I went looking for KartRider this morning, but it seems to have disappeared.

A little less than a year back I ended up, due to a big colorful ad on the back of Games for Windows Magazine (which itself disappeared in April of last year) downloading and installing the Nexon free to play game KartRider.

It is (was?) a fun little racing game that my daughter and I played on and off for a couple of months.

This morning my daughter was looking at the icons on my desktop, pointed at the KartRider icon, said that we had not played that game in a while, and asked if we could give it another try.

But when I tried to launch the game, it gave an error, citing my firewall as a possible issue.

I went to the KartRider site I had bookmarked, to see if anything had changed or if I needed to download a new client and was greeted by this:

Open Beta has Ended

The open beta is over (oh, yeah, I forgot it was still in beta) and thank you to all the people who made it a huge success.

The main Nexon site had no obvious mention of KartRider.  The Korean site for the game still seemed to be up and in full swing however.

Eventually I found a notice on the site about the end of the open beta:

Greetings KartRiders!

We’d like to thank our beta testers for all their hard work in testing KartRider!

The Closed Beta will come to an end on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 5pm (PST). We encourage you to get your last few races in!

We will announce the full launch of KartRider at a later date.

Thanks for playing!

- The KartRider Staff -

Hrmm, it has been a while since I peeked in on the game.

Still, I have to wonder how huge of a success the open beta was if they removed all mention of the game from the main US site and have let the US localized version of the game sit for more than seven months.

They still have MapleStory, Combat Arms, and a couple of other games listed on their US site, but could this be another sign (ala NCsoft) that Korean game makers aren’t able to tap the US market as effectively as they do their home market?

It was just announced today that KartRider would be available for one more day; If you haven’t gotten your final races in and want to, it would be the best time to now.

KartRider Open Beta will end on March 19th, 2008, at 5:00 PM PDT.

And, just on a note, the announcement says that it will be going down for “long-term maitenance.”  In other words, expect it to be months before we see it again.

DST is taking effect this Sunday, and this of course means that Nexon will be bringing down all their servers and services in order to safely make the change.  Unlike the change back to standard, they will be doing this on MapleStory, Audition, KartRider, and Mabinogi all at the same time:

The DST SC will start at 1:50 AM Pacific Standard time, and will end at 4:50 AM Pacific Daylight Savings time, when everyone’s clock on the west coast is already ahead an hour.  If the time change noted in the server check notice message confuses you, just think of it as a 2 hour server check.  (It might be since by the time the SC starts, the majority of North America will be under DST.  For example, in the Eastern time zone the SC will be from 5:50 – 7:50 AM EDT; 4:50 – 6:50 AM EST if you’re in an area out east that isn’t observing DST.)

So, for all you confused insomniacs on Saturday night, you’re probably better off just going to bed.  I for one need to hit the sack well before this SC starts.

March is seeing the “changing of the betas” at Nexon from what it seems.  There’s been quite a bit of news concerning a couple of open betas.

First off, a bit of sad news, and that is KartRider open beta is closing on March 18th.  The beta seems to have had a good run over the past five and a half months and, although many people got bored with the content and quit, I guess you could say it was a success.  There is no word yet on when official will open, but I’m sure what everyone is thinking at this moment is that it doesn’t turn out to be the same thing that happened between closed and open beta.

Now, as mentioned in a previous post, open beta is coming this Wednesday.  I have some news that could probably be seen as good or bad on this one, depending on the way you see it, but Sleepywood.net’s owner Adura pointed out this article on Kotaku regarding the open beta, and in said article is this statement:

Nexon America Inc., the U.S. division of Asia’s leading online entertainment company Nexon Group, delivers the open beta for Mabinogi, its free-to-play, massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), on March 5. Slated for release later this spring, users can create their own personal “Fantasy Life,” by signing up for the open beta during an exclusive 24-hour play period at FilePlanet.com or afterward at http://mabinogi.nexon.net.

