[MUD-Dev] Player statistics

[David Kennerly]

<EdNote: Please turn off the ms-tnef MIME crap (which I've deleted)>

> Jake Song:

>> It maybe sound strange but MMORPG 'Lineage' which is in service in
>> Korea and Taiwan had total sales of $45 million (in USD) last
>> year. That is $3.75 million per month. :)

Raph Koster:

> No, doesn't sound strange -- after all, that's a comparable figure
> to EQ's revenue

Korea almost outweighs the rest of the commercial online game market
in their own, small backyard.  Korea has a population about 50 M.  US
and Canada (the home of the majority of English online players) alone
have a population over 300 M.  Therefore, Lineage has over 8 times the
market share of EQ.  Likewise, The Kingdom of the Winds has close to
the same volume as EQ (I think TK peak was 60 - 70k), giving it over 6
times the market share of EQ.  There may be a different percentage of
people online.  For example, many more Koreans have cell phones than
most every other country.  However, I doubt this, given the large
volume of US internet users.

Korean online market blossomed.  TK started dev in 1994; Lineage about
1995(?). TK commercialized in 1996.  In 1997, it was just NCSoft
(Lineage) and Nexon (The Kingdom of the Winds).  Back then, they
boasted peaks under 10k.  About 1998 Korean internet game cafes began
blossoming, to several thousand internet game cafes in a country
smaller than most every US state.  Interestingly, even in Korea's hard
recession about 1998 that plummeted the Won exchange rate from
$1(USD):W800 to $1(USD):W1500, online game sales grew as well or
better than before.  People were out of work, but they were gaming
online. Now the Korean online market blossoms with competitors.  All
of Korea is making very innovative online games.  I can only remember
the names of a few examples: Fortress, QuizQuiz, Tactical Commanders
(Shattered Galaxy in the US), BeatDance, and CosmoNova.  There's
massive online war games/civilizations to massive online quiz shows,
and beginning today: online dancing.

Since 1997, I have often amateurly speculated why the Korean market
blossomed.  Briefly, I attribute the Korean culture.  The Korean
people are far more passionate about community than the Western world.
They live in high population density, and they have much stronger
family and community bonds.  For example, Koreans routinely call
friends or associates "older/younger brother/sister" and have a
distinct name for each of these relationships.  So I believe the
Korean psyche demands community more than the comparatively
individuated, Apollonian Western world.

> -is it charging in Korea and Taiwan?

Yes, but I'm not sure how to compare it. 50% of all Korea's online
game revenue comes from internet game rooms.  Most people play in what
they call an "internet game cafe".  The game developer usually
licenses IP addresses for a flat monthly fee.  Pricing plans vary.  On
average, the internet cafe is much cheaper than game centers in the
US.  About the other half are the accounts we are accustomed to.  For
individual PC accounts (business model of the US), a couple years ago
it was around $35 (USD) a month if you had a single account.  The
trend was a gradual price reduction.  I don't know what it is now.

Dave Kennerly
Nexon Game Designer and Localization Director
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