#ALSO NEXON

[knolance]

There's a meme going around Twitter rn and its to like, draw your most favorite comfort characters and 1 has always been Eun and the other rn is my Sesame so yes, here is them together :33

[tastycitrus]

the flora discuss conductors

[angelofdykeness]

poor yuuka, a young single mother of four. problem is she's supposed to be a single mother of FIVE YOSTAR GIVE ME MY PINK EYED ROBOT DAUGHTER BACK >:( I KNOW YOURE HIDING HER

wdym single. is noa a joke to you

[patantasma]

I wonder if they paid this guy for this "artwork" and that's why they're refusing to take it down.

[themindelectricdemo4]

I can't stop thinking about Rich Ard Nexon & Dr. Bulgan from the itemLabel presentation today. Rich Ard Nexon's protag speech in the treasure room was so fuckign funny

[thehaniverse]

HYBE vs Min Hee Jin - The Full Timeline

[Last updates: June 1st 2024]

Hi guys, Han here, and LORD, this has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but I hope this is helpful to all those who are trying to follow this mess in its entirety.

Important notes:

I've included the pre-audit timeline to help you understand the history and context of everything that's happened

I will be updating periodically with new information

I will try to keep entries to the point, and highlight the main points given by each side without adding too much of my own opinion - so make your own conclusions!

Credits to TMIKpop on Twitter for most of the translated news articles as I'm far too lazy, busy (and dyslexic) to read all those Korean articles myself.

I tried to include sources as much as possible in the more recent news, but honestly, I'm going to be a little lazy with this as I don't have enough free time to go back and find sources for things that happened way in the past or are already well-known up to this point. Feel free to send me sources in my ask box though!

Green text indicates the latest updates for those following!

Also for reference, here are the key involved characters (and name abbreviations that will be used throughout this post.)

Bang PD (Bang Shihyuk, HYBE Chairman & BigHit CEO)

PJW (Park Jiwon, HYBE CEO, ex-CEO of NEXON Games)

MHJ (Min Hee Jin, ADOR CEO, ex-SM employee)

VP L (Lee Sangwoo, VP of ADOR, ex-financial division at HYBE)

VP S (Shin ??, VP of ADOR)

NJs (NewJeans), LS (Le Sserafim), IL (ILLIT), GFRIEND & BTS

BHM (BigHit Music), SouMu (Source Music), BELIFT & ADOR

Items with * are accusations by either ADOR or HYBE, but that haven't been 100% verified as true or false. Things that have been verified won't have any *.

Similarly, (RUMORS) that seem to have some basis in reality based on existing evidence but have not been explicitly stated by either side are also included. Also disclaimer: I am not pro-HYBE nor pro-MHJ, I have my personal opinion but I've tried to keep this as impartial and unbiased as possible. I've just presented the news that has been released, if it tills one way, that's just how it is.

Without further ado(r LOL), let's begin!

2019~2021

MHJ joins BigHit Ent as Chief Branding Officer for all labels - this is in preparation for Bighit Ent becoming HYBE.

*Between then and 2021, MHJ suggests making a girl group to Bang PD, and they agree to make the group under SouMu rather than BHM. However, MHJ is never officially employed at SouMu.

*Bang PD promises that MHJ's group will be HYBE's first girl group.

All NJs members join SouMu (Minji joined in 2017 / Hani 2019 / Haerin & Danielle 2020 / Hyein 2021)

*NJs' debut is pushed back initially because of COVID, then again due to contract issues, resulting in LS being ready to debut first and PJW telling MHJ that NJs will no longer be the first gg from HYBE. MHJ claims the reason for NJs' debut delay is because they didn't like her creative vision though.

2021

Q1 (Exact Timing Unknown)

Bang PD starts developing LS with SouMu as he wants to create a group featuring known members, Chaewon and Sakura from Iz*one.

*NJs' debut is pushed back initially because of COVID, then again due to contract issues, resulting in LS being ready to debut first

PJW tells MHJ that NJs will no longer be the first gg from HYBE.

*MHJ is upset that another gg is being developed under Source and claims that it's because Bang PD didn't like the direction she was taking NJs and abandoned her to work on LS instead.

MHJ later agrees to the new debut schedule, with LS debuting just 2 months before NJs, and decides that is enough time for her to promote NJs.

Feb/Mar

HYBE is officially established as a company with Bang PD as CEO.

May

PJW is announced as the new CEO of HYBE.

Bang PD continues as CEO of only BGM but only the chairman of HYBE. This means he has no say in the daily operations of HYBE, but can make big decisions that go to the Board of Directors (BOD). Note: Each label under HYBE has its own individual CEO.

GFRIEND is officially disbanded without any notice from SouMu.

*MHJ is accused (by HYBE staff) of taking almost all of the SouMu staff to ADOR resulting in SouMu not having enough staff to manage GFRIEND and LS. SouMu also had a lot of debt from the training of NJs that they would no longer see a return on as the profits would go to ADOR so they needed to take dramatic measures. (RUMOR) SouMu had already sunk a lot of money into LS (and NJs) and expected LS to be more popular as they were debuting under HYBE, so they decided to terminate GFRIEND at the end of their contracts without warning.

November

ADOR is officially established so that MHJ can have full control over her group's image and development, rather than answering to SouMu CEO and Bang PD.