So once again, if you want the jump on everyone, you gotta get a GameSpy/IGN account and go here first.  (At least that’s what I’m thinking right now, either that or anyone with a closed beta key is already in on the first 24 hours but that seems doubtful.)  This could also explain the Wednesday launch of the game, allowing the fileplanet users to play starting Tuesday, but until we here more information between now and Wednesday this is all baseless conjecture.

The Site

Another month slips by, but the site goes on.

I made more posts this month than I thought I was going to, given how busy work has become and that I was on Maui for six days. (*Ducks snowballs thrown by Bildo*) Fortunately WordPress.com allows you to submit a post to be displayed at a later date, so some posts went up while I was away and without a computer. (I did moderate comments via my aunt’s iPhone. It was slow, but manageable.)

And speaking of comments, my question of the moment is, “Why does Akismet file all of Syncaine’s comments as spam?” He has a WordPress.com account and blogs regularly. My guess is that the people at Akismet are all carebears and seek to destroy Syncaine for his pro-PvP comments.

One Year Ago

Back in February 2007 Kendricke dropped by with the news that Sony Online Entertainment applied for a trademark for “EVERQUEST II RISE OF KUNARK,” thus confirming my guess that Kunark would be the EverQuest II expansion due near the end of 2007. A quick check of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office site shows nothing on my guess for this years expansion. (Return to the Planes of Power FTW!) The USPTO does show that SOE at one time had the trademark for, “EVERQUEST: THE DEMISE OF ARADUNE,” which is mildly ironic from a Vanguard point of view. I wonder what they had planned for that title? (Aradune = Brad McQuaid, for those not completely immersed in EQ history and lore.)

Of course, SOE also announced a price increase for Station Access shortly thereafter, always a buzz killer. This was immediately blamed on Vanguard and calls for the demise of Aradune were literal.

I also started off in the Lord of the Rings Online open beta which eventually lead to the instance group spending the spring and summer in Middle-earth before returning to Azeroth.

And speaking of Azeroth, a year ago we were just starting to get into the fun that is Uldaman. And somewhere along the line I swapped out my rogue Blintz for my paladin Vikund, who has remained with the instance group ever since.

And finally, my wife got me a Wii for Valentine’s day that I couldn’t use until Easter!

New Linking Sites

A big thanks to these sites who link to TAGN. I encourage you to give them a visit in return.

• Captain’s Blog
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
• Lost an Eighth
• Marcus’ MMO Musings
• Outland Bound
• Ryan Shwayder’s Nerfbat

Again, if your site does link here and I have not mentioned it in the past, feel free to drop me a note, as it is getting harder and harder each month to find sites! (And I’m still lazy.)

Most Viewed Posts in February

1. Play On: Guild Name Generator
2. Five New EVE Online Wishes
3. How To Find An Agent in EVE Online
4. 2008 MMORPG Progdictionations
5. EVE Online – The Tutorial
6. Drake Down
7. What Is A “Tank” In EVE?
8. Why Isn’t LOTRO More Fun?
9. There is Hope for a SciFi MMORPG
10. Is There Hope for a Science Fiction MMORPG?
11. Adrift in a Burning Sea
12. Five LEGO Video Game Titles I Want

Best Search Terms

naked zone .com
[Not here. Trying removing the spaces and see what you get.]

centaur sex
[I suppose after "gnoll sex," this should be no surprise.]

sex with a horse warcraft map
[Is this related to centaurs?]

my secret unicorn
[Your secret is safe with us!]

stairs
[Stairs? How did that get you here?]

why are there noobs
[To give you a false sense of superiority?]

largest noob in ancient history
[Well, after seeing "300," one might guess Xerxes. Or, depending on how you look at it, either Caligula or Claudius.]

big beard
[I knew that "Wilhelm is a dwarf" thing was going to bite me.]

Best Spam Comment

“At the reporter of the jigger we were both casually horny, and we got in Chad’s SUV, and we drove in the morally black sex movies behind the britney spears commando limousine center and he ofren me before I went rirance to my husband. The celebrities movie archive for folding was over.”

I feel there is a lesson in there for all of us.

