CABAL Online

Cabal Online (Korean: 카발 온라인) is a free-to-play, 3D massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed by South Korean company ESTsoft. Different versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions. Although Cabal Online is free-to-play, the game has a "Cash Shop" which allows players to purchase game enhancements and useful ingame items using real currency.
The game takes place in a mythical world known as Nevareth, which was destroyed by an evil entity known as the CABAL. Out of the survivors, six "Masters" rose up, each wielding the abilities of the "Force Power". These masters taught the people, and Nevareth was rebuilt. Years later, the CABAL is plotting a return to power, and the characters of the game take up the role of heroes who battle the CABAL uprising and conspiracy.
History
Cabal Online was first released in South Korea in October 2005.[2] The game was later released from closed beta testing in Europe in July 2006,[3] and in December 2006 it was announced that the game and all subsequent versions had become free-to-play.[4] In North America, OGPlanet had picked up the license for the game and open beta testing began on February 1, 2008.[5] It was also stated that the full release would most likely come by the end of February.[6] On February 28, 2008, the game officially launched in North America,[7] while closed beta began in South-East Asia.[8] Gameforge published Cabal Online in Germany on December 3, 2009.[9] The service in North America provided by OGPlanet was ceased on March 31, 2010, as the company did not reach an agreement with ESTsoft, while the latter subsequently re-established North American servicing directly.[10]
[edit]Gameplay
As a typical MMORPG, gameplay is focused on killing monsters, grinding, performing quests for experience points and venturing into dungeons for treasure and "Alz", the in-game currency.[11][12] Players can band together to form a party, with a maximum of six characters. Bonus experience points can be awarded to party members based on their contributions.[13]
Characters are created on "servers" or game worlds, each with its own unique name, such as "Mercury" or "Venus". Players from different servers cannot interact with each other; however, usage of a specific Cash Shop item allows characters and accounts to be transferred between servers, though this function is not available in all countries. All non-event servers have equal content, the only differences being the player base and the total number of items and money flowing in-game. One account allows for a maximum of six characters per server and a player is allowed to play on every server with that single account. Servers are subsequently divided into "channels", the number of which differs from country to country. Players can communicate with others in different channels through private messaging, or "whispering"[14] and they can switch to any channel, including Premium ones if they have purchased a Premium package.
Channels possess different characteristics depending on various factors. Channels labeled in green have manual player killing disabled, while those with a white-coloured name have it enabled. Even if player killing is disabled, more difficult higher-level maps always have Nation War PK activated regardless of the channel. The Trade channel is designed specifically for buying and selling items from other players through either broadcasting to the entire channel, or shouting, or by the use of personal shops where players set up a number of items and their prices and quantities.[15] The Novice channel serves as a gathering place for newcomers and has PK also disabled. Premium channels are only accessible by those who have acquired the Premium status from the Cash Shop packages or from a Blessing Bead Plus, which is the substitute for monthly subscriptions. Premium provides many bonuses in experience gain and item and Alz drop rates, as well as the ability to use Premium channels and special teleportation points, or warp gates, through the use of the "GPS Warp",[16] among other benefits. There is also a War channel in which Nation War PK is fully enabled without penalty and in all maps, effectively extending the war status to the entire channel except for "Warp Gates". While in Nation PK, the two opposing factions the player can join are allowed to battle each other without the usual Honour Point and temporary NPC access penalties that apply to regular player killing. Those without a nation may also battle every player without a penalty, though they will have no allies within the war