Inside Asian Gaming

A nyone thinking about purchasing a starter disc for an online role play game for their son or daughter this Christmas might like to consider whether they are raising a cold-blooded killer in their midst. That’s not because the little darling is going to wake up on Boxing Day morning in a Lizzie Borden-style teenage grump and ‘whack’ uncles, aunts and in-laws. It’s because inMassively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMO for short), war and killing is the route to success. There’s an old and rather cynical maxim that war is good for the economy. What may hold true for the real world also seems to apply to gaming in the virtual one, because the more engaged MMO players are in their virtual world, the more it seems they are prepared to spend on extra items for their ‘avatars’ or online selves. And that’s where the sweet spot is in revenue terms with MMO games, says Sam Woelm, Executive Director, Business Development, for C Y Foundation Group Limited (C Y Foundation for short). Hong Kong-listed C Y Foundation describes itself as the leading company dedicated to providing play for prize (P2P) tournaments across Mainland China. The company operates online tournaments through a rapidly expanding network of Internet cafes and entertainment centres. The tournaments feature the popular card games dou di zhu and Texas Hold’em poker, as well as the traditional Asian board game mahjong . The significance of MMO games in China for companies such as C Y Foundation is that they attract huge and relatively affluent audiences. And the players in these virtual worlds exhibit many of the motivations and characteristics that would probably turn them into good card or mahjong players online. Many card or traditional board games date back centuries and remain popular probably because they’re about sublimating basic human motivations—the desire to seek affiliation with others, to increase personal power and influence within a community or peer group, and to identify and, if necessary, eliminate or neutralise rivals or enemies—all at minimum expense to oneself. The same seems to be true with MMO games, which offer a modern take and a commercially successful model for tapping into humanity’s oldest and most basic drives. Empire building Part of the appeal of MMO games is they allow the players to act out life and death situations without a drop of real blood being spilled. Although war in an MMO game thankfully doesn’t involve real blood, it does involve expending real ‘treasure’ in the form of hard earned wages or pocket money to acquire the necessary virtual weapons or strength to fend off challenges from online opponents. The spiritual home of MMO games in Asia is South Korea, where animated series based on some games are shown on television, and national ‘leagues’ for MMO players operate. South Korea is Killer Apps Christmas may be a time for games, but there’s nothing childish about Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing MMO INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | December 2009 22