MapleStory maker stumbles on first day trading, bad news for Zynga?

Well, it could certainly scare the hell out of potential investors. Bloomberg reports that Nexon, creator of hit free-to-play and social games like MapleStory and Zombie Misfits, has already seen its stock price decline after its first day of publicly trading in Tokyo. When the company went public on Tuesday, its stock was priced at 1,307 yen--by day's end it dropped 2.3 percent to 1,270 yen.

Still, Nexon managed to raise $1.17 billion in its initial public offering (IPO), just a hair shy of its $1.2 billion goal marked last week. The CityVille creator is said to go public as soon as Thursday, looking to raise $1.15 billion on the Nasdaq as "ZNGA". It's almost no doubt that Zynga will get at least close to its goal, but if the pioneer of free-to-play games in the Western world can't keep its stock price steady for a single day, investors might wonder the same for the company behind FarmVille.

Keep in mind, however, that Nexon debuted in an entirely different market. (Though, the company offered shared in the US, too.) What's most worrisome is that Nexon is far older, and you'd imagine more experienced, than Zynga, but still couldn't hang on the first day of trading.

Despite its dependence on Facebook, Zynga's CEO Mark Pincus told investors that it could double its base of paying players in 2012. And while he seems to have made no effort to explain how, CrowdStar CEO Peter Relan seems to agree. We'll whether Zynga's efforts on its IPO roadshow were enough by Friday, or so they say.

Do you think Nexon's first-day experience is indicative of what Zynga might go through with its IPO? Would you invest in Zynga at this point?

A sad 75 percent of (expensive) MapleStory marriages end in divorce

And you thought the 50 percent divorce rate of real marriages in the U.S. was bad. Nexon reports that, of the 26,982 in-game MapleStory marriages, 20,344 (or 75 percent) end in annulment. And those in-game betrothals aren't cheap--each union in the free-to-play MMO (massively multiplayer online game) costs $25 in Nexon Cash, the South Korean developer's paid currency.

After seeing the massive (and kind of depressing) divorce rate, the Nexon community team turned to its players to find out just what was up. And while the company didn't find out much, it did uncover some hilarious somber stories. Take Seth, a 19-year-old MapleStory player from Colorado Springs, Colo:

    My former Maple spouse and I started off great; going on party quests together, boss runs, training, helping each other become better Maplers. Then I realized after a while that she was only out there to get free things off of me and we got in this conversation where she admitted to this accusation, so I decided I would have to annul our Maple marriage.

MapleStory matrimony
Here's a pro tip, kids: Think hard before marrying someone online whom you've yet to meet in person. Sure, it's all in good fun ... right until you start to share account information and lose all your goodies. (Another major no-no.)

"Getting married in MapleStory can be quite a fun event for the happy couple and their friends," MapleStory producer Crystin Cox said in a release. "While it looks like our players break up at a much higher rate than people do in real life, at least our players are not on the hook for alimony."

Fair enough, we guess. I think it's safe to assume this feature won't make it into MapleStory Adventures, which debuted on Facebook just over the summer, a version of the game I enjoyed immensely (and so do over 3 million monthly players). But with stats like this, consider it good news that this feature won't see the light of day elsewhere.

[Image Credits: Ylwong, Phame]

Have you ever married someone in MapleStory? What do you think of marriages in games like MapleStory, and would you like to see this feature come to the Facebook version of the game knowing the risks? Sound off in the comments.