[MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #282 - 18 msgs

[Jake Song]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J C Lawrence [mailto:claw at kanga.nu]
> Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 3:08 PM
> To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
> Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] Re: MUD-Dev digest, Vol 1 #282 - 18 msgs

> On Fri, 19 Jan 2001 09:28:31 -0600
> Jeff Freeman <skeptack at antisocial.com> wrote:

>> Are you suggesting that's only because not one Korean game
>> developer has thought to make the sort of game that the bazillion
>> of Korean gamers actually want to play?

> How many other Korean-area MUD-like games are there with active
> player populations in 50,000+ range?  What are *their* models?

I'm not sure whether what I'm writing is accurate or not. It comes
from my poor memory.

Major players in Korean market are NC Soft(Lineage), Nexon(Nexus, Dark
Ages, Shattered Galaxy?, QuizQuiz, Elancia, Elemental Saga), JC
Entertainmet(War Bible, Red Moon), Actoz Soft(Legend of Mir?)  Game
Pop(Youngwoongmoon, Slayers) and a lot of small ones.

Their sales models are similiar to each other. Over the half of
revenue comes from game rooms(or Internet plaza, cyber cafe, whatever
you call it), the rest from individual subscription fee.

Nobody is selling online game packages in retail shop. Client programs
are freely downloadable from their web sites.  Which is different from
US market where 3 major online game sells their game in retail shops.

NC Soft and Nexon together have over 70% market share of all MUD
market. Lineage is more oriented to PvP combat and Nexus is more
oriented to social. There was no PK in Nexus, I'm not sure whether it
is still or not.

Another very popular game is Fortress which is an online game but not
a MUD though. You may remember an old 8bits computer game in which you
adjust angle of your cannon and the speed of bullet to hit opponent
across hill. Fortress is an online version of this where you can play
with other players online max 8 players. It was free but recently went
commercial, and there was a lot of nation wide struggle between game
room owners and the company(CCR) who made it.

There are some ppl who plays UO, EQ, and AC in Korea but not popular
even UO has two Korean shards. My guess is that they need to provide
IP address based billing to become popular in Korea(of course you
should support Korean language). And give away your client software.

It maybe out of context, but isn't it similiar to GNU something?
Software is free but service is not.

Jake
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev