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General: Aihoshi: Why Publishers Import Old MMOs
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
How many times have you seen a cool looking new MMO and found out that it's actually been online for years in a different country? Publishers often localize games to North America years after their initial launch, and this practice has become a knock against the F2P genre. This week, Richard Aihoshi looks at why publishers do it.
There's no denying that quite a few free to play games arrive in North America after they have launched elsewhere, most often in Korea or China. In some cases, the time span between these two events can be measured in years, a fact that certain observers seem to delight in pointing out whenever possible, even generalizing it as a knock against the entire category.
Whether this is fair is primarily a matter of individual opinion, but it always comes up to some degree, which means any publishers that decide to import older titles have to expect it. They also know it's difficult, even effectively impossible, to change the minds of many people who hold this viewpoint. Obviously, these factors aren't enough to deter the ones that go ahead anyway.
Read it all here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
I would think it also have to do with import red tape. I know other industries suffer because of it. Years ago one of my favorite bands was from England and it took them forever to get there albums across the Atlantic Ocean. Sometimes they couldn't even get their albums across due to import red tape. Plus it also comes to down to licensing agreements with MMOs and how cost effective the license will be for the publisher. In the end its either import red tape or money that keeps an import MMO from North America. I wouldn't doubt it might be the 3 governments of the 3 countries that make up North America that might be holding some games out of our borders as well.
As for Mir2, I never did care for it. I tried the beta and didn't like it, but other people might like it. I think people should play MMOs because they like the game and not because its popular. That goes for both F2P and P2P games out there.
When we get back from where we are going, we will return to where we were. I know people there!
Why bother making an article on something so simple?
They've burned though any money to be made in Korea, China, or wherever and then decide to milk NA gamers for as much as they can a few more years. Making pure profit with little to no effort. It's simple economics. No "philosophies" or other BS applies. Just simple greed.
A good example of this being done is Jade Dynasty being pushed by Perfect World. It is a dated game and looks it. While they might get some kids to play it, the 20+ players with money will take their dollars elsewhere as there are far better offerings in the market.
Same will happen with Legend of Mir. The under 20 crowd does not have a lot of cash to spend these days, hence I don't see the financial reasoning behind this.
Jade Dynasty doesn't look all that dated. Though it doesn't look that appealing to me either. I'm very picky as to the games I play and I'm not really interested in another WoW clone at this time.
Honestly, though, this article is horribly written. Its based on one source and one example: Mir2. It's nothing more than a glorified Press Release. How about some better sourcing next time? Yes, obviously there are more examples available; however, it doesn't defeat the fact that the article itself maintains a one source-one example motif.
Let it be known that I hate WoW with a passion and will defend almost any MMORPG against it.
Current: FFXI (PC/360)
Want: FFXIV, Stargate Worlds, Star Trek Online
Past: AC, AoC, AO, Atlantica Online, CoH/V, DAoC, Dungeon Runners, D&DO, EVE, Everquest I+II, FlyFF, GW (all), Lineage 2, LOTRO, Mabinogi, Maplestory, PSO (DC/Xbox/PC), PSU (PC/360), PlanetSide, RO, Shadowbane, SWG (Pre-NGE), SotNW, TR, UO, Warhammer Online, WoW, WWIIO
Teens have access to a lot more disposable income than you think. The makers of Runescape and Maple Story recognized that and they've been doing very well targeting that demographic.
kotaku.com/5082001/nexon-teams-with-7+eleven-for-slurpee-goodness
^--as an example, a relatively recent campaign by Nexon aimed at tweens and teens.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Yeah this one's not really rocket science...let us see:
1. presumably stable mature client with most kinks worked out
2. most of the dev work already done, so no new salary for programmers..localization can be done on the cheap
3. title has already lost most of its original market value and so can be purchased on the cheap
4. fairly easy to tie into already established infrastructure for billing, hosting, CS etc..
All of which sums up as: It's cheaper and faster than making a new game...duh
Screw the people who want the best graphics first and a great game second. As many a console game has proven, especially on the Playstation and X-Box systems(all generations), if the game sucks then graphics don't matter. Same goes for playability. Give me an older, very playable, better game with mediocre graphics(kids these days are spoiled with their high end graphics, I grew up with an Atari for my first game system) over a poorly designed game with great graphics any day. This is the reason I love the free to play genre. They are far more fun than say World of Warcraft, at least to me anyway.
This looks like a Mir2 and Gamepot advertisement-purchased article, as you have given only one example while there are dozens of examples out there.
Anyway, fun is a very subjective term, games are usually there to be fun (although some, mostly F2P ones, in my opinion seem to be more leaned towards a more money equals more "fun", the free play is just to populate the server so the ones spending money don't feel lonely), following that line of thought, seeking something graphically better (as much as possible) is the expected standard. People purchase video cards for a reason, don't they?
What is it with children and calling everything a 'WoW clone', WoW itself is a clone of every RPG released since the '80s!
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Michael
I understand his viewpoint and its good to see old games get light, but honestly as an old MIr2 player, gamepot have butchered it with their f2p model and cash shop, plus as much as I love it, it never really had that great servers because the code ruberbands a lot, its just not well coded and wemade were notorious for trying to get updates out of, code wise . I hate to promote free servers but since wemade made the server files public i guess its ok if i dont name them, but certain people have lovingly crafted new visions of mir2 with more content than you can imagine, and no cash shops, built on a solid knowledge of the game from years of play.
