不少人都知道《魔兽世界》的付费玩家规模非常庞大，但实际上，韩国网游公司Nexon旗下的《冒险岛》（MapleStory）的付费用户甚至是《魔兽世界》的8倍，而该公司另一款游戏《跑跑卡丁车》（KartRider）的付费用户却比前面两者的总和还要多。

尽管Nexon极其擅长开发大型多人在线游戏，但该公司却还没有借此优势，在社交游戏领域发挥影响力。这对一家推行双货币模式的游戏先锋来说，的确是个不寻常的现象。

MapleStory

不过据游戏邦了解，该公司将于今年面向Facebook平台推出《MapleStory Adventures》和《跑跑卡丁车》，填补Nexon在社交游戏业务运营上的空白。其中，《MapleStory Adventures》由Flash技术创建而成，复杂度比原版的MMO游戏略低，而《跑跑卡丁车》的Facebook版本则由Unity工具开发，该公司社交游戏运营副总裁Soo Min Park表示，他们可以克服这种游戏开发的技术障碍。

Park表示，“我们希望将自己在网游领域的影响力带到其他平台，我们在微交易模式上具有独一无二的优势，也希望把这一点带到社交游戏领域……”

原来的《冒险岛》玩家会发现，《MapleStory Adventures》的设置有点熟悉，但比原来的游戏更为简化了，它的级别、道具、怪兽等元素都比以往更少了，而且采用的是异步的游戏设置。由于使用了Unity开发工具，《跑跑卡丁车》的玩家将可获得与原来相差无几的游戏体验。

KartRider_Rush_screen

游戏邦获悉，该公司还将于本月推出《KartRider Rush》的iOS版本（并于今年夏天推出Android版本），《KartRider Rush》的游戏时长更短，玩法类似于《马里奥赛车》，但在速度和道具类型上与大型多人同步游戏明显不同。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

Nexon Enters Social Games Market With Classics MapleStory and KartRider

The consumer media’s obsession with World of Warcraft’s subscription numbers often makes it difficult to hear above the din. Nexon’s MapleStory was eight times larger than Blizzard’s behemoth before it ever left American shores; KartRider dwarfs them both combined. Yet Nexon, for all its success in creating massively multiplayer online games, has been conspicuously absent in the social games scene. This is particularly notable for a company that was a pioneer in the dual-currency model.

Later this year, MapleStory Adventures and Kart Rider will come to Facebook correcting what Vice President of Social Games Operations Soo Min Park feels has been a long-standing missing piece to the Nexon portfolio. By re-imagining MapleStory as a less complex title authored in Flash, and building KartRider in Unity with a front-facing playable element during download, Park feels this barrier can be overcome.

“We wanted to expand our web presence to other platforms,” explained Park. “We have expertise in micro-transactions that no one else does and we want to bring that to the social networks. Once our existing IP is launched, original titles will be created to further our efforts.”

Players of the original MapleStory will find MapleStory Adventure familiar but simplified. There will be fewer classes, items, monsters… fewer of everything. And the game will be asynchronous. Due to the use of Unity, players of KartRider should feel more at home with its racing mechanics.

Later this month, KartRider Rush iOS  (and this summer for Android) will launch beginning the campaign to enter the social platform market. Rush features short, Mario Kart-like play against multiple synchronous opponents in a speed or item mode.（source:insidesocialgames）