Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds

Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, which is also known as Nexus TK and simply Nexus, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game which takes place in a medieval-type fantasy environment.

Nexon Inc. started developing the game in 1994 in Korea's KAIST computer lab, where it was known as 바람의 나라 (Baramue Nara or Baram). The game's source code was based on a MUD Jake Song had developed earlier in the Objective-C programming language. Nexus was launched commercially in April 1996. The game then reached the United States market that year as a beta version and went commercial in 1998. Due to its origin, the game environment is greatly influenced by Korean culture.

In April 2005, the US division of Nexon Inc. split from the head branch. They renamed their new company Kru Interactive, and still own and operate the NexusTK game servers.

The game itself takes place in a fictional world based on the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The game mostly takes place in the kingdoms of Koguryo and Buyeo, and also in Nagyang, which is a province of Han (China).

The player chooses their character's attributes and eventually chooses one of many paths: Warrior, Mage, Rogue or Poet, once the fifth level is reached. Unlike a lot of other games, your progress isn't limited to a certain number of levels. After you reach level 99 in Nexus, you still have an allmost infinate amount of progress that can be made. You can trade your experience points for "stats", and gain ranks like Wasabi, Enchant and Super Wasabi. You can also go on challanging quests to gain marks, such as Il san, Ee san and Sam san (based on the Sino-Korean numbers and then the word "san," which means "mark" in Korean).

There are magnificent and challenging quests throughout the game, such as the Armor quests, the White Moon Axe quest, the Staff of the Elements quest, and the Nagnang Shield quests.

Subpaths

Along the character's life, s/he may join any of four subpaths available to their path -- one non-player controlled subpath, and three player-controlled subpaths, often referred to as NPC and PC, respectively. To join one of the NPC subpaths, the character must make some minor sacrifices of experience and items. To join one of the PC subpaths, the character must get accepted by a guide (another player), who will teach the character who seeks to "walk" their path the ways of that path, and then complete many tests assigned by that guide for the walker to complete. A guide is a player who was assigned their guideship by the Elder -- or leader -- of the path.

PC paths are entirely maintained by the players who are part of that path. An extreme example would be that originally, Nexon created the Spies, Merchants and Shadows to be the subpaths for the Rogue path, but when Nexon issued an in-game law that stated that all paths must have at least 100 members, the Shadow path (who had about 25 members) disbanded, because they thought it would destroy their role-play (and indeed, the quota did destroy the roleplay of all of the subpaths). Nexon went along with it, and replaced the Shadows with the Ranger path.

Generally, the players of Nexus consider Rogues and Warriors who are members of NPC paths to be "fighters," and Rogues and Warriors who are in PC paths to be "role-players." This is a very ignorant view, that suggests that only people who are in PC paths may role-play, and only people in NPC paths may fight. This view comes from the radical difference in the fighting abilities of Warrior and Rogue PCs and NPCs. The NPCs usually dominate the hunting scene so much that a lot of PC Rogues and Warriors don't even bother looking for a fighting party. Mages and Poets, however, don't have this problem at all -- in all cases, PC Mages and Poets are even better at fighting than NPCs.

PC subpaths have the advantages of different spells and items, while the NPC subpaths are restricted to only a few spells and and just one item. Over time, Nexon has continued to add spells and items to the different PC subpaths.

The subpaths are:

Mage: Jujak (NPC); Diviner (PC); Geomancer (PC); Shaman (PC)

Poet: Hyun Moo (NPC); Druid (PC); Monk (PC); Muse (PC)

Rogue: Baekho (NPC); Merchant (PC); Ranger (PC); Spy (PC); Shadow (PC, Disbanded)

Warrior: Chung Ryong (NPC); Barbarian (PC); Chongun (PC); Do (PC)

History

The Cataclysm - July 1, 1998

The end of Beta, a day known to Nexus players as the Cataclysm. On June 22, at 2:00 in the morning, Nexon took away from the players 91 different items. They told the players that they were going to beforehand, but nothing could have prepared the players for it. Everyone's gold was set to 1,000. Sun, Moon and Star armors were taken away from NPC merchants. Great dragons attacked the kingdom. There was no hope. Dozens of players fell to these mighty beasts.

