Nexon bringing Poptag to North America

by Kyle Horner on Jan 8th 2010 8:00PM

Hey, you guys know about Nexon America, yeah? The people who brought us MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online among many other titles. Well, they've announced that Poptag is coming stateside, which is sort of Bomberman only fully online and with water balloons... So, it's definitely got a specific "thing" going on. While throwing water filled balloons may not quite match up to tossing explosives, the game goes for a fast paced arcade style that should still appeal to people looking for that sort of experience albeit with cutesy water balloon throwing characters.

And yes, this will be a free-to-play title with an item store, but that being Nexon's only business model thus far should've had you guessing as much already. But hey! The game also features a "sweetie" system that actually allows players to marry one another in-game proper -- aww.

Poptag is scheduled to be released sometime during the first half of 2010, so if you find yourself interested in playing, keep on the lookout.

Source

Tags: arcade, bomberman, dfo, dungeon-fighter-online, f2p, free-to-play, maplestory, nexon, nexon-america, poptag, spring, spring-2010, worlds-in-motion

Reader Comments (2)

This game was available here in Thailand for a while. But it's dead & gone & shut down now. Everything you paid for go poofs! Hopefully it doesn't face the same fate in NA.

I don't play this kind of games much (the casual, "create a game room, wait for people to join, start the match" type of games). So naturally I suck at it. The followings are the things I don't quite like in Poptag.-

1. People judge you by your level, even though the level doesn't affect your ability in the game. You can, however, wear various cosmetic items if your level is high enough. And when your level is lower (for whatever reason), people don't let you join the game OR join their team in a given game.

2. You don't gain exp (necessary to gain level) if you lose. Not even a small amount. So in order to level up, you MUST win.

3. Despite the casual nature of the game, the level-cap is so sky-high to the point that unless you grind constantly, you won't be able to keep up with other people and suddenly the lv38 you thought was very high is now regarded as "noob" by level 78 people.

4. Some cosmetic stuff have indirect effects to the gameplay. For example the appearance of the water balloon can be changed and sometimes you might not notice that this weird-looking strawberry is actually the water ballon that you should've ran away...

5. Most game modes are so team-oriented to the point that you simply can't win without teaming up with capable people (and you have no way to know if a guy is good unless you look at his level...which would then result in you judging other people based on their level.. oh the dilemma).

Cacheelma said on 9:08PM 1-08-2010: "This game was available here in Thailand for a while. But it's dead & gone & shut down now. Everything you paid for go poofs!"

Brings up an interesting thought actually; when you pay a sub, you're effectively paying for the provision of a service - we all understand that.

However, when you outright *buy* an item off a cash store, where does that sit, legally?

As in, subscription games gate access via a sub, but you never own the property. You're simply accessing it and there are never any guarantees that the service will be available (we're all forced to click on the EULA if we wish to access the service).
But with cash shops being so blatant about purchasing items, I wonder if they're classed as 'goods' in the eyes of the law? And if so, how does that work out when the game shuts down?
Are they 'our' goods? (After all, we 'bought' them..) And if so, are we entitled to a refund if they're no longer fit for their intended purpose?

Just mulling over thoughts.. I wonder if anyone's read the EULA of a F2P/RMT game recently. If you have - what did it say?