Here's an overview and review of Audition, from Nexon, a "dance battle" free-to-play MMO.

Name: Audition

Developer: T3 Entertainment and Yedang Online (published by Nexon in North America)

Established: April 2007 (in North America)

How it Works: Audition requires the download of the client (a hefty 1.6gb) which runs as an application and requires Dirext X. Navigation and gameplay are accomplished via mouse and keyboard input.

Overview: Audition is largely an online "MMO" version of dancing games like Dance Dance Revolution. In the title, players create rooms or join other players, select music and then "dance" along with it using directional keyboard commands. Players compete with each other to be the best dancer to receive rewards, and can otherwise socialize with other players.

Payment Method: Audition is free to play; players support the title through microtransactions at the cash shop.

Key Features:
- "Casual" dancing-based MMO
- Multiple modes of play
- Customizable avatars

Audition: In-Depth Tour

Audition is likely one of the first Korean micro transaction-based games to have crossed your path (the other likely to be Nexon's Kart Racer, which has still yet to launch in North America officially) and on that level it's interesting as an early example of the format.

What it isn't—and I should probably make this clear—is a virtual world. Which makes it an odd kind of pick for the Virtual World Atlas, but that's just how I roll. Audition features a series of community features but there is none of the exploration usually inherent to virtual worlds; you're either dancing or you're in a menu. That's it.

Audition distinguishes itself instantly as a micro transaction-based title, however, with its character creator. Once you've signed up (or as in my case, struggled to remember your Nexon login) the character creator offers literally one or two options. Everything else is going to cost either beats—which can be earned in-game—or cash, which, yes, you have to buy with real-world money.

Once you're satisfied with how your character looks (or, at least, accepted it) the majority of play is spent dancing. The community is most similar to what you'd see in perhaps a more "hardcore" style of game, which a variety of rooms available, with some private (as players play games with friends) and some open (though often with the warning "no noobs", or some variant thereof.)

Gameplay is pleasingly different from Dance Dance Revolution (which I would have expected it to be a carbon copy of) in that you input a series of directional keyboard commands (for example, up, up, down, up, left, right) and then have to hit the spacebar on the fourth beat of the music. So, a good player should be able to chain together each keyboard command followed by space in time with no gaps, while a beginning player will have longer periods where their avatar is standing around doing absolutely nothing.

Players largely compete to get the highest score by staying in time and performing as many moves as possible before the song ends, though there are a variety of game modes. The also game has a very remarkable and varied soundtrack for what I would have thought would be a terminally niche product—while sometimes you might find yourself dancing to an original composition, it's far more likely you'll find yourself dancing to music from Lily Allen or Natasha Bedingfield—and personally, I was pleased to see the Flobots represented with their song "Handlebars" despite the song's not-particularly-dance-party-friendly content.

The game is very, very busy and all players seem to be having fun, but the more important question of course is, was I?

Audition: Conclusion

So perhaps my in-depth look at Audition may have seemed a little slight to you, but let me genuinely say that what you read there was functionally all there is to Audition. It is an incredibly limited game. Dancing and buying things, that's pretty much it.

It is exactly the kind of MMO or game that is an absolute mystery to me why it's popular—and trust me, Audition is popular—because I can't see what keeps people coming back. Like in the many (largely western developed) MMOs where there might be nothing to do except wander around and socialize, here there's nothing to do but dance (and socialize).

Then what intrigues me is that not only is the world populous, it's also clearly successful, because the majority of players I would interact with were not simply wearing the plain outfit the starting character comes with. Many, many players were visibly wearing clothes purchased with real-world money, something which for a game so limited I'm surprised you would do. So what makes them stick around?

Well, I've been thinking about it, and I think that despite Audition's high barrier for entry (you have to download a 1.6 gigs and sign up for an account, which for many takes enough time to allow a second thought) the game's simplicity is its strength. There's a reason that the concept of "casual games" has been so strong for so long now—it's because they're simple (and fun) to play, not just to get to.

And that's something Audition is. Perhaps it's merely the power of music, but there's something very entertaining—if only in short bursts—about hitting key combinations and then the space bar (in time) to watch your avatar dance in a choreographed fashion. In addition, the competition factor—that you know if you make a few more perfect chains you'll beat your nearest rival in points—keeps each game interesting.

The community is largely supportive—talking and chattering between dances—too.

Ultimately, the interesting thing about Audition is that it's far more similar to the last entry in the Online World Atlas, Trukz, than I would have expected. It offers a very restricted experience—in this case, dancing—with little else to it. Truckz is arguably far better (it’s a nice simulation), wheras Audition is really no more complex than an average flash game, but it suits the audience.

Is Audition good? I think at one point it really was. By now it feels incredibly dated, and anyone who really wanted to offer a better dancing MMO—and when I say "wanted to offer" I really mean "believes in and wants to make" a better one—could easily blow it out of the water. But it's another example of how concentrating on one concept and making that interaction fun is a way to have a successful MMO.