HYBE gives 16.1B won investment for the establishment of ADOR

Bang PD gives MHJ 2B won to buy 2.8B won worth of ADOR stocks (amounting to 20%, 2% of which she later shared out to her two VPS.) He also gave her 2.9B of HYBE stocks as part of her official recruitment package as CEO of ADOR at only 23% of the actual share value (aka she got a 77% discount). However, MHJ sold 1,000 shares in mid-Nov and another 1000 shares on 8 Dec 2022, earning 760M, and walked away with an additional 120M in cash just 15 days after her investment. // Source: Silsa Journal

2022

May

LS debuts from SouMu

*HYBE claims they shortened their promotional period in order to give MHJ enough time to promote NJs ahead of their debut, but MHJ shows Kakao messages of PJW specifying that NJs should not be promoted ahead of LS' debut so they can benefit from the speculation of them being MHJ's group.

LS' debut is overshadowed by the Garam scandal.

(RUMOR) While Garam was later found to be innocent and misrepresented in the media (ie she was protecting a friend from a bully, not actively bullying someone), many believe MHJ was the one who leaked the information to the press to jeopardize LS' debut. This comes from the statements from HYBE that they have evidence of her collecting and leaking artists' private information.

July

NJs debuts with ZERO pre-debut promotion, instead dropping an incredible amount of content for the debut promotions. Note: While MHJ claims HYBE tried to stop her promoting at all before their debut, she has not provided any evidence. It is the responsibility of each individual label to plan and execute their artist's promotions.

End of Year

Thanks to NJs' successful debut, ADOR has paid off a majority of their debt to HYBE, and now only owes 4B won.

2023

Dec // Source: Donga Ilbo

Bang PD lends MHJ money to buy cheap stock options (intentionally discounted by HYBE for her to buy) and MHJ uses the loan to buy a 20% stake in ADOR. This means she gets paid her shares on top of her 1M USD annual salary as CEO. Note: I couldn't confirm this, but it's believed she is the only CEO of any HYBE label that has stocks in her company. BHM is private so there are no stocks and it is owned completely by Bang PD, while the other labels' stocks are owned 100% by HYBE.

MHJ buys the shares on the following conditions: + If she decides to quit, HYBE is obliged to buy the stocks back and pay MHJ 13 times [ADOR's profit from the last 2 years x her % of shares] + She can quit from Nov 2024 and has a non-compete clause for 2 years where she must maintain a 4.5% stake in ADOR. Note: This means as a stakeholder she can not establish her own company or work for a company that will directly compete with ADOR for those 2 years, as she can not do work that can potentially devalue her shares. This is standard in many industries.

MHJ later shares 2% of her shares to executives of ADOR: VP S and VP L. Note: It is unclear if she sold them or gifted them.

Q4 (Exact Timing Unknown)

VP L leaves their position in HYBE's financial team and starts to work at ADOR under MHJ.

*HYBE accuses VP L of downloading a bunch of HYBE's private financial data that he should no longer have access to, and giving it to MHJ to later use to try and blackmail HYBE into selling their ADOR stocks with the investors she is colluding with. This would mean the majority of ADOR stocks would be controlled by people who support MHJ's decisions.

2024

Feb // Source: Donga Ilbo

MHJ tries to negotiate the terms of her contract with HYBE. She requests the following: + The 13x valuation of her shares be increased to 30x. Taking their value from approximately 100B won to 270B won. (This would be 5.5x the amount of profit she actually made with ADOR in 2023.) + The complete removal of the non-compete clause, allowing her to cash out all of her stocks and start/work for a competitor company immediately after leaving the company.

Additionally, she asks for the ability to make decisions regarding outside investors by herself as the CEO without HYBE's input.

HYBE rejects all of her requests because they would be complete financial losses and risks to HYBE. Negotiations stop as neither side will budge.

It is also around this time that HYBE gets the tips that MHJ is planning a management takeover with outside investors.

Mar

HYBE received a tip that MHJ is planning to try and make ADOR independent by gathering investors who support MHJ to buy up the majority of ADOR shares.

[23rd~29th] MHJ and VP L share messages about selling ADOR after 'emptying it like a shell', how to make ADOR independent, and how they should blackmail HYBE and ruin HYBE's reputation. *HYBE believes the 'empty shell' comment means terminating NJs' contracts with the majority shareholder power from the investors MHJ was meeting. Note: MHJ has confirmed the existence of these messages but insists they were just jokes between disgruntled employees. HYBE retorts that these plans are too specific and detailed, and they found additional evidence to prove they were more than just empty words.

[25th] ILLIT debuts with 'Magnetic'

April

[3rd] MHJ submits an internal complaint to HYBE and BELIFT that IL's concept is copyright infringement of NJs and that HYBE has the obligation to protect them. She requests they respond by April 23rd or 24th (not clear.)

MHJ also complains to the parents of NJs that HYBE is trying to sideline NJs with IL.

[22nd] HYBE and BELIFT submit a 6-page response to MHJ. Note: She later claims that she didn't receive any response, but HYBE provides proof that she received it, so she changed that they replied last minute so she couldn't prepare for the audit, but the response doesn't mention the audit because they are separate issues. However, MHJ believes the audit is all because of the IL situation.

HYBE carries out and publically announces the ADOR audit. This results in an 8% drop in HYBE stocks. (Whistleblower will be revealed later!) *They claim to find evidence of her plans, the illegally obtained company and artist information, and more.

[23rd] MHJ holds a 2.5 hour press conference in retaliation. *She doubles down that she believes this is all because of the complaint she filed and that HYBE (and particularly Bang PD) has hated her and NJs from the beginning. Conference Transcript Here:

[24th] This was also the deadline for which all company devices needed to be returned for the audit but MHJ refused to return her work laptop (and still hasn't as far as I know.) *MHJ claims the timing of the audit was intentional to jeopardize NJs' comeback, however, HYBE provided copied devices to all the employees. She has since not given any justification for not returning her laptop and NJs comeback is continuing as scheduled.

