"Sudden Attack" was launched in 2005, with more advanced visual quality than "Special Force". The most fiercing competitor among them was "Sudden Attack", which still holds its crown in the game market. Unlike "Kart Rider", however, many competitors of "Special Force" emerged in the game market to drag it down from its position. Later on, however, with its low visual quality and frequent errors, and most importantly its failure in adobting new policy to charge gamers, "Karma Online" closed its service in 2006.Īfter the "Karma Online", Dragonplay launched another new FPS "Special Force" which gained a huge popularity to divide the online game market with "Kart Rider", changing the trend immediately.
Optimized for online gameplay and Korean gaming environment, it gained popularity among gamers. "Karma Online", developed by Dragonfly, was the first Korean FPS game which brought the worldwide popular FPS genre. Most of us remember the year of 2002 as the year of Korea-Japan World Cup, but for the game industry, it is the year of First Korean FPS. The FPS(First Person Shooter) games were better off with 3D graphics since gamers' view in the game is different from other genres. Some genres started to emerge with the development of 3D graphics. Due to the launching of numerous similar games, they were unable to maintain its popularity. Taking it as a signal to boost the stagnant market, game developers rushed into developing casual games, which resulted in the same situation that MMORPGs experienced. "Kart Rider" has provided bored gamers and game market with a new breakthrough. When "Kart Rider" was launced, the market had hit plateau. "Fortress 2" alone, however, was not able to change the whole trend of game market where MMORPGs was in prime and grew much faster. Before the success of "Kart Rider", there was also "Fortress 2" that was remarkably famous and popular among gamers. Since everyone could easily play the game and enjoy playing for every little while, the casual game has resuscitated the vitality of online game market and gamers who were fed up with MMORPGs. Less than a year, it has successfully attracted 10 million gamers and become one of the most popular games in Korea. With its simple control and easy accessibility, "Kart Rider" has grown rapidly in the online game market. In 2004, Nexon has launched the service of casual racing game "Kart Rider", which utilized the characters of another casual game "Crazy Arcade:BNB" that gained its popularity among underage groups. The 'Big 3′s failure was also derived from its banality, rather than the lack of quality. Gamers started to feel that they have had enough from playing same, moderate MMORPGs, which failed to differentiate and develop its own characteristics.Įntering the middle of 2000s, gamers were fed up with standardized MMORPGs that required gamers to invest much time and forced meaningless repetitions. Moreover, the so-called 'Big 3′ projects such as Nexon's "Zera", Webzen's "Sunonline", IMC Games'"Granado Espada" that are supposed to inherit the glorious era of "Lineage", "Mu online", "Ragnarok" failed successively, which evoked concerns that MMORPG has reached its limit.
It had a great repercussion on the game market, breaking the monopoly of MMORPG. But the reign of MMORPG was finally brought down by the advent of the casual racing game "Kart Rider". In 2003, "Lineage 2", the sequel of "Lineage", was launched to continue the prosperity of MMORPG in the game market. Although there were games like "Fortress 2" launched in 1999 and "Crazy Arcade" launched in 2001 that are not MMORPG but attracted many gamers, it was not easy to outrun the popularity of MMORPG games such as "Mu Online", "Ragnarok Online". Motivated by the success of "Lineage", many services were launced in the form of MMORPG, which brought the prevailing understanding that online game is MMORPG. As its successor, "Lineage" has opened the new era of MMORPG. "The Kingdom of the Wind", the first graphic-based online game, was also the first MMORPG(Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game).