General

[quote=ZeroxKenichi]@BobR theres a Game Developer magazine O_O[/quote]Yeah.. it's an "industry only" journal that's mostly advertising for the companies that make the tools like 3DMax and Adobe, but there's also a lot of interviews with successful developers, and "roundups" of new games in a lot of different genres. It's good to keep an eye on what everybody else is doing and what the current trends are. There's even an occasional good tutorial article.

Nexon doesn't take your money though.

You submit your money to them.

[quote=Zelly]I am currently studying game development and I can only think of making a game for the players, but hey; I'll probably succumb to the money side before I know it.[/quote]
An article in "Game Developer" magazine a few months ago talked about how all the major game companies are starting to shift big-time to the "free to play" model because that's where all the money is these days, and even shelving large budget "single purchase" style games to put their design teams onto the F2P projects instead.

Many of the developers expressed having problems adjusting to the idea of having to slant their work toward the idea of forcing players into purchasing game content instead of just producing the best, most playable games. Unfortunately they apparently didn't have any say in the matter.

Nexon, being one of the pioneers in the "micro-transaction" model of game development has had far more experience in learning how to incentivize players to spend money on a "free" game. Unfortunately, like the TS said, they've taken it to an extreme in recent months. They seem to be realizing that Maplestory as an 8 year old game is reaching the limits of its shelf-life and they need to get all the cash out of it they can while they still can.

[quote=Wush]i would do the same if i owned a company[/quote]

I am currently studying game development and I can only think of making a game for the players, but hey; I'll probably succumb to the money side before I know it.