The items werent the real loss. The loss was the players.

After the cataclysm, Beta was over, and players had to subscribe to continue playing. Many couldn't, and so they were never seen in the land again.

The Reckoning - November 29, 1998

Nexon added a brand new feature -- exchange. There was a bug. Money wouldn't be taken from Player A until the exchange was complete, but money would be given to player B before it was. Players were tying enormous amounts of money into the exchange box, and then hitting cancel. Their friend made money, they lost none.

Soon, trillions of coins flooded into the Nexus. The economy was in chaos.

Nexon cought on fast, but couldn't fix it.

Players awoke on the 31st to this message:

Dear Citizens of the Nexus:

We sincerely apologize for
the major bug that allowed
players to produce a massive
amount of illusive money in
the game. For the last 2
days, we tried to deal with
this problem, but the economy
was ruined beyond repair.

We've come up with a painful
resolution, The Reckoning, to
deal with this situation.
1.  There will be no change
to your attributes or xp.
2.  Your items will be as of
the night of November 29.
3.  Your total gold will be
1000 coins of level 11 or
greater and 0 coins otherwise.

We accept responsibility for
what has occurred and offer
2 days of free time to your
account. Further explanation
can be found on Dream Weaver.
Again, we apologize.

Famous Celebrity Players in Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds

One of the most prominent features of NexusTK is that unlike the majority of MMORPGs, it has a small community of less than 3,500 players and there is only one gameserver. This has allowed "celebrities players" to come into existance, which is something not seen as much in other MMORPGs. There are players who are idolized and deeply respected by a vast amount of the game's population, and this admiration can last well after these famous players have since left the game.

An example of a famous player was CalmWind, who was the first Warrior to reach 1 million vitality points. He was also the strongest player in the game for several years and was also a prominent crafter, and mastered many of the crafting skills.

A player can gain a well known reputation in ways that do not involve power-hunting, however. The individuals who founded the player-controlled subpaths are regarded as legendary heroes by many, such as MaDog of the Chonguns and Greta of the Monks. Even those Elders who have succeeded the original founders of the subpaths have gained grand reputations for the manner in which they lead their roleplaying organizations and aid the community. Some examples are the Monk Elder Devion and the Merchant Elder Paladino.

Some players have also gained a legendary status by fighting for the "rights" of other players whom they feel are being treated unfairly. One of these individuals was the warrior DarkMaverick, who petitioned Nexon GMs for years to give warrior characters a better version of the "Whirlwind" spell, which many felt had unfair penalties associated with it, until this request was finally granted.

Another example would be WorldWalker, who was well known for her "community board lectures" towards "grief players" who enjoyed harassing new players to the game. She is noted for having actually "reformed" some of these griefers into prominent and constructive players, who in turn became famous in their own right.

Others gain fame for their wealth, expecially when it comes to those who possess the handful of rare items. An example is the rogue Tiffy, who owns the sole Chaos blade, the strongest level 99 weapon in the game.

Finally, others became cult heroes for their remarkable player-killing skills in the team player-killing event known as Carnages, which are held daily in NexusTK. Some examples are the mage Dzastam, Nitehawk, Chica, Chongun, Mountie and Hance.

This is hardly a complete list of worthwhile players to mention, but these are some which stand out in my mind for different spectacular things they did in the game world. Due to the actions of many famous players, however, NexusTK has an extrodinary depth to the history of its world which is largely constructed by the actions of hundreds of influential players who have worked hard to build a true virtual community in cyber-space.

This feature is very unique to NexusTK.

External links

• Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds official website
• KRU Games website
• Nexus atlas, the largest Nexus fansite