[26th] While HYBE initially stated they wouldn't respond on the day of the conference, they later released a full statement addressing the key points of MHJ's argument. HYBE's full response in English:

NJs's fans (Bunnies) sent trucks to HYBE requesting that MHJ stop using NJs and their parents to protect herself and that NJs stay within HYBE.

NJ's parents refuse to accept calls from HYBE but express their support through newspaper interviews.

Both NJs and BTS RM announce their comebacks set for May 24th. (HYBE's stocks recover thanks to this.) MHJ paints this as HYBE trying to crush NJs with their biggest group because NJs surpassed BTS - HYBE retorts that BHM picked the date first and advised her to change the date, but she insisted on having NJs' comeback on the same day.

[30th] HYBE calls an extraordinary general meeting with the BODs, but the ADOR executives and MHJ do not attend, meaning they have to file a legal suit requiring the MHJ, VP S and VP L to attend the ADOR BODs extraordinary general meeting on May 31st instead.

Other things of note that happened between the 22nd to 30th:

News reports broke that a petition for re-investigation regarding a 2017 allegation against BTS for Sagaeji was passed to the KFTC & Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism. Days later the organizations responded by clearing the charges and asking that all musicians be as honest and forthcoming as BTS. It was later discovered at the hearing that MHJ was behind this situation, and ordered her VPs to create a buzz around the issue to distract attention from her. // Sources: Link / Yonhap News

Similarly, following the accusation from HYBE that MHJ was talking to her 'shaman friend', a rumor broke that BTS were members of a cult that the chairman of their university (Cyber Global University) is rumored to be part of. The Chairman denied being part of a cult, and HYBE/BHM released statements denying the allegations too.

(RUMOR) "K-ARMYs" sent trucks and funeral wreaths to HYBE dissing the company and pleading allegiance only to BTS until May 7th. The following day, these were replaced by trucks from "Bunnies" showing support for MHJ - contradicting the prior trucks sent criticising her. The suspicious timing, the unusually fast fundraising, the contradictory message, the hiring of bodyguards to protect the wreaths, and other strange coincidences cast doubt on if any of these trucks are actually from fans. Many believe MHJ is funding these herself to paint the image that fans are on her side, or at least hate HYBE, justifying her own discontent with HYBE.

May // Source: Biz Chosun

[7th] MHJ files an injunction to Seoul District Court to block HYBE from using their 80% share of ADOR to vote her out (fire her.)

[10th] ADOR BOD agreed to HYBE's request to hold the extraordinary general meeting to discuss the dismissal of MHj (and the two VPs.)

*The same day, prior to the BOD announcement, MHJ's side said a styling team leader was subject to improper coercion during the audit. // Source: Lee Daily HYBE later retaliated explaining how the audit was conducted and that when the staff wanted to stop, they respected her wishes. Furthermore, HYBE said they found evidence of embezzlement and improper payment receipts for ADOR staff. // Source: Newsen ADOR denied that the payment methods were normal and legal, but definitely they are not. // Source: Newsis However, the staff did come forward to say she felt pressured and blackmailed with the embezzlement claims if she didn't comply with the audit. // Source: Ilgan Sports

[12th] An email from "NJs Parents" to HYBE is released to a newspaper, the contents of the email describing how Bang PD did not greet the girls in the elevator, and how they are their parents were upset by it. HYBE retorted that this was not true, and that the email was fabricated by VP L and MHJ and they had proof of this. // Source: YTN A parent of NJs later gave an interview with Ilgan Sports revealing the email was in fact written by MHJ, based on conversations she had with the parents. She also claimed PJW had said the girls would take a break for 1.5 years in order to find a Grammy worthy producer for NJs and that the parents were worried about their careers. // Source: Ilgan Sports HYBE denies any such statement and that they plan to continue NJs schedules as planned. //Source: Seoul Newspaper

[13th] YTN reports HYBE has selected a new CEO for ADOR to replace MHJ once she's voted out, and that they will reveal all of the results of the audit at the court hearing.

Controversy about NJs new song 'Bubble Gum' being plagiarised from a 1982 song called 'Easier Said Than Done' by British Rock Band ShakaTak. // Source: Biz Chosun

[14th] HYBE filed a complaint with the FSS due to insider trading carried out thanks to a tip from MHJ's side about the upcoming public scandal. Note: It's complicated and is about additional people not mentioned until now, so I will link the thread explaining it. It is relevant however, as it backs HYBE's claim that MHJ had planned to ruin their company image as part of her management takeover plan even before the audit. LINK

[17th] The hearing for MHJ's injunction takes place. Each side has 30 minutes to present their arguments and evidence. The below tweets summarize the main points.

HYBE's Side:

ADOR's Side:

Although MHJ requested her Kakao messages not to be shared publically (despite her already showing some), a reporter did recreate the messages. (He copied them word for word but recreated the image so it doesn't break the rules.) The messages show her hatred for women in general, particularly a female employee who was reported assaulted by one of the VPs. Messages Translation: LINK Message Source: LINK LINK

[17th] NJs members and their parents all submitted petitions to oppose the dismissal of MHJ and request that MHJ and NJs continue to stay under HYBE - these petitions were submitted before the hearing where MHJ's disparaging comments against NJs were revealed. // Source: Hankook Ilbo

A petition signed by 10,000 NJs' fans, and various petitions from ADOR staff members was also submitted to the court in favor of MHJ.

