[KMST 1.2.145] Luminous

And I’m thinking about playing KMS again. Well I have been for about the past year but I’m seriously thinking about it now. So… December for Luminous? Where will Mikhail fit in (as if anyone really wants it to actually be fit in)? All those secrets and more will be revealed in due time my friends.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back into my blogging hibernation.

[KMS] 13,000,000 Account’s Information Leaked Following MapleStory Hacking

I know I’m late but it didn’t strike me to post on this until now for some reason.

On November 24, the Korean servers of MapleStory were hacked allowing the personal information, including names, Nexon IDs, Nexon passwords and Korean Social Security Numbers, of 13.22 million (13,220,000) MapleStory accounts to be leaked. Nexon reported this to the South Korean police on November 25.

The password and social security numbers from the accounts were encrypted but if hackers find a way to decrypt the information, the situation could become far worse.

Nexon will 1) encourage people to change their password 2) build a protecting system for dormant accounts 3) integrate all memberships into one account until June, 2012 4) build Global Security Center.

It is the second biggest hacking event in Korea. The biggest was SKComs hacking event in July, which lost about 35 million users personal information. That is 70% of the whole population in Korea.

Nexon has insisted that accounts in Japan, North America and Europe have not be compromised as it is just the Korean servers which were hacked.

It is likely that this hacking incident will be a sizable blow to Nexon’s expected $1.28 billion initial public offering.

[MS] “Fastest Updating” and “Most Updated” Rankings: Q3 2011

It’s the final week of the final month of the quarter and that means it’s time for Msupdate’s “Fastest Updating” and “Most Updated” Rankings.

This project started in April when I compared the content of all the services, but specifically KoreaMS, GlobalMS, MapleSEA and EuropeMS, in Content Speed Comparisons: KMS, GMS, MSEA, EMS . The last rankings were “Fastest Updating” and “Most Updated” Rankings: Q2 2011 .

Due to its closure on October 31 and the lack of updates since December 2010, BrazilMS has been removed from the rankings.

To quite understand what I mean by “fastest updating” and “most updated”, why I feel that EuropeMS remains the fastest updating service and why additional, original and exclusive content cannot be counted in how fast a MapleStory service updates (*cough* JapanMS), please read Content Speed Comparisons: KMS, GMS, MSEA, EMS.

Fastest Updating

Current Rank	Service	Move Since April 2011
1	Europe MapleStory	–
2	Global MapleStory	–
3	MapleStory South East Asia	+5
4*	China MapleStory	+1
4*	Taiwan MapleStory	+1
6	Korea MapleStory	-2
7	Japan MapleStory	-4
8	Thailand MapleStory	-1

*China MapleStory and Taiwan MapleStory are tied. This is not a mistake.

There has been a pretty major shakeup in the Fastest Updating rankings with JapanMS falling 4 places and MapleSEA rising 5.

[KMS] 620,000 Concurrent Users

For the third time this Summer, MapleStory’s Korean service has eclipsed its own industry-leading peak concurrent user mark. After the Cannon Shooter update, KoreaMS hit 620,000 simultaneous users, less than a month after it hit 588,000 concurrent users and less than two months after it hit 417,000 concurrent users. After the Big Bang update last Summer KoreaMS hit 410,000 concurrent users.

These PCCU records are unbelievable. I would expect this out of a game service in China, where the population of gamers exceeds 500 million with a population of well over one billion, but not in Korea where the country’s total population is less than 48 million.

[KMS] 588,000 Concurrent Users

Nexon Korea has announced that the smash hit MapleStory has once again topped South Korea’s concurrent user charts, topping out at 588,000 concurrent users on Saturday, July 23. This is the highest number of concurrent users for an online game when only counting Korean user statistics, a record which MapleStory has held for a very long time. This latest record comes just two weeks after the game peaked at 417,000 concurrent users.

Dungeon & Fighter (Dungeon Fighter Online), which is probably the most popular game in the world with over 300 million registered users, also broke its personal Korean concurrent user record, by reaching 290,000 concurrent users recently. Dungeon & Fighter also renewed its record for total number of global concurrent users and approached the world record for any genre of online games when it hit 2.6 MILLION concurrent users in China a little while ago. This is the second highest concurrent user record ever in the entire world behind Cross Fire’s Chinese concurrent user tally of 3 million earlier this year. Dungeon & Fighter held the world record from June 2009 to early 2011.

This list isn’t 100% accurate, but here’s an idea of the games which hold the top concurrent user spots in South Korea.

1. MapleStory (Nexon): 588,000
2. MapleStory (Nexon): 417,000
3. MapleStory (Nexon): 410,000
4. MapleStory (Nexon): 360,000
5. Crazy Arcade (PopTag! in America) (Nexon): 350,000
6. Dungeon & Fighter (Nexon): 290,000
7. Dungeon & Fighter (Dungeon Fighter Online in America) (Nexon): 260,000
8. Sudden Attack (Nexon): 250,000

From what I have found, the top eight spots are all held by Nexon games.