EVE Online

When I wasn’t wishing for things in EVE Online, I was finally getting somewhere with invention and tech II blueprints. It was nice to make back some of my 200+ million ISK investment in skills and data tuners. I also started doing NPC research to get datacores for invention. Of course, losing another battlecruiser pretty much offset any financial gain from there, but I am not broke yet.

EverQuest II

I let my Station Access subscription lapse because February was so busy, but now I cannot find the motivation to resubscribe. Even the thought of fae glide can’t get me to sign back up. I’m in a Norrathian funk. Gaff, who is off four-boxing another group of new characters to level 80, is probably annoyed with me by now.

KartRider

I have almost enough in-game currency to buy a custom license plate!  Go me!

Lord of the Rings Online

I thought that they fixed the problem with my graphics cards, but it turns out that the problem only seems to manifest itself around Bree. Once I get close to town, I “green out” and my system locks up. Hrmph! No love in Middle-earth.

Pirates of the Burning Sea

I have the box at home, but I have not had the time or inclination to start the 30-day clock for the registration code that comes with the game. Potshot gave me his 14-day buddy code to get me started when I was laid up with a sprained ankle (foot and ankle are now back to normal size and color, thanks for asking), so I’ve “been there,” but after 14 days I kind of felt I had also “done that.” I’ll watch the Pirates news to see if something shows up that makes me want to set sail again.

World of Warcraft

Again, Azeroth was my number one virtual destination for the month. After mucking around in the old world long enough, we finally stepped through the portal into the Outlands for our first Burning Crusade instance run. Those of you posting comments expressing your dismay that we were “stuck” in the old content, you can now rejoice. We are in the expansion with both feet.

Wii

I have not written anything about the Wii for a while because I made the conscious decision to write about Wii games in the order in which we received them at home, and I have been stuck for some time on a game about which I have been completely unmotivated to write. So I’ll come out right now and say that Mario & Sonic at the Olympics Games stinks for a variety of reasons. My daughter liked it for a little while, and it was a gift for her from one of our friends, but I did not enjoy it at all. So there. Now maybe I can get to the next game.

Upcoming

Nintendo DS. I am probably going to write more about that. And Pokemon. So brace yourselves.

And the usual stuff. My EVE foibles. The Azeroth instance group. More wishes. Strange thoughts about gaming that occur to me in the middle of the night.

Is it only March tomorrow? Is there anything new in the MMO world yet? Is The Chronicles of Spellborn out yet? I might have to try some older games.

KartRider

It wasn’t like I was out looking for a free to play MMO to round out my gaming experience.

But I HAD TO get this game!

I HAD TO!

Why did I have to?

Because there was a great big colorful full page advertisement for it on the back of Games for Windows Magazine.

And my daughter saw it.

And then the requests began… over and over again.

Eventually I caved in.

GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

Okay, I am pretty sure that Jeff Green doesn’t do the ad placement in the magazine, but he is the editor-in-chief, and when you’re the boss, everything is your fault.

So with my daughter practically hanging on my sleeve, I downloaded the game.

The first thing you have to do is create an account with Nexon, the games maker. If you already play one of their other games, like Maple Story, your account for that will also work for Kartrider.

Then you download and install the software.

The install part almost lost me.

at a couple of points during the process, the installer asks you to install the Microsoft Korean language kit, which requires you to put your Windows XP SP2 disk into the drive. I would have to guess that they tested this with the international version of Windows XP installed, which has all the language kits, not the US English version.

Fortunately, you can get past that by just pressing cancel until it stops asking you.

Once installed and running, you go through a fairly quick tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. Then you take your drivers test and, if you pass, you get your license to race. Well, your basic license, anyway.

But then you can go out and race against live people, which is the point of the game. There are different tracks, different sorts of races (singles, teams, quests, events), but mostly you just drive, run over power ups, and use them against the other people on the track.

You can have as few as two people in a race, but then the rewards are negligible.

You are better off with a full load of eight racers if you want to get ahead in the game.

It is like a low budget MarioKart 64 with lag issues.

That is actually pretty high praise considering MarioKart 64 is a pretty awsome game. It is still my favorite Wii Virtual Console download.