Various staff from HYBE (Pdogg (BTS producer), CEO Han Seongsoo (Pledis founder and producer of Seventeen), CEO So Seongjin (Source Music), Son Seongduk (BigHit performance director), Kim Seonghyun (BTS and Le Sserafim’s creative director), and Slow Rabbit (TXT producer)) filed petitions in favor of HYBE showing strong loyalty from various labels and artists. //Source: News 1

[17th] HYBE's Q1 results were released and showcased how NJs/ADOR is not as valuable an asset as MHJ is painting them out to be. This goes against MHJ's argument that HYBE is trying to crush her because NJs are getting 'too big'. LINK

[17th] The whistleblower who tipped HYBE off to make them do the audit is revealed. Long story short it was one of the associates of the investors MHJ had been trying to get to buy shares of ADOR who reached out to HYBE. MHJ has claimed during her conference she never met any investors and that HYBE should prove who they are. Now that they've been named, she's still deflecting because it was VP L who met with the investors rather than MHJ herself. // Source: LINK / Biz Chosun

[17th - yeah, a lot happened this day] MHJ accuses HYBE of trying to make her commit 'Albun Pushing', as well as complaining about the distribution deal with UMG - HYBE retaliates denying the allegations and provides evidence of MHJ doing the exact thing she accused them of, and also explains how the UMG benefits all artists and has already benefit NJs. // Source: LINK Note: This is NOT Sajaegi, but it is still a tactic to inflate sales. The difference is Sajaegi is the company buying the albums themselves, whereas this album pushing is forcing distributors to preorder more stock and then hold events (like fansigns) to help them sell out after.

[22nd] BELIFT also filed an official defamation suit against MHJ. // Source: Hangkook Finance // Note: In Korea, you can sued for defamation even if what you said is proven true if it is deemed not beneficial to the general public and detrimental to the person/entity who was defamed. If found guilty, this would be grounds for MHJ's injunction to be canceled.

[24th] This day is the deadline by which both sides can submit additional evidence before the courts make their decision on whether to pass MHJ's injunction (stopping HYBE from voting her out) or not. // Source: YNA

[24th~19th] Various text messages, supposedly from HYBE's legal argument are leaked to the public. They contain damning messages that show that MHJ was planning (in detail) the takeover of ADOR/NJs prior to the debut of ILLIT. As the messages are 'leaked' it is hard to prove their validity, but MHJ later states (on the 30th] that the messages were taken out of context (not that they were lies/edited.) // Source: KBS

KakaoTalk Message Translations are available here: PannKpop

[25th] PJW met with 3/5 NJs' mothers and guaranteed that they would be able to carry out their Tokyo Dome performance plans regardless of MHJ's status after the injunction - despite MHJ refusing to share the files/information related to the concert plans. // Source: Ilgan Sports

[30th] The court rules in favor of Min Hee Jin. They admit that while she did plan a management takeover and take action that could be harmful/disadvantageous to HYBE, she did not do anything that would be detrimental to ADOR which is her prime responsibility, and that the loss of MHJ to ADOR could be harmful. // Source: Hankook Ilbo

This injunction temporarily stops HYBE from firing MHJ unless they can prove she is bad for ADOR or that she has committed some sort of criminal offense against HYBE. // Source: Kyunghyang Newspaper

HYBE says they will respect the court's decision and act accordingly (likely file an appeal.) MHJ announces she will do a press conference the following day. She also claims that the dismissal of her two VPs will be against the court's decision, but technically they aren't covered by the injunction. // Source: Seoul Newspaper

[31st] The ADOR extraordinary general meeting takes place.

HYBE fires the two VPs who worked under MHJ and replace them with with three Hybe officers. Kim Joo-young, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Lee Jae-sang, Chief Strategy Office (CSO), and Lee Kyung-joon, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) were appointed at the EGM. //Note: The CHRO is a woman, which is interesting due to MHJ's disparaging comments about working with women according to the messages allegedly leaked by HYBE. // Source: Yeonhap News

This new BoD line-up for ADOR means MHJ is outnumbered 3:1 in any decision and is seen as a way for HYBE to keep her in check.

Note: I haven't included notes from MHJ's conference yet as I haven't watched it for myself yet! I also don't know what parts will be relevant to the main timeline later, so I will update again a bit later.

This is all the information so far, I've skipped some of the common knowledge things like the details of the IL plagiarism or cult accusations because I think they just muddle the whole timeline and are very inconsequential.

I will continue to update this page as things continue to happen. And I want to show out TMIKPOP from Twitter one more time as I wouldn't have been able to put this together without their tweets.

[gacha-incels]

imo this is another reason it’s so frustrating to have these young idk ~20 year old type “content creator” shills treating this entire thing like it’s some z-list western youtuber vs youtuber drama blasting no-context and misinfo out buckshot to their extremely impressionable young audience. when you look at their social medias their entire online life revolves around this specific game company and playing their games and posting about their games and making “content” about their games and following other kids who post about their games and play their games and post about their games etc. - essentially consumption of this media has become a central facet of their personality, and any slight on the product is now a slight on them personally. there’s also a growing cult of personality around the director that fosters another type of parasocial relationship. I’ve never witnessed “fandom” spaces for an extended period of time like this so it’s been surprising to me just how extreme all of this gets. But when something threatens the media that these fans have tied so closely to their sense of self they are going to be easily manipulated into placing the blame on a particular group or separating into an Us vs Them mentality. In this case so many of them have been laser focused on exonerating Project Moon that they’re slandering and putting targets on artists who do not deserve to be harassed and groups that are genuinely helping victims of feminist ideological verification in South Korea. at some point the short-sightedness of this becomes obscene.

