GunZ The Duel

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GunZ: The Duel
Developer(s)	MAIET Entertainment
Publisher(s)	MAIET Entertainment & Netmarble & Level Up! Games & ijji
Designer(s)	Venister
Engine	GunZ Engine
Release date(s)	June 2005 (Beta Edition) June? 2003 & November 2006
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter/RPG
Mode(s)	Online Multiplayer
Rating(s)	N/A
Platform(s)	Windows
Media	Internet Download
System requirements	Windows 98/2000/XP DirectX 9.0c+ Pentium III 500 MHz 256MB RAM Direct3D 9.0 Video Direct3DSound Sound
Input	Keyboard / Mouse

GunZ the Duel (Korean: 건즈 더 듀얼), also known as GunZ, is a Third-Person Multiplayer Online Shooting Role Playing Game (MOSRPG), created by Korean-based MAIET Entertainment. International GunZ, in its beta, is currently free to play, and is planned to remain free after its official release. Though the International Edition is still in its beta stage, the Korean and Japanese versions are considered complete. The game allows players to perform exaggerated, gravity-defying action moves, including wall running, flipping, tumbling, and blocking bullets with swords, in the style of action movies and anime.

History

GunZ's first released edition for International GunZ was released in June 2005^{[citation needed]} . A little known fact about the storyline and history of GunZ is that the background story is actually from GunZ's absolute first incarnation: a single player, turn-based combat RPG.^{[citation needed]}

North American edition

On November 8^th, 2006, the closed beta for the North American version of GunZ was released at 11:00 PM GMT/UTC on the game portal site ijji. Upon release, the game surpassed Gunbound, ijji's then most popular game, with more than 5,000 players on at any given time^{[citation needed]}. The closed beta did not include several gameplay modes; items were given out if the user's account was made before a predetermined date [1]. The North American edition of GunZ: The Duel's closed beta ended November 15^th, 2006, at 11:00 PM GMT/UTC [2]. The ijji/North American GunZ live service was released on November 29^th, 2006. The live service included clan wars and quest mode, although a new version of quest mode was released on February 14th, 2007 [3]. The premium item shop was opened on January 8^th, 2007 [4].

Kill system

The various kill animations found in GunZ: The Duel.

Scoring kills in GunZ earns a player "bounty", which enables one to buy new equipment; and experience points, or EXP, which contribute to the progression or advancement of a player's level. Higher levels allow players to wield better weapons and wear better armor. The amount of EXP and bounty a player receives for a kill depends on the level of the enemy defeated. However, suiciding (using the /suicide emote, falling into a bottomless pit or losing all HP via one's own explosive) results in losing EXP if the player is past level five. In addition, when a player kills a player 7 levels higher than the former, the latter loses EXP if they are over level 21. When a player's EXP drops to the point in which the player has less than zero EXP for their level, it is possible to delevel, or move back one level. In GunZ, when a player achieves a kill, they may receive one or more of five animations above the player's head.

Weapons and accessories in GunZ

In the game, there are 7 types of ranged weapons, 3 types of melee weapons, 3 types of grenades, and 5 types of accessories, most of which can be purchased from an in-game shop.

Melee weapons in GunZ include swords of many varieties, kodachis, and daggers. Guns and ranged weapons available include pistols and revolvers, shotguns, rifles, submachine guns, machine guns and rocket launchers. Fragmentation, smoke and stun grenades are also available, as are magical elements and rings which can boost the character's abilities. Other items include magazine pouches which provide an extra magazine of ammo for the currently active gun, and medkits, which can be used to regain lost health and armor points. Weapons that have been coded but unreleased include Dual Daggers [5] and large swords. It has been confirmed that the Large Swords will not be released^{[citation needed]}, however.

Premium items are also available in all fully released GunZ versions. These items must be purchased with real life currency, and provide attribute bonuses and aesthetic improvements over the normal purchaseable items. All elements and ammo magazine packs are currently premium items.

Korean-Style and other gameplay

In GunZ, Korean-Style (also commonly known as K-Style) is a style of play based on several glitches within GunZ, and is a form of emergent gameplay. Like in many fighting games such as Street Fighter, this allows a player to cancel certain character animations, thus creating complex combo moves. Because it's based on several programming oversights, people using Korean-Style were often considered to be cheating^{[citation needed]}, but this opinion has since changed, as the GunZ 2005 trailer features Korean players actively using K-Style [6]. The name "Korean-Style" was named after the player "Korean"^{[citation needed]}. "K-Stylers" must use swords or kodachis, because although any other melee weapon can also cancel certain character animations, these weapons can cancel a slash animation by beginning the animation to switch their weapon, which is the basis of many glitch techniques.

However, there are also other types of styles and gameplay methods, such as European-Style (E-Style), which is a style in which the player does not use cancelling and relies on aim and tactics similar to a normal first-person shooter game, and Dagger-Style (D-Style), which is a style in which the player uses a dagger and also uses cancelling. Korean-Style, however, is the most popular fighting style in GunZ in the later levels; nearly every game room has a player who uses Korean-Style, either in full or in the use of certain moves.

All new players by default are European-Stylers, relying on the core techniques to avoid damage. Although a highly experienced European-Styler can compete with a Korean-Styler, using this style often results in being called a "sprayer", since many European-Stylers use automatic weapons, most of which are inaccurate due to their large spread (although several automatic weapons are some of the most accurate weapons in the game). (As a note, a "sprayer" may also refer to a player who consistently misses with their weapon, or it may also refer to other players using automatics, regardless of their gameplay style.) Daggers are lightweight in comparison to swords and allow a player to dash often with more ease. However, the dagger cannot be used to block, and cannot cancel a stab animation by switching to another weapon, limiting its usefulness in comparison to using a sword.

GunZ networking system

^{[citations needed]} GunZ's networking system in most of the game is peer to peer, unlike many online shooters. Players connect to other players through their client, instead of through a central server (although if the player has a NAT error, the player connects to a central server, which redirects their packets to every other player in that game). Although this works well on LANs or within relatively short distances, longer distances between players creates high latency, or lag. Because GunZ relies on the player being hit to transfer a packet back to every other player to inform their clients that they were hit, players who have slower connections are harder to kill, as any packets sent to inform the client that they are being attacked are delayed.

Private servers

GunZ administrator Guntrix on a private server

Although there have been many private servers since the public release of the server files in November 2005, they are against the Terms of Service stated by MAIET [7]. Private servers are considered illegal, and may result in banning from all GunZ versions, or in more severe cases, MAIET has been known to threaten to file lawsuits [8]. Although there have been no actual reported cases of MAIET filing lawsuits, there have been a few Cease and Desist letters sent to the operators of private servers.

Localized versions

Full Release is a published, full version of the game, and has a premium item shop, every map, and quest mode. An Open Beta version doesn't have some quests and no premium items, and is in testing. There are currently localized 5 versions of GunZ available (excluding International Edition), available in the following countries (listed in chronological order by publish date):

• Korea - (Full Release) Sponsored by NetMarble.
• Japan - (Full Release) Sponsored by NetMarble.
• India - (Open Beta) Sponsored by Level Up!.
• Brazil - (Full Release) Sponsored by Level Up!; (was pay-to-play until recently [9])
• North America - (Full Release) Sponsored by NHN via their game portal ijji.
• Philippines - (Unreleased) Sponsored by Level Up!.

See also

• ijji
• Level Up!
• NetMarble
• MAIET Entertainment

External links

• GunZ The Duel Official site
• GunZ Factor English GunZ fansite
• StrategyWiki has a book on the topic of GunZ The Duel