So Kartrider is pretty good, given the price, which is free.

Of course, you CAN spend money on the game, if you want.

The basic unit of currency in game is the Lucci. You get Lucci for winning a race, or for being on the winning team in a team based race. But, like World of Warcraft, you also get some Lucci even if you lose. Not as much, of course. In the races I was in, it was 60 Lucci for the winners and down to 10 Lucci for the losers.

You can use Lucci to buy better cars, avatars with better skills, and special customization items for you car and driver.

And, if you are earning Lucci too slowly, Nexon will gladly take a credit card or game card in exchange for a quick pile of Lucci so you can get a car that goes faster or turns tighter or a driver that earns experience or Lucci at a quicker rate.

A great game? Probably not. But a pretty good game if you want something you can drop into quickly, run a few races, and then go on to other things.

My daughter grew tired of the game when she saw how long it was taking to earn Lucci to buy the cool stuff she wanted (I did not mention that I could BUY Lucci, no no no) but I still have it on my system and I jump in to run a few races every couple of days.

Site: http://kart.nexon.net/
Descrição: KartRider é um jogo que mistura corrida e aventura em uma plataforma online. Com controles simples, o jogo pode atingir pessoas de diferentes idades e habilidades. As pistas do jogo misturam jogabilidade dinâmica com gráficos bem desenvolvidos. Toda fase é estilizada para aumentar a diversão.

Para jogar com os amigos, as corridas podem ter até oito participantes, em modo Single Player ou Team Racing. Um destaque é que, durante as corridas, é possível usar um comunicador próprio do KartRider, além de ver sua lista de amigos e pesquisar por jogadores online.

O jogo investe na diversidade. Crie seu personagem, dê um nome, adicione acessórios e mais. Entre as corridas, aproveite para relaxar na sua garagem, mostrando seus próprios karts e convidando outros jogadores só para “fazer um social”.

O jogo é uma febre na Coréia do Sul, onde foi desenvolvido. Estima-se que há 15 milhões de jogadores, e pelo menos 25% da população coreana jogou o KartRider pelo menos uma vez. Como se não bastasse, o jogo desbancou o Starcrat no mercado online. A versão que está disponível em open beta para download é a americana, a qual não se difere muito da original. Apenas alguns itens são diferentes.

Screen

video

Finally, something that will please speed mode players a bit.  Sandpit isn’t technically a speed track, but it can take quite a bit of strategy in order to get it right, especially with a huge dip that acts as a “sandpit” close to the end of each lap.  If you’re really unlucky and get caught in a tight pack there, you could end up being able to not get out.  When I played this on speed shortly after the patch I ended up winning some four times in a row or so.  I’m only about 2000 RP off my blue glove now.

Also, here’s an interesting event that is a bit better than getting items from.  Much like the Jack-o-Lantern event in Halloween, you’re collecting Christmas bells.  When you collect five bells, everyone in your race gets sent to a bonus track where you have 20 seconds to collect as much Lucci as you can.  Usually you can get as much as about 500 Lucci from this bonus stage, and if you play a lot you’ll probably end up with a load of cash after this event is over, either from collecting bells or being in the same race as someone that collects five bells.

Also, as a reminder about MapleStory’s server check tomorrow that this is in fact the first one where world changes will be done, so it may take somewhat longer than scheduled.

Not much in terms of a patch again, but today KartRider got decked out for the festive season by making all the Arctic Rim tracks (Ice Cave, Penguin Town, Shark Fin) Christmas-themed.  It’s kinda cheesy but cool I guess you can say; You can’t make too much out of it from the screenshot here either way.  Kartrider-ish renditions of familiar Christmas tunes also play during Arctic Rim races, too.

Nexon has also added yet another new contest where once again they’re giving away laptops and iPod Nanos. (They’ve done quite a few of those.)  Only catch is you need to play KartRider for more than 30 hours between now and the end of the year, so get cracking.

And remember, MapleStory gets Christmasy with a brand new Happyville as part of tomorrow night’s patch 0.48.  (Along with a very special announcement regarding gMS’ future that I will talk about later, probably tomorrow.)