I don’t think any of these kids and young adults (not saying this to demean you, the typical age group is ~ 16-22) comprehend the severity of the systemic issue that Project Moon had (and has) put itself into. This isn’t My Side vs Your Side, this is about violent antifeminism, systemic misogyny and worker’s rights in South Korea. This is not about you as a fan of a videogame, especially if you do not live there. Again I genuinely do not think Project Moon superfans should be making posts about this issue if you are looking at it in the latter way and not the former. You see this as some “drama” or “event” that effects you and the fans as individuals and the words “vellmori left on her own” or “watch the video” will make people stop talking about it. You repeat this with no contextual knowledge of how any of the labor laws or defamation laws in South Korea work, you look at this case in the bubble of your video game and nothing else. No one serious is doing this tit for tat bullshit in South Korea. I’ve literally been following this case and similar cases for over a year now, you can scroll through this entire blog’s archive and see the landslide of similar feminist ideological verification cases that have taken place since Project Moon’s. PM 7/25 is still referenced as a significant event when newspapers publish articles about this issue. No one is waffling about if the artist left on her own, they understand the situation in their own country. The strange idea that has somehow spread in the English speaking community that KGCS is some grifter group is absolutely baffling. The posts in english “warning” not to donate to them were hilarious at best and extremely condescending at worst, you’re talking like this is some scam gofundme. They probably don’t even know you exist. They typically raise the money they need within a couple of hours, close the donation pool, and then refund anyone who asks. This group not only helped Studio Ppuri’s animator avoid being fired in an event that almost mirrored project moon’s, they raised money for her legal fees that she used to press criminal charges against her harassers and helped set up meetings with the animation directors to explain the “controversial” shots. This was one of the biggest cases of targeted attacks from incel men, it had the chickenshit company Nexon deleting Studio Ppuri’s videos and their studio name was removed from the credits in the Korean broadcast of Solo Leveling. you can search the studio ppuri tag on this blog to see it all, I’ve found an article that has a short interview with the animator that I’ll post later.

Needless to say this is a serious societal, systemic issue, it does not deserve some westerners butting their heads in because they don’t want to feel guilty about playing a videogame. It’s disturbing to see this treated like some drama you just want to be over. it’s gross to watch information twisted and used in pedantic tit for tat arguments you only care about the end product of - “winning” and stopping any further discussion or “drama”. Please get some perspective.

[ghoooooooooooooooost]

the incel problem in the kr game industry has been there for years, but it really seems like projmoon started a chain reaction to the recent things going down. the company in the spotlight currently is nexon, involving maplestory n blue archive among other games. and nexon doesn't have the "indie company" excuse

dudes are currently complaining any time they see anything resembling a 🤏 pinching hand gesture. an artist from an animation studio working with nexon (studio ppuri) has been fired. art is being edited or taken down because of incels combing through literal seconds of clips to catch things that look like 🤏 . studio ppuri is under investigation; associations and unions have been holding conferences and protests against nexon

(clip of the ppuri mv that was taken down. the screenshot under it shows up for only a second and just looks like a half heart)

blue archive is also.... currently under a lotta heat online for other reasons including this...

+ these guys brought up the gesture when they harassed the limbus cg artist too but it didn't cross my mind at the time

(the limbus company cg mentioned)

a korean radfem group, megalia, did use the pinching gesture as a symbol in the past, but they're defunct. and obviously assuming all feminists are like that or that anyone who does/draws the pinching movement is one of them is still ridiculous. so is claiming any instance of it is hate speech like nexon is doing

a couple days after i initially wrote this post it came to light that the artist who was fired wasn't even responsible for that part of the storyboard. she was scrapegoated. nexon has also been coddling the incels and harming women employees by doing things like giving out the social medias of said employees to fans of dungeon & fighter (what the hell)

[northwest-cryptid]

See this is how you know I'm not neurotypical...

Not only did I map out a route to sort of maximize profits while also minimizing the time necessary for the route, but also this is using Mabinogi Classic font, which can be found HERE.

Likewise, the colors used are official Nexon Blue, Nexon Light Navy, and Nexon Green for green splits.

Meaning technically I'm on brand. Literally the only thing stopping me from being a Soul Streamer is the fact I hardly ever stream. My ass has the Mabinogi Autism.

...What, are you curious why I just happen to have the NEXON Brand Identity Guide on hand? That's actually a very simple answer. You know those pop up review webpages you get when you exit Mabi? Yea my wife and I were curious who the little red character at the bottom was.

Naturally we used Inspect Element to see what the image was titled, and found it had the name Bazzi. Which upon looking up, we were able to link back to the character from Kart Rider; a direct match to the character on the review page for Mabi.

Of course somewhere along the rabbit hole search we happened across the official NEXON Brand Identity Guide this is because of the font literally named Bazzi Font. So you know, naturally I had to go through the entire document and save everything important for brand identity so I could make sure that when I do stream Mabi I'm using the proper official Nexon colors, and fonts, etc.

As one does...

[ganymedesclock]

maplestory always was like a cryptid game to me, always appearing just out of sight and I could never find it for myself

what is maplestory? how does it play?

