have a lot of game images

enjoy them..
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tapeloop @ 29th Jun 02:06PM:
it's all relative

The funny thing about statements like that is that they usually go both ways, i.e. they (Asians) could easily say the same thing about us Westerners. For example:

"They have weird culture and habits. (obsession with guns, religion and "reality" TV, celebrity worship, paying athletes and celebrities obscene amounts of money while say, teachers get next to nothing) American sex culture is just freaking sick (won't go into detail)! They eat all kinds of 'food' (Twinkies, Thickburgers, purple ketchup, fried candybars, pork rinds, etc.) and obviously they have a bunch of weird games that are so extremely popular in America but not anywhere else. (Football, NASCAR, Beer Pong) I wonder why??

They are WEIRD."

I just might have sushi for lunch. :D
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Anonymous @ 3rd Jul 02:51PM:
Re: it's all relative

True but I never said western cultures are perfect either. Even though people eat all kinds of stuff you can't really compare Asian restaurant menus with the ones we prefer.

BTW this is mostly a western website. So we talk about other peoples and don't care much about their opinions.
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tapeloop @ 5th Jul 09:57AM:
Re: it's all relative

said by Anonymous:

True but I never said western cultures are perfect either. Even though people eat all kinds of stuff you can't really compare Asian restaurant menus with the ones we prefer.
No accusations here my friend. I just like pointing out the ironies of statements. :D

said by Anonymous:

BTW this is mostly a western website. So we talk about other peoples and don't care much about their opinions.
I heard that! I tell ya, those Icelanders are just a strange group of folks...and don't get me started on the Bhutanese...;););)
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Copyright infringement is illegal. Murder is illegal. Therefore, file sharing is murder.
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menumorut @ 8th Jul 06:00AM:
Re: cute sells!

By whose standards????

Maybe right this moment an Asian is saying the same thing about us.

Talking about tolerance!!!
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anon @ 12th Jul 11:15AM:
Re: cute sells!

"I think it's kind of fun to see a women owning guys "

I never realized it was legal to own humans again. I'm gonna go get me a coupla' love slaves.
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ssj4android @ 25th Jul 02:35AM:
Re: cute sells!

Golf RPG? Is it like Mario Golf on the GBC? That had an RPG mode, the gba version probably did too.
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anon @ 25th Jul 04:49AM:
Re: cute sells!

I cant personally stand them.. They walk around our country all third world, drive with white gloves and strange full facial visors (wtf is that?), hang their stupid Asian wind chime good luck trinkets from there rear view mirrors, while cramming as many stuffed animals in the back windows of their cars as they can possibly fit. Act all timid like your going to stab then as you walk past them on the street. Stink up the lunch area with that rancid fish smell that seems to linger for a whole week straight.. They act is if they are the only ones that exist on the planet. Which i commonly refer to as the "Asian wonderland" Its a place where you can suddenly pull into a lane without looking or signaling and almost cause a serious accident, and other times needing to get into a lane, that is clearly safe to merge in, and checking to see if its safe for over a mile.. They seem to like to stand uncomfortably close to the person in front of them at ANY situation. They do not believe in personal space. As noted, play strange online games, and seem to be very addicted to "hello kitty" in mass numbers.

I could go on.. but i don't play starcraft.
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Mitesh @ 25th Jul 11:28PM:
$$ for items

A few games I played that are Asian that charge for premium items are Gunbound, Maple Story. The only us based game I think is Puzzle Pirates. The game makers in Korea saw a niche to be filled since they saw how people were willing to buy game pieces/characters from ebay and what not. They just filled a niche and have a first to market advantage. Personally if I bought the game, I rather not pay for a item, but since these games are free paying to get a item seems affordable, at the time. It's only after playing for a while does a user realize the amount of money they spent to get those items. Also charging for items helps they pay for the servers and what not, just like how people pay monthly fees for everquest and other games that require monthly fees. A big reason why the kart game got off so well it feeds off the ability to showcase your "ride". It's like any other car game where the point is to earn items to trick/rice out your ride, just with Kart Rider you play for free and if you WANT you can pay for a premium item. This leads me to wonder how Guild Wars will cover the costs of servers. I think the idea of virtual advertising may be of use to them.

***EDIT***
A mistake I thought I made, but I thus realized it was not a mistake.
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redbrdterry @ 1st Aug 11:38AM:
Re: games I never heard of

I have been playing Puzzle Pirates for a few months and thoroughly enjoy the game....you can play on the free ocean (Viridian) or on any one of 3 different subscription oceans (Ice (a new ocean),Midnight or Cobalt).I have gotten so hooked on the game I'm now Captain of a crew with 5 ships and a King of my own flag.


This game is a must for those looking for a cool game....it's basic so it can be boring but there's plenty to do (ie. spades,drinking contests,swordfights,pillaging,missions,brawls,spades and hearts).Check it out....my pirate name is the same as this login so if your in the game gimme a hollar!:D
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Snakeoil @ 11th Aug 05:33AM:
A true stay at home job

Thanks to the early games like Ultima Online, it appears that there has been a cottage industry growing.

With such games people sign up, and play just to gather resources, rare items, or build uber accounts. Their only intent is then to sell the stuff on ebay, hopefully making a profit for the time it took them.

Which leds to a news story a few months ago, about an "online" sweat shop being busted. The ring leader "forved" the sweat shop workers to log on and play, then paid them very little for their time.
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Can't discuss politics, then why discuss sh*t?
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thender2 @ 28th Aug 07:46AM:
Re: cute sells!

Women have been owning weak men since the beginning of time. :/
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Red Dragon @ 1st Oct 10:38PM:
goes to show ya

goes to show how much more wired then Americans are and how much technology is involved in their lives. they use tech for passion then perhaps say usefulness
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meeee4 @ 3rd Nov 05:05PM:
k

ok.... im sorry...i am asian... and im offended my some of your comments... so what if they make weird games with weird characters? what if nobody else plays it? the only reason nobody else plays it around the world is cuz it only comes in one language....
so stop calling us asians weird
btw... i played this game many times before.... it is one of the best games i ever played
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anon @ 11th Nov 02:15PM:
Re: k

I do not think "weird" is the right word...different or cool and unconventional in the way north americans see things would be a better way to put it.

I wish they would star doing their games in english too...I would love to play all the cool stuff out there.

:D
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roahboah @ 17th Nov 09:03PM:
Re: cute sells!

The US has been in trade deficit since 1971, actually.
have a nice day
roah
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kartriderUSA @ 2nd Dec 09:57PM:
Re: k

hey dude i am american and i don't know korea well but i play kartrider all day long

sack up dogg it's easy
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