K2 Network

K2 Network, Inc. is a computer game service company in Irvine, California. K2 Network brings games from Asia and services them for markets in the West, mostly.North America, South America and Europe. In addition to providing localized game versions, their other services include community management and customer support. K2 Network was founded in 2001 on the belief that “the community experience of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG’s) will become one of the most significant forms of entertainment in the 21st century.” [http://www.k2network.net/about.php?area=company/]

Current Titles

Knight Online

*Knight Online - K2 Network's first and biggest title to date, Knight Online was released to the U.S. and European markets in December 2004. Knight Online is especially known for its PvP (player vs. player) aspect featuring battles and castle sieges between hundreds of players, a scale unseen in other MMORPG’s. Knight Online also had an expansion released in August 2006 called Reign of the Fire Drake, adding new encounters and areas to the game. Another expansion called Moradon: The resurrection released in August 2007.

Global MU Online

*Global MU Online - A classic Korean title that has also found success and praise in K2 Network's markets, especially in South America. K2 Network released Global MU on April 21, 2006. Global MU is one of the largest MMORPGs in existence, with over 100,000 possible item combinations and a maximum character level of 400. An expansion for Global MU titled Cry Wolf was released on March 27, 2007. Also, in August 2007 - the Season 2 Expansion was released on the Global server. Now people expect K2 Network to release Webzen's newest expansion (Season 3) which includes: New Quests, New 3rd Class Change, New 3rd Level Wings for Each Class, NEW CHARACTER: SUMMONER, New Summoner Sets, Skills, The Master Skill Tree, Illusion Temple Event, Swamp of Calmness Map, Elbeland Kingdom Map and many more things... Global MU has one of the broadest audiences of any MMORPG, with users from over 100 countries connecting each day, the largest representations of players coming from Brazil, Poland, Peru, Venezuela, and the U.S. in that order.

War Rock

*WarRock - War Rock is an FPS (first-person shooter) that allows players to create characters that level up in rank and gain access to new weapons, thus giving a similar feel of character development to the classic RPG. War Rock was released by K2 Network on February 7th, 2007.

word of the New World

*Sword of the New World– Known as Granado Espada in the original Korean version, this highly-anticipated title launched in the summer of 2007. Sword won the 2006 Korean awards for Best Graphics and Game of the Year, and has many new features previously unseen in an MMORPG such as the ability for players to control multiple characters at the same time. Sword of the New World also has a very different art style based on the Baroque period of Europe, a unique bit of distinction from the standard “swords and sorcery” fantasy themes of the genre.

Red Stone

* Red Stone - Red Stone is a huge hit in Japan and is repeating that success in the European market. Due to its classical graphic design it has repeatedly gotten bad reviews from critics. like many other k2 Network game there is the issue of lack of English speaking players online. its status is currently in open beta.

K2 Network in the news

* [http://mmorpg.qj.net/rss.xml?cid=3823&cname=Red%20Stone Red Stone announced]
* [http://mmorpg.qj.net/tags/k2-network/1030 News coverage from mmorpg.gj.net]
* [http://www.ogdc2007.com/news/20070423.html Interview with CEO Joshua Hong]
* [http://www.gamer20.com/gamehub/war-rock-pc/previews/691 Interview with War Rock producer Matt Horton]
* [http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?q=node/678 Interview with Sword of the New World producer Peter Cesario]

Fall of K2 Network

Despite the good first impression K2 Network left on players, the same cannot be said about their service. Players of games published by K2 are constantly frustrated by the service provided by the company such as little or no customer service to paying players and absolutely no support for F2P (free-to-play) customers at all. This level of commitment often draws much heat from players, such as the service provided in Global MU Online in the form of "MM Lahap" a K2 network employee which was introduced as a temporary solution for the sole purpose of dissolving jewels. (Due to hackers, the NPC (non-playable character) Lahap was removed as this was used for hackers to duplicate game items, but the removal of this NPC also meant that players couldn't dissolve jewels). Players report that "MM Lahap" was continuously late, show up but does a poor job of dissolving jewels or doesn't show up at all. [ [http://www.globalmuonline.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=176619&st=0&start=0 "Topic by a frustrated player in Global MU Online forums"] ] Due to the lack of support and commitment, K2 Network games are rapidly decreasing in popularity and earning a bad reputation.

In WarRock, the administrators tend to go by what they "think" is right and not the players. Recently, the highest level in the game was punished for "Power Leveling" - A rule which K2 stated "exploited" game rules and community effort. As the story unfolds, it seems as if he was wrongly de-leveled by half of his level 79 account and a difference in the player's timezone was which lead to the accusation. However, because of their attitude to dealing with situations when it comes to players accounts, no more has been said on the issue. The game is well constructed and brings a good atmosphere to users, but the moment K2 step in to handle situations, the standard of the game drops massively. K2 recently introduced "GamersFirst", a project which they hoped would encourage spending within their games and also attract popularity. The anticipated outcome was not to be. Many of WarRock players tend to restructure K2 Network's motto from "GamersFirst" to "MoneyFirst, Gamers Later", which is essentially how it is.

External links

* [http://www.k2network.net/ K2 Network]
* [http://www.knightonlineworld.com/ Knight Online]
* [http://www.warrock.net/ War Rock]
* [http://www.globalmuonline.com/ Global MU Online]
* [http://www.swordofthenewworld.com/ Sword of the New World]
* [http://www.playredstone.com/ Red Stone]

References