Maplestory is a side scrolling MMORPG that operates on a reasonably tolerable freemium system (the "Cash Shop" lets you buy things, overwhelmingly cosmetics, but basically nothing you actually need to experience the full game, for money) with class choice options ranging from either fairly loose self inserts to specific individuals with a personal storyline.

The gameplay is pretty standard as a gameplay loop of what tvtropes likes to call "50 Bear Asses" (go places, kill enemies, collect drops) though as time has gone on they've diversified the palette of things they are doing.

The writing is. honestly, to me, one of the big appeals; there are chunks of a pretty good story tossed through any particular story questline and even the mini dungeons and other nonsense you can get into is pretty good. It can get a lot more serious/intense than you would expect given its art style, which, oh yeah, that's the other thing: kind of every single player character has the physique of a funko pop. So if that's a turnoff, fair sailing.

For what it is, it's been a fond nostalgic homecoming for me as I play my personal favorite unit, Xenon, which is to say "unethically produced cyborg goes on a quest to retrieve his memories which mostly consists of stabbing things with a laser whip sword, taking advice from a magical girl mascot bunny with the personality of a 30-year-old adult woman with burnout, and evading his fellow cyborg that unlocked the single emotion of Cain Instinct".

As far as 'how' you literally just download it. The people that made it are a company called Nexon. You can also get it on steam.

[lopposting]

Lies of P has swept the game awards in their native south korea, including GOTY!!

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from what I can read, They have taken 6 awards, (winning every category they were nominated in, I'm assuming), including Game of the Year. To be very fair, this video mentions that the gaming industry in Korea is kind of oversaturated with P2W, mobile, and MMORPG titles, so Lies taking the sweep was not so unexpected so to speak. Still, it was deservedly a sweep. [it's a good video, you can turn on auto-translate to watch it in english like I have.]

The Game awards are kind of like the oscars, and from what I gather this is either a very rare time, or perhaps even the first ever, that korean titles have really gone in consideration (except for a GOTY nomination in 2017 for the FPS PUBG). So, along with Nexon for Dave the Diver (which is nominated for best Independent, strangely enough), not only are LoP team going to be representing their company, they are going to be representing their country. I can imagine that it's stressful and burdensome, but it's an honour to be nominated in of itself, regardless of the outcome.

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE LOP TEAM AT TGA AHH!! It's gonna be fun.

Lies of P getting mainstream media coverage in Korea ->

Mail Ilbo

LoP on Yonhap news

LoP were also nominated at Golden Joystick awards [which were apparently a disaster]. I haven't got the time yet to watch the VOD to see if I can spot the LoP team, but they lost Best Art Direction to Larian Studios (i'm sure it was deserved.)

I don't know if yall are even interested in some of this IRL stuff but I have some other posts written up about some of the IRL impacts of LoP, just because I personally find it interesting.

[my-hobby-is-finding-the-source]

hi, this is kind of weird so i apologise lol. I have this firefox theme of Miku but I cannot for the life of me find the original. Reverse search and manual searches haven't gotten me anything. I'm wondering if you could help? Thanks in advance ^^ (sidenote I'm so happy this blog exists, as someone who likes hunting down art sources myself!)

Hi, no need to apologize. You see, the source for this one is also kind of weird.

From what I can gather, this comes from a collaboration with the mobile RPG Master of Eternity, by NEXON.

From what I could see in the trailers, this is not a static sprite, but an animated model using Live2D, which seems to be characteristic of the game.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Dota 2 (2013)

Date: July 9, 2013 Platform: Mac / PC / Linux Developer: Valve Corporation Publisher: Valve Corporation / Nexon Corporation / Perfect World Entertainment Genre: MOBA Theme: Fantasy Franchises: Dota Also known as: Defense of the Ancients 2 Type: Crossover

Summary:

Dota 2 is a free-to-play high fantasy action real-time strategy game developed and released digitally by Valve for the PC, Mac and Linux on July 9, 2013.

Built on the studio's Source engine, Dota 2 is the official sequel to Defense of the Ancients, a series of custom scenarios for the 2002 game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos that originally popularized the "Multiplayer Online Battle Arena" sub-genre. Development of the game is led by the original mod's final lead designer, IceFrog.

Similar to the original mod, the main gameplay pits two five-player teams (the Radiant and the Dire) against each-other as they work to escort their three endless waves of AI-controlled monsters (or "creeps") to the fortified enemy base in order to destroy the enemy "Ancient". Each player controls an individual Hero character and, throughout the match, earn experience (to level up their stats and abilities) and gold (for purchasing items and equipment) by eliminating enemies.

Rather than using a weekly free-to-play character rotation system (similar to other MOBA games at the time, namely League of Legends), the game makes all characters playable from the start and features cosmetic microtransactions (such as alternate appearances for each Hero's armor and weapons, alternate announcers, and custom UI enhancements) using the Steam Inventory and Steam Market systems.

The game received numerous updates since its original release, adding new Heroes, game modes (including support for custom modes), and features while revising certain gameplay mechanics. New features include better support for both new players (with integrated community-made guide support, coaching, and improved training modes) and competitive players (with improved replay and spectator support), as well as VR headset support (for spectating and viewing cosmetics). It also received a reworked client update in June 2015 (named "Dota 2 Reborn" for a short time), porting the game to Valve's Source 2 engine (the first game released with it), and received a complete map revamp on April 2023.

