What is Guild Wars dev team's Asian (Korea/China) Market strategy?????

higgsboson

We've all heard about the frenzy going on in Country like S. Korea about single "bigger than game" title like Starcraft / WC3.

If Blizzard franchise games were successful, no one will deny the fact that their success were largely contributed by these titles success in Asian Market.

The way I see this is I see more potential in "Guild Wars" than those games mentioned above for a number a reason.

1) GW fits perfectly to highly competitive tournement mode.

2) It offers more variety of gameplay modes than those mentioned above: Time based Cooperative, PvP, Guild vs Guild, etc.

And I have to ask what are NCSoft/Arena dev team are planning with this title for those markets.

I don't know how Arena dev will be able to penetrate the "Blizzard" barrier in those market.

I'm talking about people who still play Starcraft 24/7, and has 4 TV stations dedicated for those games and hosts pro gamers who get paid like 6 digit (US$) figure annually to play those games.

 

Obiyer

Isn't NC Soft an Asian based company anyway?

ChrlyDntSurf

I feel that the competetive aspect of the game alone will draw that whole crowd in. The whole ability to compete nationally without having to get up from your computer is a big plus. I feel this game will be bigger there than most other MMORPG's.

Seriphos

yes NC Soft is Asian based, they also make Lineage 2 which is huge in Korea

Seriphos Seraphim
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higgsboson

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Originally posted by Obiyer

Isn't NC Soft an Asian based company anyway?

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Yeah but that still doesn't mean that NCSoft might have right tool set to compete with Vivandi/Blizzard in Quasi-RTS or CRPG sector in those markets.

I'm really curious what NCSoft is planning with this title in those market.

As we all know, they don't even have Asian site dedicated to this game.

 

Goban

I live about a block from NCSofts home office. In 2 years in Korea I almost never hear aboout this title. NCSoft goes after a specific market and gets it. The reason WC and Starcraft are so popular is PC Bongs, where people get together with their friends and whoop on each other. I am sure the game will pick up a following, but when you can go play starcraft for a dollar and hour in a pc bong, buying a game to play at home seems pointless.

ChrlyDntSurf

You play for 20 hours and you just could have bought the Starcraft Battlechest.

TrOn

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And I have to ask what are NCSoft/Arena dev team are planning with this title for those markets.

I don't know how Arena dev will be able to penetrate the "Blizzard" barrier in those market.
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Guild Wars already has full Korean keyboard/character support. There is also a separated instance for Korean players and there are quite a few alpha testers from Korea which are known for their good PvP GW skills .

Of course this doesn't mean Korean players can't play with other English players. Both worlds are persistent on PvP / tournament so players from both worlds can compete against each other.

It would be hard to play co-op missions with Korean people if you couldn't understand each other and since communication is crucial to succeed that's why there are 2 instances at the moment.

This may or may not change in the future though.

ChrlyDntSurf

An in game translator would be kick ass, dont know if its possible though. If it is, I think its a great idea.

Goban

Most under 30 year old Koreans speak some English, at least Enough to play most games. I think in the next few years you will see that their English will improve much more. Right now their major problem lies in an attempt to directly translate Korean to English and vise-versa. However, the way many people study English is changing and in the future they will be online on English servers without you even suspecting they are using English as a second language

ChrlyDntSurf

Yeah Id have to agree, seriously, I dont see how they wouldnt get better if they practiced it every day.

Goban, how do you have a 3 star rank with only 3 posts? I havnt been able to figure out this star system....

Maximane

Your rank is not based on the number of posts you make, but rather its content and how often you log into MMORPG.COM. Take a peek at our FAQ section for details here.

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- MMORPG.COM Staff -

Goban

I have some students that for 2 hours all we do is discuss games. I have seen some students who study Japanese just so they can play the latest games out of Japan. My motivation for Korean is 2-fold. 1) my wife 2) GAMES. Last night I had my wife beside me for 2 hours translating KALOnline for me.

ChrlyDntSurf

Oh thanks for clearing that up max, I checked the FAQ but I guess I missed that one.