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Adrian: So, what kind of loopy juice are you folks on that made you decide to release a free game?

Nexon: <laughs> You mean crazy as in: it just might be crazy enough to work? It may seem like a crazy idea to some but here at Nexon, we believe in letting players discover the value in a game before we ask them to pay money for it. So far, this business model – which we pioneered back in 2001 – has worked very well for us. While this model may seem quite risky here in North America, it’s an established business in Asia. We have a lot of experience in this area.

Adrian: The Black Market lets players spend real money on Combat Arms gear. Is that your only source of ka-ching or will players be seeing in-game ads in the near future?

Nexon: It’s definitely a possibility we’ve considered, but there are currently no plans in the near future for in-game ads other than for Nexon promotions, such as the one we did with 7-Eleven and Slurpee. Players who went to 7-Eleven could buy Slurpee cups branded with Nexon Games, including Combat Arms, which featured a code to unlock items in the game. Combat Arms players got a 7-Eleven ball cap, which was pretty cool to see in the game.

Adrian: How about upcoming organized events?

Nexon: We haven’t finalized any specifics but Combat Arms is great for organized tournaments and when we have shown the game in public, everyone has enjoyed it.

Adrian: So, this is the question that's going to make you wince. Hacking. It sucks, but it happens. What are you doing to squash it flat and what can the average player do to help put an end to it?

Nexon: Stopping the use of hacks is a top priority. We’re actively working internally and with our partners to improve our security. You’ll see the first step of what we’ve been working on implemented very soon. It’s important for our player base to know that we’re doing everything to ban every single hacker we find in our game. We regularly ban in cases where abuse is reported by players and substantiated, so our players’ involvement is hugely important and appreciated. Often, they’ll bring potential exploits and existing glitches to our attention. Most PC FPS players are used to playing in games that use the peer-to-peer model, where there is an active player host and moderator who has full control of their own server which is different from what we use, which is a peer-to-server model. One benefit of that model is that we’ll be adding even more automated ways to catch hackers and wipe undeserving accounts.

Adrian: What's the status of bringing the Korean scenario/co-op mode to the rest of the world?

Nexon: We’re definitely aware of some player interest in this, but at the moment, no decisions have been made about including it for North America.

Adrian: How about the full launch for the UK crowd?

Nexon: I believe that particular wish has already been granted. For the full details, check out http://combatarms.nexoneu.com.

Adrian: The fine folks at Doobic Studios update Combat Arms twice a month, with some fudge room for holidays, larger updates, etc... Tweaks aside, what's the next big update or piece of gear players can expect.

Nexon: We just added a special team-based game mode called Snowball Fight, which is available for a limited time on the snow-based maps. Players use special snowball weapons to freeze the enemy. Frozen enemies must be shattered with a shovel in order to score actual kills. Frozen players can also be unfrozen by teammates, so they can return to battle without using up a respawn. The objective is to drain the opposing team’s respawn pool and shatter each of the players.

Additionally, the Rattle Snake map, which many players have been clamoring for, will be added in our second January patch.

Adrian: Was there anything in particular that got you to add female characters to the game?

Nexon: We’ve wanted to add this since the beginning of launch for the US. It was just a question of resources and timing, given our original development and rollout schedule. There’s obviously a heavy skew towards males for the FPS genre, but we’re very aware that there are many female FPS players out there. Customization is one of the key features of Combat Arms so we’ve always wanted to offer all players options to play as the character they’d like.

Adrian: Nexon's upcoming Sugar Rush is making a lot of noise about their frequent game updates and how active they're going to be about incorporating player feedback. Combat Arms gets updated more often than I change my socks, but what's the story on player feedback?
 
Nexon: Because we’re a live, dynamic game, player feedback is very important to us. We constantly monitor our forums to see what is being discussed. One area where we’re very open to player feedback is weapon balance. In terms of content, our development team already has a roadmap of what we’re building but when a player makes a good point, it definitely gets noticed.

Adrian: With 2009 started and the first patch hitting on Jan 14, can you give us some advance warning about new stuff for players to look for? Weapon emplacements, tanks, Gozer the Gozerian?...

Nexon: You can definitely look forward to more maps, more game modes, more gear, more NX items. We’re going to give more options to customize game play. Beyond that, we’re working on an expansion which will be announced in the coming months. We’re still working on the details so we can’t share anything just yet but we’re excited about where we’re taking Combat Arms and expect gamers to enjoy the ride.

So there we go, that's the official word from Nexon.

We also found out, courtesy of Tami from Village Gamer and Killanet, that if you were at Digital Storm LAN '08 you would have seen something interesting - Combat Arms run on a LAN. Nexon's Humanature studio was on-hand at the event to make this special event happen and it's the only time it's been done. At this point nothing more is being said about future Combat Arms LAN activity, either at LAN gaming events or as something gamers can download. Hopefully we'll hear more once Nexon has something more they can show.

*Update*

An update has come in from Nexon clarifying that the Combat Arms gaming at Digital Storm LAN '08, while played at the LAN event, was played through an internet connection. So, at this point, there has been no development of a LAN configuration for Combat Arms that they are willing to speak about.