Dota 2 originally received an invite-only beta in November 2011, during Gamescom 2011. It was formally launched July 9, 2013, but access was gated via a queue system until December 16, 2013. It was also distributed as a standalone game in some regions, with Perfect World publishing the game in China, and Nexon publishing the game in both Japan and South Korea. The game also received spin-offs, including the 2018 digital card game Artifact, the 2020 "auto-battler" game Dota Underlords, and the 2021 animated series Dota: Dragon's Blood.

Source: https://www.giantbomb.com/dota-2/3030-32887/

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqtkfCLjJz4&ab_channel=DotaCinema

[sagaschan]

hi, i'm sorry if this is a bothersome topic, but is there anything new in the whole PM Situation? also, where might i find a summary of the events, recent or old?

It's no bother at all. Idk how new you want it, but Nov 26th had a bigger game company in Korea, Nexon, complying to the same incel crowd's demands and kicking off another round of outrage. It sucks that another artist has been left jobless and that the entire goddamn company seems eager to put the blame for their overwork on nefarious feminist masterminds, but it's also added fuel to the situation and made it the problem of a lot more people, including the rarely seen united front of the two major unions in the country. Suffice to say, it's getting big.

As for a summary, @gootarts' update on Oct 21th is the most recent one I know of (..I keep saying I'll write one and putting it off I know) and their twitter keeps up with events fairly quickly, so you might want to check that. The number of companies bending over backwards is getting a little ridiculous at this point when there's a labor inspection being organized to penalize violations of that exact nature, but we're prepared to see it through to an industry where misogyny isn't the norm and workers' rights are protected. It's taken a while since 2016. Glad to be here seeing that change happen now though.

[liaromancewriter]

Choices: Successful or Not? It Depends

I'm a data geek so this isn't the first time I've talked about PB and Choices financial success. Here's the post based on Nexon's Q1 financial reporting. Q2 numbers are out on August 9.

Choices is losing revenue year on year, and hasn't been able to beat that trend. The outlook is that revenue will continue to go down. Revenue isn't profit though (profit is revenue less expenses). If Choices can create books at a low cost, the more profit they make. They can do this by reusing artwork (for example).

According to some industry analyses I found the app is successful based on key mobile app metrics. There are several, but here are a few:

Monthly downloads

Active users (monthly and daily)

Daily sessions per daily active users

Monetization: Subscriptions (like VIP) and In-app purchases (diamonds, keys, sales, etc.)

Average session length (how long someone spends on the app at one time)

Retention rate (users that keep coming back)

Churn rate (industry stat is that 70-90% of users delete an app within 3 days of download) -- Choices doesn't appear to have that problem

Choices is one of the most downloaded and top-grossing narrative games. In that category, Choices is successful from a revenue perspective.

If you're interested, here are two blog posts to help you understand the areas in which Choices is successful:

Choices monetization strategy

The non-discounted, cheapest diamond pack ($1.99) is the game’s bestseller. Also, the smallest key pack is among the top three. This tells us that Choices players’ tendency is not to spend a lot of money on single packs.  Players buy diamonds because they crave getting the best possible outcomes. On the other hand, the main motivation to purchase keys is to play longer sessions. Players definitely don’t lack the motivation to spend money on this game. At the same time, it doesn’t make non-payers feel powerless.

Choices advertising narrative

The second article in particular is interesting because their ad strategy is very successful (despite how ridiculous I find them personally). Also, the app is clearly marketed toward women and they're the ones spending money. So, Choices isn't changing its strategy anytime soon.

According to Bidalgo, a company that did ad testing and research for Choices, Pixelberry’s goal is to reach high-value users. In other words, the goal was not to acquire just any users but those that are most likely to make an in-app purchase.

[choices-binglebonkus]

Do you think the theory that TRR and TFS series got so many books and why Pixelberry has been milking the romance/smut books while eschewing other genres is because ATV was supposed to be their next TC&TF, and it bombed? Do you think it has something to do with Nexon? Or do you think Pixelberry would've gone in this direction regardless? Realistically, how much longer do you think Pixelberry/Choices will last as a company w/all the upset fans and backlash they've gotten over the past few years?

Excellent questions, anon. This is going to be a long post, so buckle up.

I do absolutely believe Nexon was at least partly to blame. Before Nexon entered the fray, collectibles were pretty much nonexistent in Choices. Endless Summer was the first collectible-heavy series, and as much as I loved it, it was VERY costly. To collect all the clues, dossiers, idols, and embers, it costs a grand total of 895 diamonds. BUT, since one of the clues in ES book 3 can only be obtained by marrying one of the love interests, the actual cost may be much higher.

But while Nexon was partly to blame, I truly do believe AtV's failure screwed Pixelberry over BIG TIME. Like, more than any of us actually realize.

Using Endless Summer as an example again, Pixelberry took a huge risk with the series. Ultimately, it a was a risk that paid off, because Endless Summer was very well-received and is still lauded as one of the greatest series in the app.

Across the Void, in my opinion, was a bigger risk than Endless Summer. It was (until WtD) the only series in the app that actually took place in the future, and it was also the only space-fantasy story. But more on the risk-factor in a minute, we'll come back to that.

Across the Void was also a very, very long book. It's actually the third-longest in the game tied with TRR book 3 at 22 chapters, only beaten out by Witness: A Bodyguard Romance at 28 chapters, and My Two First Loves at 100 chapters.

In addition to being a long book, it was originally titled Across the Void book one, until it was later changed to just Across the Void. This means Pixelberry had plans for at least one more book in the series but they had to change plans at the last minute due to the book's poor performance.

But when, you may ask, did they make this huge change?

