Online Worlds Roundtable #15, Part One

The first installment of RPG Vault's fifteenth Online Worlds Roundtable feature is now available, with GameConsultant's David Perry, Three Rings Design's Shanti Bergel, and others sharing their thoughts about global markets and trends as they pertain to MMORPGs. Some of what David had to say:
Seeing EA already make smart investments in companies like Neowiz in Korea and The9 in China is like waving a red flag at the other publishers... "Watch this space!" Most foreign software is seen as "odd" and not compatible with our main US and European markets. The reason is because it's true. Hey, we focus on our markets too, like the British making new cricket games every year. The more foreign something is, the easier it is to dismiss. However, you just have to look to Japan to show how Asian games, done right, can influence us. With directors like Miyamoto, Kojima and Sakaguchi, they know how to win over our audiences on our home turf. When will we have a Kojima of China or Korea? Never? Well if you want to believe that, go ahead... I certainly don't.

Some argue there's no interest in these games, so we tried an experiment with a very Korean game called Dekaron. We started making changes, like re-writing the story for the west. Called 2Moons, it's already a hit in open beta, with over 500,000 downloads so far. People seem interested.