A journey through the slow, agonizing world of Kal Online.
I began playing Kal in late 2004, back when there was one international server and three character classes. Despite being a relatively unknown game, the server was teeming with people and new players were joining every day. The game chatbox was full of life and it was easy to make friends and find groups of people to play with. The player base grew quickly enough to warrant the opening of a second server in late 2005.
It did not take long for hackers to find their way into the game. When the hacking started, the influx of new players slowed and a number of existing players quit. Rather than patrol the hacking in-game with GM accounts, InixSoft responded by implementing anti-hacking software called 'HackShield'. HackShield temporarily alleviated the hacking problem and allowed the player base to grow again, and eventually a third server was opened. Unfortunately InixSoft stopped buying updates for HackShield, and hackers were able to circumvent this increasingly inept anti-hacking software. To this day Kal still uses HackShield and the hacking remains rampant and unchecked. There are virtually no new players, the player base has shrunk considerably, the third server has been closed and the vibrant conversations in the chatbox have been replaced by a never-ending stream of spam from bots advertising in-game currency for sale by 3rd party websites.
This stark contrast between new players joining the game every day versus an empty and unfriendly landscape of spammers and hackers made me realize two important truths about MMO's and online games in general: New players are the lifeblood of the game, and the game owner must take pains to ensure a safe and fair gaming environment. New players breathe new life into the game and provide a revenue stream for the game owner, and the game owner provides new game content and an enjoyable gaming experience. Having no new players marks a game's decline and may even signal a game's demise. Sure, there could be a established population which enjoys playing without new players, and Kal has built such a population of dedicated gamers over the years. But it is hard to ignore the hacking and spamming, and it is these problems, along with a complete lack of in-game GM monitoring and lack of competency and care by InixSoft in general, which are responsible for the current broken state of Kal.
Even if you ignore the hacking and spamming, the dwindling player base and the hopelessly inept game owners, there are other problems to consider when playing Kal.
For example, the gameplay itself is a dreary affair of mindlessly clicking monsters to gain experience points and level up your character. Reaching a high enough level to unlock valuable skills and actually enjoy the game requires an obscene amount of playing time. We are not talking mere hours here folks, but weeks and months and even years of repeatedly clicking thousands of monsters. And if a player dies while battling monsters, Kal punishes that player by taking away experience points, which means watching days or even weeks worth of effort vanish in an instant. Imagine grinding through battles for days, mindlessly clicking the same keys over...and over...and over, only to have that work taken away from you in an instant. I cannot overemphasize the maddening frustration of this punishment system.
Another problem is the outdated interface. The graphics have always been mediocre, the sounds are basically an afterthought, and the music is mind-numbing and boring. Kal is built atop the Lineage II game engine, and the InixSoft development team apparently lacks the coding ability to implement significantly updated features. Even if the game were to receive a facelift, it is far too late to compete with the dozens of more interesting and highly polished MMO's found in today's gaming market.
In light of all these issues - the hacking, spamming, lack of new players, hopelessly outdated graphics and gameplay, and a game owner that doesn't understand or care - it becomes clear why Kal should be laid to rest.