About Fantage

Fantage stands for Fantastic Age.

Lots of people (including me) pronounce Fantage like Fant – edge, but it’s actually pronounced as Fant – ayge. O.O

I’ve heard 2 different stories on how Fantage came to be. Not sure which one’s true though.

Story #1

So basically, these 2 guys, Peter Bae and David Hwang, wanted to make an online education website. It probably wouldn’t be popular since not many people like learning, so they decided not to make one. Then, they thought of creating a fun virtual world called Fantage that also had some educational games.

Story #2 (This one sounds way more awesome. )

David and Cindy Hwang moved from Silicon Valley (A part of California) to the East Coast (I’m guessing New Jersey) in 2002 when their daughter, Alyssa, was 3 years old. Alyssa missed her friends from California, so her parents thought about designing a virtual world so she and her friends could play together. They decided not to since it was too hard. Later in 2006, David Hwang talked about his idea all night with his business school BFF, Peter Bae. The next morning , they both quit their jobs and started designing a virtual world. In 2007, a guy named Frank (I think his last name is Kim, but I’m not sure.) joined them. Together, David and Cindy Hwang, Peter Bae, and Frank started creating the virtual world that is now known as Fantage!

(Source: http://www.sramanamitra.com/2010/06/15/deal-radar-2010-fantage/)

I’ve also heard that David and Cindy Hwang used to own a Coldstones Ice Cream Shop. O.O

Fantage’s  Early Years

A beta version of Fantage launched on October 29, 2007. You can visit Fantage’s beta blog here! =)

Fantage officially opened On March 17,  2008. ^.^ To thank them, Fantage gave all 80,000 beta testers got 1 month of free premium membership, 1000 stars, and special beta tester crowns. (Lucky…)

Fantage also had a super epic WordPress blog which you can visit here!   (Seriously. Whoever writes for Fantage’s current blog sounds like a robot. >.<).

The Comet used to be a separate website! O.O You can check it out here.

Here’s some awesome NPC cards Fantage released!   NPC stands for Non – Playable Character.

(Credits to Liyala and Fever!)

Fantage Today

Click on the banner to start playing!

Nowadays, Fantage normally has an event/party every single week. =) The bad part is that usually almost everything’s premium. >.<

Most items in shops are premium. Also, members have a higher chance of winning fashion shows. ^.^

Click the banner to buy premium membership!

Buying eCoins is another way to get awesome stuff in Fantage.

Here are the benefits:

Click the banner to buy eCoins!

There’s also lots of ways to get eCoins for free!   I’ll make a page about that later. Right now I’m lazy.

Where is Fantage Inc.?

Fantage Inc. used to be  in Palisades Park, New Jersey.

Now, the HQ is located at 400 Kelby Street Fort Lee, New Jersey 07024. Since I was bored, I searched it up on Google Maps.

Here’s a pic:

Not what you imagined, right?   I’m guessing it’s the Fantage parking lot.

Fantage Japan

There used to be a Fantage Japan site, (http://www.fantage.nexon.co.jp/) but it closed down.

Click here to see a pic of the Fantage Japan homepage.

Here’s a pic of Michelle from Fantage Japan! (Credits to Fantage Wiki!)

Fantage Europe

On July 21. 2011, Fantage Europe merged with Fantage USA (http://www.fantage.com/).

(Credits to Fantage Wiki!)

The Fantage Europe website (http://www.fantage.com/eu/) still didn’t close down though. O_O It’s just kind of… Blank. O.O

Now, there’s a Fantage France and a Fantage Germany. They’re connected to the Fantage USA website, so anyone can access them!

I’m pretty sure most people who play them aren’t in France or Germany though.

Fantage Staff

There are about 43 people in the Fantage staff.

Fantage is currently in need of more employees. Click here for more info!   (Note: Fantage does not hire kids.)

Here’s some employee reviews from glassdoor.com:

“Work Hard, No Vacation”

Current Anonymous Employee – Reviewed May 06, 2012

Pros – They will give you a computer.

Cons – No personal life before you quit

Advice to Senior Management – Please be Professional

“Hostile. work. environment.”

Former in Fort Lee, NJ – Reviewed Jul 17, 2011

Pros – the building has electricity, AC and heat??
My co-workers, most of them anyway.

Cons – If you work at Fantage –
– you get 1 personal day, 1 sick day, and 3-6 vacation days depending on your length of employment. if you had 5 vacation days and didn’t use them for the year you will only get paid for a maximum of 3. if you would like to use a vacation day for something personal, or add your personal day onto your vacation, this may not get approval by management.

– you have to clock in and out every day with an electronic card because management wants to know exactly when you come in and leave. this is not because we are paid by the hour. management told us that your total hours worked will reflect on your performance reviews, so people that don’t stay and do unpaid overtime are frowned upon. when we first had the electronic system installed management sent an email saying that coming in at 10:01 is considered late (work is from 10-7, but most of the company must stay overtime). you can work until 1am, but they don’t like it when you’re a minute late. they have taken employees aside to talk about lateness in several cases.

– fantage is a flash based kid’s website so the work involves art and programming which management (one person mostly) has no background or experience in. when an artist has worked on something all day, it will get changed by management for an unnecessary reason at the end of the day therefore that designer will have to stay late and fix it until completion. they cannot go home or may have their job threatened the next day. i have almost lost my job at fantage on more than occasion for this reason, and i was told that i couldn’t handle the pressure when i went home because i was tired. the suggestions made by management about changing the artwork is vague include phrases like, “make it more special”, or “make something that kids will like”. the feedback is difficult for an artist to understand and to find a way to meet their requests. the entire art and design team was once told that they were expendable by management.

-again, management with no background in this area makes obscene demands and deadlines for artists and programmers. deadlines for projects are made because they “sound good”. like it “sounds good” to design and program a whole new game for the site in 2 weeks, even though many workers are already pre-occupied with current projects and cannot handle another. if anyone, even some managers try to tell management that a project can’t be completed in their made up “sounds good” time frame, management will say that the site needs to profit from the new game/event/ items for sale and that it needs to be done. the percentage of the company that regularly stays for unpaid overtime until 12am or later is astounding. 14 hour days folks! the pay is not even worth the overtime. there was once no AC in the office after 6pm and by 8pm we wold be frying in the office during the summer because there are no windows and 40-50 people stacked like sardines with running computers ( i will try to post a pic later). i guess management finally decided to treat us like humans and get an AC unit to cool things down. thanks guys!

– you have to write a report to clueless management about everything you worked on all day, every day whether you are an artist, programmer, or Quality Assurance team. Keep in mind that these reports are sent to ONE person – so this person 40-50 reports every day? Sometimes you get replies to your reports with sayings like, “is this all you did?” when they don’t even know how long something takes to do in the first place!

-i’m sure there’s more

If you are thinking of applying to fantage please try to reach out to someone on linkedin or facebook to get some opinions!

Advice to Senior Management – Stop coming up with out of the blue projects that are due immediately and stop the threats if we can’t get them done when you want. Ask us how much is really, REALLY takes to do something and give us enough time. You see the overtime meal expense sheets don’t you?20- 30 people staying till midnight or later on some nights and you’re insane demand was the cause does that not bother you at all? that your employees can’t even get 8 hours of sleep?? the Wall Street guys may work those kind of hours but they get paid 3x or more what we do!

Get an art or programming education!!
More PTO.
Stop policing us walking around the room looking over our shoulders all the time!

Working for Fantage seems pretty terrible. Maybe it’d be easier if Fantage stopped having events every week.