Across the Void's release ran from August 20, 2018 to November 5, 2018, when they announced the book would be on hiatus. The book returned in MARCH. It resumed releasing from March 18, 2019 to May 13, 2019.

In those four months of hiatus (the longest hiatus a book has EVER been on, by the way), they had to hasten to conclude what was once a multi-book series rich with lore and background. And that couldn't have been easy on the writers or the budget.

Back to the risk-factor of the book. We've already established that it was unique, long, and had at least one other book planned, possibly two. But the biggest financial losses in the book came from quite literally everything imaginable.

Every background, every character sprite, every music, every miscellaneous item, all of it was brand spanking new. And believe me. There were a LOT of backgrounds, characters, music pieces, and miscellaneous items. Additionally, the love interests had different sprites and outfits, too, so those were also probably pretty costly in the art department. And there were TEN love interests. Ten!

We also got a brand-new set of MC faces and hairstyles, and you know what else? There were male and female MCs. Eight new faces, eight new hairstyles, and twenty-two new outfits. And the worst part? None of the faces or hairstyles were reused. Ever.

In fact, a LOT of the assets in this book were unusable due to how niche and out there they were. Occasionally one or two of the characters with tamer designs or miscellaneous items or even some of the music gets reused in other books. But a lot of AtV's stuff doesn't, and won't, be reused. The financial losses from the book won't be recouped.

Another costly aspect of the book was definitely the writing, though it definitely wasn't as expensive as the art. You could tell the writers busted ass creating lore. There were over a dozen alien races with their own histories, worlds, traditions, you name it. And there was the Vanguard and the Jura, who were at war with each other, which divided the galaxy far and wide. And, of course, there was the Void, which had its own lore.

Like Endless Summer, the book was very lore and detail-heavy. Unlike Endless Summer, about 90% of it was locked behind paywalls, including the majorly important bits of information. And as we all know, that just doesn't work.

Across the Void had a lot put into it. A lot of money and resources, a lot of writer's investment, a lot of time. And in kind, it had a lot of potential. Like, I don't want to say Across the Void could've been an S-tier book, but it could've definitely been up there. A-tier at lowest.

Unfortunately, it got a rough start, and when things didn't get better, that's when Pixelberry put it on hiatus and scrambled to wrap things up. It's why a shit ton of characters died if you didn't pay diamonds to save them. It's why the four endings we got were rushed, sloppy, abrupt, and unsatisfying. And it's why we were left confused as hell and saddled with more questions about the lore and story than answers.

To put it simply, Across the Void is the perfect example of Great Taste, Awful Execution.

2017-2018 is pretty commonly regarded as the Golden Era of Choices, and 2019 was the year Choices started to steadily decline. It still had some good releases, but we got a lot of really mediocre ones that year, and unfortunately, the dip from the Golden Era to a decline directly coincides with AtV's release and its poor performance. The timeline fits. And the 2020-2022 era was seriously rough. Granted, part of that was a result of the pandemic, but I don't think AtV financially flopping helped. Things are sort of starting to look up again, but I'm not holding my breath.

So yeah, AtV took a lot of financial risks. It was probably the riskiest book they've ever written due to how ungodly expensive it likely was and the sheer amount of effort and resources that went into making it, and because it performed poorly, it was a huge blow to Pixelberry.

And that really sucks, because like I said, AtV had a lot of potential. It truly could have been one of the greats if they had executed it properly, but they didn't, so the story suffered as a result.

Funny thing is, if AtV released now, in 2023, I think it would be received much better than it was in 2018-2019. What was mediocre and disappointing back then would probably be considered half-decent or even good now.

As for The Freshman and The Royal Romance, The Freshman ended at the tail end of 2018, so I don't think PB milked it because AtV screwed them financially. The timeline doesn't fit.

But The Royal Romance? Absolutely. The Royal Romance performed so well Pixelberry has implemented several rewrites and remasters, including the brand-new photo gallery in book one and even new outfits in the rewrites. What blew me away most of all were the two art scenes of the MC. Six different MC faces, eight different hairstyles, three different dresses for both scenes. AND the Liam art scenes had three different Liam faces to account for.

It also performed well enough that Pixelberry felt comfortable enough to budget for extra art for the outfits and cutscenes. One that comes to mind is the cutscene of the MC's spouse holding the baby after she gives birth. Three Liams plus Drake, Hana, Maxwell, plus six variations of the heir. I know that couldn't have been cheap.

So they milked The Royal Romance series and even invested more into it because they knew it performed well and wasn't a financial risk like AtV was. They weren't afraid it was going to fall through and flop on them. AtV was a risk while The Royal Romance was a secure, safe choice. Hence eight books in the TRR series.

I'd say, realistically, PB will last for a long while. I truly can't pinpoint a time where they'll go under. I mean, look at Episode. It's been around since 2014 and it's still going strong.

Pixelberry found that soulless smut attracts them the biggest paying audiences with the least amount of effort. VIP has also evidently worked well enough for them that they're now catering to VIP-only crowds. So while I (and many, many others) hate that Choices has gone in this direction, it's obviously working out for PB, so they're not going to make any changes anytime soon.

The only thing that I could see potentially screwing things up for PB is if Blades of Light and Shadow 2 either doesn't release or flops. This, however, is unlikely, and even if it did happen, it would probably just be a minor bump in the road for PB.

TL;DR: Across the Void's financial risks and poor performance directly led to the decline of the quality of Choices books. Particularly well-received books/series like The Royal Romance were milked to death as cash cows until PB discovered that low-quality smut would keep the app afloat.