Playing polished, lag free, feature complete games is carebear. Whining about a game you hate but still play is hardcore man!
It's happening with Mir3 as well, although I don't bother with either game, to me it's sh*t. I just wish some of the newer games got brought over. The other thing that really needs to change is the extremely low drop rates for items, gold, and XP.
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Michael
I don’t think importing an old free mmorpg of Korea into North American market will be a smart strategy for companies to broaden their business. Although some games were quite successful in Korea, but people in North America would probably have different taste. Take those games in their famous style of cutesy for example, Luna Online, Rose Online, Wonder King, Mini Fighter etc., The famous game agencies in Asia which has published those games are such as MacroWell, which recently also lauched their english game portal PlayOMG, or gamepotatos, etc. although those games in forms of cutesy could become popular in Korea or China for many years, but you will find that our fellows in North America prefer playing the games with more mature and uncanny figures. Besides, why should we guarantee that an old game would constantly be successful in the future? The old game system and engine may be either unable to compete with the current production or fascinate the players at present. They may be successful in the past, but now, I think people would rather play an MMO with monthly fee, like WOW or Final Fantasy, than playing a free old game.
This artcle is pointless since like 85% of F2P mmos that we get are garbage and not fun to begin with. Maybe these companies that are so worried about brining out something fun should team together and actually get something worth while. I have played tons of F2P mmos that had decent notice from sites and been majorly disappointed. ie. Megami Tensei or biggest waste of time ever!
If you look back far enough, you will actually find the offline version of Luna. It was just a great roleplaying game. I cut my teeth in RPGs on the original 8 bit Final Fantasy. For those of us who saw the early systems, there is something nostalgiac about the older games. Plus, compared to most of today's games, the early games were more story driven. The ones now are all hack and slash or shoot everything in sight. I still keep copies of much older games available, even though I will play a decent newer game on occassion, and also occassionally, if I am bored enough, will play World of Warcraft(or should that be Warcra*). I don't get the big deal over WoW. It really does not have a coherent story line and the questing get's tedious.......even the original EverQuest did better of a job of this. I am one 20+ who will take a reasonably good F2P over WoW any day, but for those of you born in the late 80s, you are too young to really remember anything before Playstation.
Not even Mr Aihoshi has the gall to recommend we should be playing F2P/RMT rubbish that is five years old. Why do they release them? It does not take a genius to work out as others already have here, that with no development costs this is a dirt cheap method of MMO companies to make some money in the western market.
The point I am making is simply that sometimes older games turn out to be better than newer ones. While they may not win any awards for graphics, I do think taking a look at their ease of play and strong storylines definitely make them worth the time, and the for pay mmorpgs could easily learn a few thing from the free to play ones. How exactly do you think a company would make money on a free to play game? By their very definition they lose money.
Note that this logic is not applied without thought (though possibly without foresight) : I'm still waiting for Mabinogi to reach European shores T_T
Aihoshi, why don't you write an article on western F2P's, specially on the move from Turbine to make D&DO free? And/or the upcoming Champions Online and its incipient cash shop? Or the future re-release of Chronicles of Spellborn also as (full) F2P? I'd find such an article from you interesting to read.
Wait... games from the east that have strong storylines? The only exceptions to these are J-RPGs (single-player) and Aion, the rest are focused mostly on grinding (and item mall MT shortcuts to be strong quickly) rather than providing an actual storyline to guide our leveling and world exploration. Yet they are graphically outdated and old, I fail to understand how one could find these games appealing other than falling in the "BEST MMORPG EVER. FREE TO PLAY. DOWNLOAD AND PLAY NOW!" trap advertisements around.
I generally like Richard Aihoshi's articles, but I find this one a bit week. I know the points he was trying to make, but dont feel that he really expressed them well this time.
There are several reasons that older games are being imported to the west, from the east. They can be broken down as follows:
1. Cost. Older games have already broken even, and as such, they are being re-sold in a new market at an affordable price. They are not looking to make a killing, they are just looking to maximize thier returns. This means that older games are 5-10x cheaper (up front) than new games.
2. Requirements. F2P games are dependant on downloads, and mass appeal. This means that they want a small client size and low system requierments. They are games for the masses, not games for the few. Older games can generally provide this, whereas new games are often large, and may have much higher requirements.
3. Availability. Older games are looking to get published in the west. Newer games are not. The development house is usually invested in one market, and not looking to expand, or they are looking to do the publishing themselves. This means that despite a game being new, and highly desirable, it is often not actually available in additional markets. This is a matter of resources, and only with the recent influx of multibillion dollar companies into the F2P market are we starting to see simultaneos multi-region launches.
The bottom line is that older games are available, meet the consumer demand, and come at a good price point. Until such time as newer games become more competitive, expect to see a 3-5 year delay in launches in different regions.
Nice post and even better discussion in the foroums
hehe
I hate cute games like Luna and Maplestory. I prefer games like 4Story andAzuga. I’m trying to save money so I cut my subscription to WoW. Now I play Taikodom which is like Eve Online. If you don’t like sci-fi space games you can play Azuga or Atlantica.